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The winter is long…

So thanks to our long winter, most of the Dropzones around here have postponed opening for another week to clean up the snow that’s been left over and wait for warmer weather.

That part kind of sucks… But while I was waiting for the season to start up, I took advantage to do some wind tunnel training with Andrew Toman at Skyventure Montreal.
Andrew was my first instructor when I first learned to skydive. He was the one who did the ground school, he was also the one who gave me my 1st 20 minute coaching in the tunnel.

He didn’t join us in Florida for the AFF course, but he followed up later on by giving me a good portion of the lessons for my A license.

Now comes the time to learn to back fly and the basics of sit flying.
2 weeks ago and this past week, I had booked a total of 40 minutes of tunnel time with him to work on my back flying.
And work we did… I haven’t had to do it since my B license, so it was quite fun to see myself during the first debrief when I nearly kicked Andrew in the face haha.

In the first 2-4 minutes, we did mostly work in low wind with me simply trying to keep control and move around on the net while learning to change to sit position.
For the rest of the 10 minutes we progressed onto slightly higher wind so that I could work on controlling my fall rate.

In debrief, he showed me what I was doing wrong and we worked on improving that (I was really stiff and flew large, but flew my upper body fairly small….)
so for the next 10 minutes, we worked at improving that and then worked more on holding myself in the sit position.

The following week (this past Monday), I went back to the tunnel to do the second half of the 40 minute block with him.
Armed with some comfort in the back fly position, we went on to see how much I remembered and how I flew now.
I was much more stable, but still had some polishing to do, but we didn’t focus much on that.
Instead, Andrew had me working on my transitions to sit fly and started working on my stability, my turns, my movement forwards, backwards, up and down.
It was VERY awkward… Being that I was someone who had always said that I wasn’t interested in learning to freefly yet as I wanted to focus more on CReW, I was quite surprised to say that I enjoyed it.
A LOT.

I asked Andrew to find me another 10 minutes of time to do some more training, so I’m excited to see how that pans out.

Also: Francois Huot accepted to let me join his CRW seminar in June over the long weekend, so I’m SUPER excited about that!
We’ll be sponsoring a few events this summer as well as showing up with gifts at some boogies, so keep your eyes open for us!

Blue skies everyone!Adam

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Welcome Lance, to the US of A

So, as you can imagine (based on how long this has taken me to get around to), State-side has kept me busy.

For the most part, there is a lot of behind-the-scenes stuff that is not skydiving related that contributed to this post, but this is more about the experiences and adjustments that come with moving approximately 8453 miles around the world to follow my skydiving dreams.

I would have to say that the biggest unforeseen “slow down” would be financially. Although it should have been obvious to me, I didn’t expect the fact that I have no credit history in the US to be such an expensive problem. Paying cash for a car was expected, but having to pay for 6 months of motor insurance up-front at outrageous prices was not, nor was paying a $500 deposit for a cellphone contract. I will not dwell on the financial side of the move because I’m sure you get the idea; it’s been expensive. haha.

I’m extremely thankful to my family here in Florida for the support they’ve given me so far, it definitely makes the move a lot easier.

To date, I’ve made a total of 22 skydives (in 5 months [sad face]), The first 8 of which were out at Elsinore over November 2012 when I flew over to meet one of my South African friends who was there. Southern California is amazing, after landing in LAX and meeting up with my buddy, one of his friends from Elsinore, as well as a South African chick that flew out for 2 weeks or so, we headed out to check out Venice beach. WOW, that was an eye-opener. Awesome. Amazing. Weird. Unique. The night ended up with a bunch of slightly drunken skydivers running amok in Wal-mart while I buy a tent, sleeping bag, beer and other necessitates for the weekend. Unfortunately I ended up buying a kiddies sleeping bad that was really only good at keeping my legs and feet warm :/ Uncomfortable, sleep-less nights aside, Elsinore is a FANTASTIC dropzone, I met a lot of really awesome people, tried a lot of new things in the sky and had a great time. Blue Skies Mag were not joking when they voted Elsinore #1 for the hottest female staff 😉

After returning from Elsinore and a month or so at my new job, I decided to head out to Sebastian for the world famous “Invasion Boogie”. For those readers who skydive but have not yet been to the Invasion, this is one trip you HAVE to make. If I were to go into detail about all the awesomeness, naughtiness and craziness that goes on there, you’d still be reading next week. And that does not include the skydiving side! Just do it, I’ll buy you 5 beers if you don’t have an amazing time. I met people from all over the States, as well as a few people from other countries. We had great parties together, amazing skydives together and loads of beers together! Trust me on this, it’s worth it!

