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What are you truly passionate about?

take-your-passion

 

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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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

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20th Anniversary of Parachutisme Atmosphair!

Bonjour tout le monde!

 

Nos amis à Parachutisme Atmosphair célèbrent leur 20e anniversaire cet année.

Pour fêter ceci, ils font un concours mensuel ou ils donnent soit un saut Tandem, un rabais de 15% sur un cours de parachutisme ou des sauts gratuits dépendant de votre statut comme parachutiste.

Je vous suggère fortement de mettre vos noms!

Bonne chance!

Hey Everyone!

So our friends at Parachutisme Atmosphair are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year.

To highlight this momentous occasion, they are having a monthly draw giving away either a tandem skydive, a 15% discount on skydive lessons or some free jump tickets depending on your status as a skydiver.

I strongly suggest that you all sign up!

Being that it’s in Quebec City, it’s all in French, but just to sum it up:
You fill in the details, (Last name, first name, e-mail) then the same for a friend you’d like to refer.

Good luck and Blue Skies!

Adam


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Ever heard of Parabatics? Neither did we!

So once again, Nick in Florida has surprized us with a new video.

At first peek, it doesn’t look like anything special, but once you realize what’s actually going on…
Just check it out:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxKKWmxVWMk[/youtube]

I asked Nick to do a quick write up about his experience, here it is:

One of my more recent ventures in skydiving has been learning parabatics or acrobatic flying of 2-4 canopies and pilots linked together either via leg lock or straps. My friend Bob told me that only about 3% of Skydivers actually get into CReW as a primary discipline within our sport and that only about 1% of those 3% every consider or get into parabatics. For me parabatics are a total release. It requires focus, the ability to stay calm and think quickly, and absolute trust of the other person or people connected to the straps with you. Something as simple as turning the canopies left or right is now a combined effort once attached via the straps making coordination between the pilots paramount. My overall learning curve has been quite steep and in 5 jumps I’m told that I’m doing better than most with far more jumps than I have. To be quite honest it almost feels natural to me like its something I am supposed to be doing. For me parabatics has brought me closer to recapturing the feeling of that first skydive many moons ago. Most of our jumps end with a final downplane that we ride to about 1000 feet before severing the strap connection. If there are any other canopies still in the air it forces us to end sooner and if conditions are right the downplane can be ridden conceivably as low as 100 feet giving both pilots ample time to safely land their canopies (something I’m looking forward to doing when the time and place is right). Hope you enjoyed a view into what I like to do under canopy!

Cheers
Nick

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Nuit Blanche 2 – Skyventure

Hello Ladies and Germs!

This coming weekend is take 2 of Skyventure Montreal’s Nuit Blanche event. It’s been booked solid for 2 months now as usual, but we’ll be onsite to give you the dirty.

I’ll be doing some 4 way RW  (Relative work) with some strangers, so this should be quite fun!

 

Also: The Quebec Invasion tour is heading to PST again this year, I unfortunately won’t be present, but if all works out, I should have the videos from their trip. Buffalo Wild Wings seems to be sponsoring the event again.

 

I’ll keep all of you posted about that too!

 

Blue Ones!

 

Adam

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Will you raise the bar?

 

Hey everyone!

The off season’s half over, with that, Sebastian Bos at GoSkydive UK got in touch with me and wrote up a post about this past year’s accomplishments… What do YOU have planned for 2013? Think you can raise the bar higher?

 

A new breed of heroes have raised the bar in 2012

By Sebastian Bos

It’s been a tough few years for sports fans who’ve had to watch a succession of their favourite sporting idols fall from grace. First it was Tiger, then came Lance and the final admission that brought an end to the slow puncture of his reputation. Michael Schumacher’s return to Formula 1 was chequered at best, while the old master Roger Federer began to show signs that his reign at the top of the tennis world may be coming to an end. And, of course, footballers continued to be more trouble than they were worth.

Can we consider 2012 to be a changing of the guard then? Bradley Wiggins won the Yellow Jersey clean at the Tour de France; Team GB inspired a nation with their feats of strength, speed, intelligence, coordination and determination at the Olympics; and both Andy Murray and Rory McIllroy played their part in creating the most memorable year in British sporting history.

But across the pond in America, one man’s achievement rose above them all – quite literally. In record breaking Austrian skydiver Felix Baumgartner, the world was presented with an adventurer who was prepared to push the boundaries of human technology to the limit and test the laws of physics like no one before him. Leaping to the earth from the edge of space isn’t something most people can get their heads around, but by bringing skydiving into the limelight from 24 miles up, Baumgartner demonstrated what makes it the pinnacle of adventure sports. How else could you enjoy the stunning views of the world from thousands of feet up with absolute freedom while travelling at over 100mph – or in Felix’s case nearer 800mph? In becoming one of the most viewed moments of 2012 across the world, Fearless Felix allowed us all to share in that sense of excitement and anticipation that comes with being courageous enough to make that leap. Skydivers often speak about their love of the adrenaline rush that they get from freefalling and the sense of empowerment that they get from facing up to a challenge and proving that they can do anything.

If you’d like to try something different and push yourself out of your comfort zone, why not try a Skydive (http://www.goskydive.com) out for yourself? At GOskydive thrill seekers are offered the best training and equipment available to make your skydiving experience an unforgettable one.

 

If you aren’t in the UK, but are planning a trip there, don’t hesitate to get in touch with the people at GOskydive. If you’re simply looking for general info about the dropzones in your area, send us an email and we’ll be glad to help out.

 

Blue skies everyone!

 

Adam

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Rise N Shine!!!!

Photo by Rolf Kuratle (Kuri)

We’d like to congratulate Rise N Shine on their performance at the world championships in Dubai.

This was their first attempt at the worlds and they performed marvelously. They were 12th out of 22 teams, I can’t wait to see how they do next time, now that they have some experience on their belts.

 

Amazing job guys!

 

Adam

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The off season….

So while most people here are “enjoying” the off season… Some of our friends are out in Dubai living it up at the world skydive competitions.

 

We’d like to give a shout out to Rise N Shine (Bruno from Brainshell’s team) as well as the Flying Ferns (Shan from NZ Aerosports’ team).
To those of you who who are competing, we’d like to wish you all the success in the world!

We’re all watching you!

 

I unfortunately haven’t gotten the rights to post any photos yet, but as soon as I do, I’ll have an update!

 

Blue skies everyone!

 

Adam