The PD Blog

2010 Dubai Championships- January 15

Todays update comes to us from Team Evolution, the Canadian National FS 4-way team.  The performers on the team are made up of a father, Michael Lemay, and his 3 sons, Vincent, Martin, and Benoit.  The team trains out of Nouvel Air with their videographer Daniel Paquette.  Enjoy their point of view on the event and Dubai...

 

I have been sitting in front of my computer for few minutes trying to find a proper way to describe this meet.  World-class skydiving, great people, sun, beaches, amazing city, prize money, unbelievable scenery and Shannon Pilcher is around (haha)... what better to ask for?  These last days have been a great experience for the team.   The pace is slow, but the sun is hot and the beach is nice to walk along.  I really hope that the Dubai International Championship and Gulf Cup becomes an annual event.  The city is under construction and I don’t think we have seen the lights of it yet.

As for the team, it has been a great learning journey in Dubai.  The first 5 rounds have been incredible skydives for the team and we ended up posting some good scores on the board.  We were standing 3^rd after these 5 first rounds, 3 points ahead of the French.  Unfortunately, we had a bad round at a bad timing.  It was hard to swallow, but all of us will leave this meet better competitors.  Canada will bounce back!

There are bunch of cool activities to do around Dubai.  Since we had an early finish on Thursday, part of the team went to spend the afternoon at the water park.  There are several places to go and things to see around Dubai.  We all consider ourselves very lucky to be able to see the World Island and the Palm Jumeirah from above.  This competition is definitely one of the highlights of the team’s young career.

Reported by:

Evolution

Canadian National Formation Skydiving Team

PD Sponsored Team

Photos by: Bruno Brokken

 

Arizona Airspeed Leads the Pack in Dubai

   
 
Arizona Airspeed are curently in the lead after Rd 6 (136) of the FS competition at the Dubai Parachuting Championships and Gulf Cup 2010. Airspeed are the curent World Champions in 4-Way Formation Skydiving. Belgium, France and Canada followup Airspeed with only a 2 point differance between Airspeed and the team from Belgium.

See full list of results from the rounds here

This is a unique event as the aircraft or rather helicopter is a Bell 212 with a left door exit.

 
Team Members: Eliana Rodriguez, Craig Girard, Andy Delk, Mark Kirkby, Steve Nowak (Video)

Here is Rd 6 From Airspeed, besides the world class skydiving, have you seen the view?

Spaceland Blue reppin’ at Chicks Rock Boogie Oct 1-4!

On October 1-2, Spaceland Blue and Skydive Elsinore will be joining forces to bring you the most badass 4-way camp EVER at the most badass boogie of all time!

Brianne Thompson and Annie Peterson of Blue and Melanie Curtis of "Melsinore" will be out to bring the most awesomest 4-way vibe to the Chicks Rock Boogie at Elsinore. We will be working on 4-way skills from beginning to advanced levels. So, if you’ve never done 4-way- or you have a team and want to do more, then this camp is for you! Ladies and Gents are all welcome- we don’t discriminate when we’re spreading the coolness.

Then, when we’re done with 4-way, Brianne and Annie will be organizing for the rest of the weekend! ! And Mel will be doing what she does best, being Melsinore! Represent.

 So, basically, there is absolutely no excuse for you to not be there!

Hot chicks. Hot skydives. Fun times. Anything else? Word.

Visit www.skydiveelsinore.com and click on the hot chick for more details and pricing! Sign ups will be through the office. Slots are limited- so hurry!

Any other questions? Contact brianne@spacelandblue.com or annie@spacelandblue.com.

World Record @ Summerfest - Day 2

I have to be honest.....I was impressed this morning.  8:40 am and 5 Twin Otters took off from Skydive Chicago with 108 freefliers and 5 cameramen searching for a new World Record.  I never imagined that our wake up skydive for the day would result in 101 connecting.  It was looking good.

Jump two came and it only got better.  Having been dealt the hand that the skyvan was down for repairs we were launching the base out of the lead Otter and it was turning out just fine.  We worked out timing and put a super floater out of the lead plane to get more fliers in the air under the base.  It was a good idea, we built 106 out of 108.  This was the way to start a record!
 

Jump three came and we took a step back.  Three pods were having issues and the bench erupts (inside voices) with cheers ;)  One person was in the wrong slot and that threw off two pods but all in all the skydives have been very smooth and not a lot of big movements or waves.  With only a few minor collisions, more just bumps it's been kept pretty safe.

Jump four came and it was more of the same from jump three.  More new faces are rotated in and the bench is starting to bustle with activity.  Having a record of 108 people and at least another 40 that are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for their chance.  It was getting a little tense but spirits were held high!

Jump five.....107 out of 108.  Soooooooooo close!  As they say....the worst part about being on a 108 way is watching a 107 way.....The team had the energy and the vibe was right, but you could see that the day was wearing on the group yet the organizers decided to go for one more jump before calling it a day.

