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Always pay attention and ALWAYS look around you! Especially under canopy!

To my dismay, today I learned about an unfortunate accident that happened in Eloy, AZ.

Two skydivers passed away in an accident that should never have happened. Two skydivers collided at about 200-300 feet off the ground.
I’m not one to give morals as I know that accidents happen and sometimes you just don’t see the person, but things like this really suck to hear about…
(In CRW we aim at flying in each others’ canopies, but we don’t fly towards each other at such a low altitude in case some of you were thinking that)

I’m really saddened to hear about this, but I just wanted to point out that this is a brutal and harsh reminder of the realities of the sport… Keep your eyes peeled and ALWAYS look around you when you’re under canopy! EVEN if you’re just going straight down for a landing, you never know if someone else didn’t notice you…

 

Blue skies everyone, my deepest sympathies to the familes of the two skydivers.

 

Adam

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Help out some students

Hey everyone,

 

So we got an email from a couple of visual arts students at NYU to help them out with some group funding. They are shooing a film that involves skydiving and need some support. Some US military have already helped them out with a scene or two, and we figured we’d help out a couple of guys get their project in the air.

 

Check it out here

 

We’re aware that this script looks awful, but how many times have you paid to see a bad movie? 🙂

 

Soon to come: Our trip to Vegas!

 

Adam

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What are you truly passionate about?

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Earlier today, someone asked me a question that got me thinking…

He asked me what I was passionate about… Immediately, I replied “Skydiving”. To which he then asked “why?” sell me on your passion.

Six hours later, I find myself still thinking about the question. I didn’t have a hard time answering him at all, but it got me to thinking do we all truly feel the way I do? Does every other skydiver who’s passionate about the sport truly sold the same way I am? Or maybe I’m the one who’s not as obsessive as they are. Some skydivers I’ve met told me that I was stupid to take time off to rest my sprained knee while others just said “that sucks”.

In life, not everyone finds something to be passionate about, some people spend their entire lives searching for this passion while others know it early on in life. I stumbled upon it randomly while on a “yes man” challenge.

I had spent a year as a yes man starting in January 2009 where my best friend and I would say yes to any and all invitations to participate in activities, go to events, learn things, travel, etc… Obviously, we had to use logic in our endeavors (I did however give a lift to a homeless person, which looking back on it, probably wasn’t the brightest idea, but he did show me a spot where I could park my car for free downtown any night).

That year lead me to learning Salsa dancing, traveling to Cuba, New York, Boston and the Bahamas, bungee jumping, doing my tandem and many many many other things. It probably was one of the best years of my life.
After having done my tandem, I had approached the owners of the DZ and asked them about doing my AFF to which one of them replied “that’s what they all say” and laughed. He did proceed to offer me to join them in Zhills for my AFF course and the rest is history.

Fast forward 4 years and I’m now a sponsored skydiver as well as an equipment dealer and I find myself a big part of the skydive community in Quebec. A lot can change in such a short period of time when you love what you do… So what are you passionate about?

 

Blue ones!

Adam

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The Modern Vegas: Online Casino and Skydiving Simulations

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Whenever people hear the word Vegas, entertaining table games and flashy slot machines come to mind. However, little do people know that the casino capital of the US also offers a unique kind of attraction: indoor skydiving. Those who have always wanted to experience the sport but are afraid to actually take a leap 16,000 feet above the ground can now go through it with less risk.

The indoor skydiving attraction uses a vertical wind tunnel that generates a strong enough wind to support and sustain an adult in midair. It’s completely safe since there’s a trampoline floor at the bottom and the walls are fully-padded. Before skydiving, guests will be briefed about the proper indoor skydiving techniques and will be equipped with the right gear. The entire experience takes about an hour.
Despite being made into an indoor activity, the Vegas skydiving attraction offers a realistic feeling based on the people who have tried it. In fact, the experience is so real that people who have tried it reported bruises and sore muscles – an after effect that can be obtained in skydiving.

While indoor skydiving may sound like a far cry from the attractions traditionally offered at the Riviera Casino, there are actually fundamental connections between the two. When playing casino games, players feel the thrill of trying to beat their opponents in table games or get an increase in adrenaline when anticipating for slot machine jackpots. Skydiving offers a similar kind of thrill and promotes an increase in adrenaline when a person starts floating high in mid air. In addition, casino games are now being played online. Online casino and indoor skydiving can be considered as simulated versions between their two, actual counterparts. Today, games at Castle Jackpot give a realistic feel of playing actual casino games by offering live poker matches over the Internet. As for the actual skydiving that involves jumping off a real plane and using a parachute, its indoor counterpart promotes a simulated experience but offer a similar feeling with actual one.

To those who want to experience indoor skydiving, you may visit Vegas Indoor Skydiving for more details.

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So it’s been a very eventful season…. Memorable, but not always pleasant.

This year has been very eventful in many ways.

We had many boogies as well as the Canadian nationals.

Among other things however, there were also many sad moments.

My season was plagues with bad luck. I injured myself twice during the season (once from a bad landing and once while on vacation) which pretty much stopped my season dead in it’s tracks end July.

This year also marked the death of many people, friends, acquaintances, people I knew, and some I didn’t.

 

I simply wanted to take a moment to remember those who are no longer with us.

 

Blue skies fallen friends. You will be missed.

 

Adam.

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CRW and Injuries…

Hey everyone,

So the past little while I’ve been raving about the fact that I was going to get to learn CRW. Francois Huot, our local CRW guru has taken myself and a few others under his wing to teach us the ropes.

