The PD Blog

Summerfest 2009 Day 7- Part Deux

From the PD Sponsored team here at Skydive Chicago...

Last night the Drop Zone was treated to a spectacle of fireworks that could rival many cities’ fourth of July.  Just before the fireworks the Otter did a fly-by accompanied by a string of 8 intense explosions along the ground.  It was enough to get everyone on their feet!  As if that wasn’t enough, the UFO jump that started the night’s show was unlike anything we had seen before, even compared to previous years’ UFO jumps.  While the exact details are a mystery, what appeared to be a group of wingsuiters and maybe freefliers streamed across the sky with pyrotechnics in freefall.  The skydivers weaved across each other as they sped across the sky.  Then, under canopy, with the pyrotechnics out, they swooped in near the crowd covered in glow sticks.  Really awesome!

Today the weather looked iffy to start, but the first load still got full altitude, and it’s been looking better and better every hour.  The freefly big ways are moving ahead, and all the other fun jumpers keep the whole dropzone buzzing.  Sandy, Lemonhead, JaNette and Steve are organizing belly groups from 4 ways to 22 ways at all experience levels.  We’re looking forward to another great day.

Steve Lefkowitz

www.rhythmskydiving.com

World Record @ Summerfest

The first day of the 108 way Freefly World Record Attempts started out with an 80 way.  Well, actually it started out with a 60 way, there was a communications issue with one of the planes.  But no matter, the 60 way was a good warm up for the next jump.  Jump 2 was for an 80 way and only 2 pods didn't build resulting in a 74 way with some solid flying.  Not much movement and no major waves.  The third jump was also for an 80 way and built to a 78 way.  Finally our fifth plane replacement showed up since there were issues with the Skyvan and we were ready for the 108 way attempt.  

The original 108 invitees started their dirt dive and exits and were ready for action.  Unfortunately as we were waiting weather rolled in an we called it for the day.  8am meet up  with gear to start day 2.  In the mean time the Eloy crew took advantage of the down time for some candids / antics.

Hope you enjoy the shots.  More to come at my website.

-Brian Buckland

 

Summerfest 2009- Day 7

Today's update by our friends our British friends who just returned from the World Games with the bronze medal in Freeflying...

Warm Up Day!

After a week of Boogie jumps for those that arrived early, yesterday was the warm up day for the record attempts which start this morning.  The day started with 2 groups of 44 ways, one organized by Rook Nelson and Mike Swanson, the other organized by Fred Fugen and Vince Reffet from

Babylon

, plus a 30 ish way which grew through out the day as more late arrivals showed up organized by David Gershfeld.  After all the groups had completed 3 jumps we had a lunch break to re-organize and prepare for an afternoon of 65 ways which would be using 3 aircraft.  With enough time for 2 attempts at a 65 way things were looking good with the last jump being very close to completing.  It was also a good chance to practice launching the base from the Twin Otter as the Skyvan has blown an engine meaning we will now be doing the record from 5 Twin Otters!!!

 

The plan for today is start off with an 80 way, the idea being its smaller and a better warm up for the 100 plus ways to come!  V Excited!!!!

 

Mike Carpenter

www.volareproflight.com

 

New Canadian Freefly Record - 21-way

Before Summerfest completely dominates the blog, we've got news from our friends up north and a couple of pictures taken by Brian Buckland.  Philippe Thibodeau organized the new Canadian Freefly record this past weekend in Montreal, Canada at Voltige.  Despite only having 5 jumps for the 3 day event because of weather, they broke the previous record twice, first with a 15 way and then with a 21 way.  Congrats guys!!!  and gal ;)  Now it's time for a 100+ way!

Summerfest 2009-Day 6

The head down big way warm ups started this morning.  The huge mass of freeflyers broke up into three groups of 40 and went on their way to do some into jumps working their way up to the 100 way.  The boogie is staying fresh and the action keeps coming even in the middle of the week.  EG Suits, Reaperwear, and LiquidSkyshowed up and joined vendor row on the south side of the hanger.  UPT was treating some luck daredevils to the opportunity to test jump the skyhook demo rig today.  We've opened up the PD car bar in the back of our rental for our friends who join us for a sunset cocktail.  Last night we enjoyed the famous sunset swoop and chug obstacle course.  If your not here yet, there's still time to catch a plane to Chicago and catch the last few days!!   

Summerfest 2009 Day 5

So it's Tuesday here at Skydive Chicago.  The 100 way RW jumps finished up on Sunday, but that hasn't seemed to slow the five otters, king air,and Skyvan down too much.   The wingsuit jumps are quite sucessful from what we hear, and freeflyers from around the world are arriving every day for the 100 way attempts that are going to begin tomorrow.  

We saw the fastest exit from a skyvan on Sunday.  Twentyfour skydivers ran at top speed out of the back after the van stopped in the middle of the runway with flames and a huge puff of smoke coming from one of the engines. If we could only get the first group to move that quick when the green light comes on!

Last night was the Hellfish toga party.  Judging by the how slow some of the people are walking around today I would say that the margaritas they were serving up were pretty popular.  

Summerfest 2009- Day 2

So it's mid day on Saturday here at Summerfest.  Last night we enjoyed the fish fry down at the Tiki Bar which was followed by a down pour for about 2 hours of some crazy Chicago rain.  Most of the vendors broke down their tents arount sunset, but the crazy Australian from Cookie Composites figured his Walmart pop-up would survive the 40-50 mph winds.  It didn't.  We helped him fix it this morning with some duct tape, zip ties, and wooden dowels to repair the broken/bent frame. 

The first 100 way of the morning took off around 8:45 this morning.  They've had some good skydives from what I understand, and we only saw one cutaway yesterday and one today from the group.  The guys and girls from SDC Rhythm XP, and Sandy Grillet have been busy organizing groups from four to twenty on RW skydives.  The freeflyers are showing up like crazy and the wingsuits haven't seemed to be in short either. 

    

Summerfest 2009 Begins!

Our Summerfestexpedition began at about 4:30 am yesterday with our flight from Daytona Beach to Midway Airport just outside Chicago.  After our on-time arrival(Thanks Delta!) we immediately gathered our bags and made our way out to Ottawa, IL.  For those who have never been, Summerfest is a ten day boogie hosted by Skydive Chicago.  This summer there's a huge vendor list, 100 way RWsequentials with BJ Worth and Roger Ponce, 100 way head down world record, huge Wingsuit formations, the hellfish toga party, seminars with the world famous Norman Kent,  fireworks show, live bands, and more skydives than you can imagine.

Its Friday morning and were headed into Day 1 of this spectacular event.  The registration line is full, and the 100 way sequential are about to begin.  We've staked out our tent location with one small snafoo.  Our trusty PD tour rep shipped nine packages from the LSPC redemption boogie, but it appears that only eight of those made it here to SD Chicago.  The missing package held the large pole that holds up the PD Star shade tent.  After our lenghtly discussion with Fed-Ex, we can rest assured that they do have the way bill that was attached to our package, but the package is MIA.  We wondered how they lost a 70 pound 5 foot long package,  but without that answer, we figured, it would be fun to take bets on when the MIA package would arrive.  For one dollar some of our friends picked the  day of summerfest they thought the pole wouldarrive.  The overwhelming pick is "never".

We'll do our best to keep you updated on whats happening here at the event as the week progresses for those of you who can't make it.  For those of you on your way, hurry up and get here!!!