Jump six.   I was sitting underneath 108 freefliers watching a pod with 3 or 4 out and I see super Pat from the far side of the formation start carving around 107 of his closest friends searching for his slot.  He reached the un-built pod and as he picked up his slot the true professionals that were waiting for him jumped into position and grabbed their grips out of the sky.  It didn't build for long.....but we did it!!!!!  A new 108 way World Freefly Record set!  The party is starting so I need to get off this computer and go enjoy the celebration!  Pictures will be posted soon and we're also putting together a very nicely edited DVD of the event from dirt dives to warm ups to the record shot by our friends over at GetHypoxic.  Please contact me through my website if you are interested.  I'll post a link to that later.  In the mean time, congrats everyone!!!!  Way to smash a record in 6 jumps!

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

 

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!

Perris Fury Annual Team Building Event and 16-Way Meet

Every year, 5 years running, beginning the day after Thanksgiving and running through Sunday, Perris Valley Skydiving hosts their annual team building event.

The event has always been open to everyone, but with a focus on meeting and greeting potential teammates for the upcoming skydiving season.  Perris Fury was on hand to help organize, coach and jump with groups.  Participants travelled from around the country and the world in search of teammates!  With good weather and a very enthusiastic group, many skydives were made.

After two days of "team building", participants are encouraged to join 16-way teams and compete in the Turkey Meet.  Dan BC with a very unique set of rules each year, allows teams of all levels to participate  and have fun.  This year's event consisted of three teams.

If you were not able to make the event and are looking for a team for next year, please contact Chris Farina of Perris Fury at chris@perrisfury.net for further information about 4-teams forming and of course the ever popular Fury8 team project (http://www.perrisfury.net/Perris_Fury8_2009), that will now include a 4-way option for 2009!

Please enjoy some pictures from the event below.  All photos by www.niklasdaniel.com.

Tunnel Competition - Mass Defiance Style!

Reported by Ben Liston

Ben Liston and Skyventure New Hampshire will be hosting a 10-round 4-way Formation Skydiving tunnel competition on December 13, 2008.  The goal is to host a fun meet and give the 4-way junkies in the North East something to hold them over until the snow melts - teams from other parts of the country and Canada are of course encouraged to come out as well.

Warm-up flights (which are included in the registration fee) will begin at 1:00PM and the awards ceremony will be completed by 9:00PM.  Nationally rated judges will score each round based on the tunnel video. The registration fee, which can be paid on site, will be $140 per team (just $35/person), and will include 2 minutes of warm-up time.

The meet will be modeled in NSL fashion and have two divisions of 4-way: The open/AAA division and the Intermediate/AA division will used trimmed down versions of the USPA draws appropriate for the tunnel size. Registered teams will be able to purchase training time from Friday December 5th through Friday December 12th at a discounted rate of $360 per half hour.

To register for the meet, all you need to do is email Ben Liston at tunnelmeet08@gmail.com by December 5 with the full names of all four team members, your team name, and the division you'd like to be in.  If your team needs an additional member or two, or you are an individual looking for a team, contact us and we'll do what we can to connect you with folks (some information about your or your team's skill level would be helpful).  Members of Mass Defiance may be able to fill out teams who are short a person.

We look forward to your participation! Please contact us via e-mail if you have any questions or would like more detailed information about the format or rules of the event.

CSC Rhythm XP Scrambles 2 - Creeper Style

The weekend of November 8-9th, 2008 marked the final "Team for a Day" and scrambles events of the 2008 season. While we're singing a familiar song about the weather not cooperating for "Team for a Day" Saturday, and it wasn't any better Sunday, but we had a great time with the creeper competition for those who showed up.

Despite a ceiling of about 2000 ft, some snow and temps in the 30's, we had enough people turn out on Sunday for 3 scrambles teams. After all, there were awesome prizes to give out! Since it was not jumpable, we had a creeper meet. To keep it fresh, we changed things up for the fourth and final round by making it a creeper relay race.

Three teams competed for the 15 minutes of tunnel time donated by Paraclete XP, the 50% off a Tony Suit, and the PD goodies including t-shirts, hats and a great camel back hydration system.

For more info check out the CSC Rhythm XP website!

By Steve Lefkowitz

Fastrax Blue Recruiting

By Brianne Thompson

The U.S. Women’s 4-way team, Fastrax Blue, is looking for a 4th teammate.
Becky Brocato, Brianne Thompson, and Erin Murphy have been together as a team since the beginning of 2007. They have come a long way and proudly represented the US at the last world meet with alternate Christy Frikken from Perris Fury - missing the gold medal by a hair [imagine what might have happened if weather would have allowed for all 10 rounds! KK].   
Fastrax Blue is looking to continue training & competing together with the goal of winning the next World Championships in 2010 in the Female category.
The team is looking for a dedicated, passionate and hard-working teammate. Preliminary tryouts will be held at the Paraclete XP tunnel in North Carolina December 7 and 8, 2008.
Interested ladies please visit the Fastrax Blue website for further information, or e-mail the team. 
The team is also hosting a skills camp at the Paraclete tunnel right before the tryouts, on December 5th and 6th.  This camp will be perfect for those who feel they might need to stretch their 4-way muscles right before the tryouts and is open to all skill levels.  Boys, you’re welcome also!
Oh, yeah, did we mention the camp is fun?

We wish Fastrax Blue the best of luck finding the right teammate, go girls!