My South African skydive membership expires at the end of March 2013, which means that unless I renew it, I will no longer have a C-License to jump on. As a result, I’ve been frantically trying to get all the paperwork and requirements sorted out to get my USPA C-License, one of which is a basic canopy course to complete the B-License requirements (besides the written test which I have not studied for yet). After reviewing Skydive Cities calendar of events, I decided to hop on the next available basic canopy course which was about two weeks ago. Although the instructor was awesome enough to help me help me improve my high performance landings, he also helped to re-affirm many of the basic (yet essential) canopy skills required by a good, safe canopy pilot. This was a great learning experience for me as, until now, I have not have such in-depth, intense canopy instruction. I am very interested in canopy piloting and this was a great introduction to the quality of instruction that I can expect with future courses.

Now some of you might tar and feather me for this, but I’ve always said that the act of skydiving (for me) is only about 35% of the reason I skydive, the other 65% is the social side (and everything else that can’t be bubbled); seeing your really good friends every weekend and every other chance you get, having beers after a good (or weathered out) day of jumping, weekday safety meetings at your favorite pub with your skydiving buddies, and of course all the shenanigans that happens in-between. This being said, I’ve lost 65% of the reason that I skydive. I generally love irony, but in this case, I do not. Who would have thought that the very reason I moved 8435 miles to pursue my love for skydiving would be the same reason why I lose the enthusiasm I’ve always had for it? Don’t misinterpret that, I’m certainly not about about to sell my gear, let my USPA & PASA memberships expire or even put my rig bag away in the cupboard, I’m simply frustrated with the fact that I no longer have my friends by my side, and because of the fact that I’m still slugging away at the debt I incurred through the move here (plus the car, cell phone, auto insurance, medical insurance etc. etc), my goals of meeting new people at the DZ and getting mad skillz have slowed down drastically.

So, I am not one for negativity and like to end things on a positive note as much as possible: Due to the fact that I have only been here for less than 6 months, the IRS gave me back all of the tax that I have paid so far…and it’s going towards a brand new LiquidSky jumpsuit 🙂 🙂 🙂

 

Blue Skies and Happy Days!!

~Lance

 

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NZ Aerosports Sky Art Competition

Hey birds!

Our friends at NZ aerosports are doing their SkyArt contest this year again!

And who doesn’t like free stuff?

 

Here’s a copy of the contest details:

 

SkyArt Competition

We love giving away cool free shit! So we’ve started a new SkyArt competition to give you a chance to win. Keep reading…

So what’s cool?

We’re doing something new with SkyArt. It means you can have anything at all on your canopy…fades, complex patterns, even photos (or tie-dye if you’re into that kinda thing)! Plus, NO extra pack volume! Winning.

Whether you want your canopy to be elegant, beautiful, arty, or badass, now you can have it — whatever your style!

What free shit?

That’s where you come in! First prize is an Icarus or Daedalus canopy of your choice and size with your design on it. Completely FREE!

  • 1st Place: FREE canopy + FREE SkyArt
  • 2nd and 3rd place: FREE Skyart Design with any canopy bought
  • Top 5 Funny Favs: Get your design printed on a slider!

If that’s not worth a few minutes (or hours) of your time, some serious creative brain juice and as many entries as you can come up with…we don’t know what is!

So grab a beer to get those juices flowing and sit down with a pencil, paper or photoshop and get designing some SkyArt! Remember this is art, so make sure to name your masterpiece!

Competition running from now until Mid May.

Templates:

Click on the logos below to download a template and get started with your first design!

 

 

* Remember the designs are going to be printed on canopies — these are HUGE pieces of art. The mockup you submit on our entry page doesn’t have to be hi-res – however if you want it to be printed on your canopy (i.e. if you’re gonna win with your awesome design), you have to have a hi-res image to print from! So make sure you can get a good quality version of whatever you’re submitting! This means if it’s a graphic you need to have access to the vector file (.ai, .psd or .eps) and of it’s a photograph it needs to be hi=res and as big as possible. If you’re taking a photograph to use set up your camera for the maxiumum 10MP-14MP at 300dpi. The rule is the bigger the original file, the better it will look printed!

It’s simple! Just click on the ‘Enter Now’ button below to take you to the competition page on facebook, and follow the 4 easy steps to upload your entries!

Competition Low Down

  1. You can enter as many designs as you’d like — no limits!
  2. The designs are going to be printed on canopies — these are HUGE pieces of art. If submitting a graphics image it needs to be min a vector format (.ai, .psd or .eps). If you are submitting a photograph it should be hi-res and if possible above 8MP (if you’re taking a photograph to use set up your camera for the maxiumum 10MP-14MP at 300dpi). The rule is the bigger the original file, the better it will look printed!
  3. NZ Aerosports Ltd reserves the right to use any artwork or entry for shameless promotional, sales and print purposes.
  4. It is the entrant’s responsibility to make sure any artwork they use in their submission is copyright free. NZ Aerosports Ltd will not be held responsible for any use of copyrighted material post competition. Which means you cannot sue our asses!
  5. Our decision of a winner is final! No correspondence or bitching about it will be entered into. Wink.
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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