The only problem? During a big way camp he was giving us, I ended up messing up my knee and my ankle. I’m unsure what ligaments are damaged, but it seems like it’s my LCL and my MCL. Not major, but enough pain that it’s been scaring me away from going back to the skies… I do enjoy walking, that’s for sure.

With 1 week to go before GO BIG CRW, I’m praying to the skygods for a miracle recovery, but it’s doubtful… And it’s very disappointing as there are 32 other CRW dogs expected to be participating… Looks like I’ll be watching from the ground.

This injury also stopped me from going to the Nationals, but from what I can see, there’s a LOT of action going on there, check out the CSPA’s facebook page for all the standings.

Congrats to all the medalists so far!

Blue ones!

Adam

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Atmosphair’s 20th anniversary… Sun… Wind… Weather hold…

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It seems like the theme of the season is “Weather hold”. Once again, my plans to skydive have been thwarted by the weather.

I arrived at Parachutisme Atmosphair on Friday evening just in time for a lasagna dinner at Marquis’ restaurant on the DZ. Had a couple of beers with friends, then went to bed so I could be up bright and early to get on the plane.The staff were nice enough to lend me a camper to spend the weekend in comfort. Saturday morning, I woke up to the sound of the Caravan taking off for a 16 000 foot jump (the load was completely booked before I even finished work on Friday, so I took advantage to sleep in).

With the sound of the plane flying by, I hurried to get dressed and get myself manifested on the second load. Once manifested, I noticed that there were a bunch of people preparing for a big way and asked to join. Niklas Hemlin was load organizing and I didn’t want to miss this. This pushed me onto the 4th load for a 10 way.
The weather was looking nice, but there were still some clouds out, nothing to worry too much about. We went up and managed to get 4 very solid points done. Niklas was great at identifying peoples’ strengths and weaknesses while flying and was quick to help correct them.

After the first jump, I had myself manifested for another big way and we did our dirt dive for an 8 way…

Then it happened…

It started to rain….

Then it started to pour….

We could see the holes in the clouds mocking us but they were being blown towards us. The rain stopped. We prepared ourselves to get on the load when it happened “C and D licenses only, wind is up to 21 MPH”.
Those words tore a hole right through my chest. I had been looking forward to jumping for weeks and haven’t gotten to because of the weather and here I am, at the DZ waiting to get on the plane… What a kick in the pants!

As everyone prepared to get on the plane, the microphone blares “weather hold”. All the C and D licensed skydivers’ faces turned red as they were already geared up and ready to go. They put their gear away and I laughed at the irony.

This pattern happened several times over the next 8 hours. Needless to say, we waited a LONG time for our next big way.

In the meantime, I took advantage to converse with Niklas about life, his experiences, how he ended up living in the US. It turns out it was fairly simple: He wanted to skydive. He was born in Sweden which has similar weather to Canada. Summer time, you could skydive… When the weather permitted of course. The rest of the year just sucked. So he decided to move.

While we waited for the weather to improve, Pierre, one of the DZOs and I gave out several participation prizes that were graciously donated by our friends at Deepseed and UPT (Thank you both!!!)

At around 5 pm, the clouds were all gone and the wind was dying down, so we prepared ourselves and got a 12 way going. Once again, we got 4 solid points and had a good time doing it.

We had just enough time to get one last jump done, just in time for sunset. Niklas decided to make us work harder on this one, a satellite formation. We all had a MUCH harder time with it (myself included), but it was a lot of fun. 3 points and nearly a 4th again. We clearly won’t be winning the world competitions with this kind of performance, but I must say that I had an amazing time doing them.

The day was followed by a steak dinner at Marquis’ which was very welcome as I was famished.

I must commend the team at Atmosphair for their organization. They set up a boogie with some of the lowest prices ever seen in Quebec (20$ + tax for a jump) and managed to pull off an amazing event regardless of the weather. My hat’s off to you guys!

Blue Skies!

Adam

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I. HATE. RAIN.

So for any of you who have been around Quebec… Or actually eastern Canada for that matter, you’ve probably noticed the erratic weather that’s been going on.
During the week it’s extremely sunny, come Friday, they’re announcing thunder showers and huge winds.
It’s hurricane season in the Caribbean and we suffer the consequences. That being said, every one of the past few weeks (Including the CRW weekend) have been canceled due to weather.

This coming weekend, I’ll be attempting to mess with the system and go to Voltige on Monday. Hopefully since it’s a weekday, the weather will cooperate. If not, I’ll be celebrating Parachutisme Atmosphair’s 20th anniversary!!!

Skydive Addiction along with UPT and NZ Aerosports are proud sponsors of the event.

THEY ARE OFFERING 20$ JUMP TICKETS ALL WEEKEND LONG!!!!!

That’s a HUGE deal for a Quebec DZ.

I’ll be there all weekend giving out prizes and random surprises, so keep your eyes peeled for me!

Blue skies everyone!

Adam

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Slow start to the season…

Hey everyone!

 

No, I haven’t disappeared, and no skydive addiction isn’t dead… I simply haven’t had the time to go skydive yet =(.

I’ve been working crazy hours at the office + have been taking scuba diving lessons during the week with Genevieve, so it’s been hectic.

I’ll be at Voltige 2001 this weekend, so I promise to have an update done!

PS: Be on the lookout for me at Parachutisme Atmosphair’s 20th anniversary, I”ll be giving out prizes!!!!!

Blue ones!

Adam