I had one of the most amazing experiences in my skydiving and wingsuiting life yesterday. Some Raise the Sky and Wingsuit Bigway people - me, Phil Peggs, Simon Repton, Eli Bolotin, and Jeff Nebelkopf - went to see a City Year Los Angeles elementary school as part of our awareness raising around the dropout problem in the US.
We went to film City Year volunteers tutoring kids, interview people in the program, etc. but ended up talking a lot about wingsuits, why we do what we do, what it feels like to fly, and how we overcome fear to behave like flying squirrels. Kids ask the best questions, and have the biggest dreams.
I realized that I had never even imagined what it would feel like to hear a 9 year old say, "I want to fly a wingsuit when I grow up!" It changed my whole perspective, getting to see it all from the point of view of a kid from South LA who lives 2 miles from the beach but has never seen the ocean.
We are so lucky.
Gotta get some sleep before jumping tomorrow... I think I can manage five hours or so!
Re: [Taz] Wingsuit Bigway and City Year
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I want to thank everyone for one of the most amazing weeks of my life. There have been some incredibly hard moments, to be sure. There have also been wonderful highs. Through it all, I have been able to witness the strength of the family that is the wingsuit community. I am honored to be in your midst.
I'd like to share a link with some amazing footage from yesterday. After all the difficult, stressful moments, this unique view managed to stop me in my tracks.
When life is hard, it's sometimes easy to lose perspective, become negative, and run out of energy. I choose to face this by honoring the hard times, while focusing on the good ones. I recharge my lagging energy with the aid of beautiful moments... and share one here:
Ralph Armstrong Avery Badenhop Brian Barnhart Riaan Bergh Rolf Brombach Paul Cain Elana Cain Brian Caldwell Scott Callantine Troy Church Damien Dykman Jhonathan Florez Alex Frey Kenneth Gajda David Gershfeld Silvestri Giovanni Robert Gray Steve Harrington Cate Heneghan Jimmy Hopper Sean Horton Richard Hough Shinichi Ito John Kallend Mark Krasinski Mette, Hogaard Kristensen Martin Libelt Benjamin Lowe Ryan Maher Sergey Makeev Marko Makela Dan Mayer Randy McCoy Francis Mobley Michal Motykiewicz Jeff Nebelkopf Sergey Nikulin Andreea Olea Alexander Osipov Justin Pabis Tero Paukku Ed Pawlowski Philip Peggs Craig Poxon Raider Ramstad Simon Repton Joe Rodriguez David Royer Valery Rozov Cliff Ryder Dennis Sattler Patrick Schraufnagel Alexey Shatilov Justin Shorb Irina Sinitsina Benny Skovhede Brian Snarr Kristin Sosso Jochen Stier Stephen Such Michael Swanson Michael Swearingen Jonathan Tagle Andrei Volkov Alexander von Scheidt Taya Weiss Bo Wienberg Duncan Wright
Articles about the event will be in January's Parachutist; next issue of the BPA mag; and 90Percent.
I can't say enough good things about the people who came out to fly this formation. The people who visited us from City Year had a great time and nothing but positive feedback about the amazing energy. Thanks to all for making this not just a record, but a meaningful event beyond our small community.
For anyone who wasn't there, to learn more about it check out the Raise the Sky website. We raised more than $5000 to help underserved kids in Los Angeles stay in school
Re: [SwampGod] Wingsuit Bigway and City Year
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Oh yes. Another amazing moment: when Lurch's name got drawn to win a free custom TonySuit. We also gave away two 50% coupons for an Argus, a 25% off coupon from Aerodyne and Scotty Burns, two copies of Matt Hoover's wingsuit photography book, a weekend of FREE jumping at Lodi with Team Ill Vision courtesy of WestCoast Wingsuits, and prints from videographers Scotty Burns, Matt Hoover, Craig O'Brien, and Mark Harris.
I'll let someone else tell the story of how the party Thursday ended with a disappearing keg...
Re: [leebrian] Wingsuit Bigway and City Year
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Brian-
Thank you for your kind words. I truly feel that every time someone showed me their appreciation, it felt like I was gifted an extra half hour of (otherwise missing) sleep.
As I said often this week, it was my pleasure to be here and part of an amazing event. Wingsuiting is a big family, and it was impressive to see so many unique personalities uniting on a common goal. I learned a lot, and was humbled by the skill, caring, and focus of wingsuiters as a whole.
To be fair, I was only the most public face of a strong crew who also worked tirelessly during the week. Phil Peggs created a video processing system that allowed for quick debriefs and efficient release to media. I cannot stress how important this was to every aspect of the event.
I would also like to thank Taya for her countless hours dedicated to a usually thankless task. She was the glue that bound a wonderful charity to this unique crew. There aren't many in skydiving that attempt to give back in such a real way.
The entire team of organizers were amazing at listening to each other, sharing their own vision, and then uniting behind a decision. It was inspiring to watch.
Thank you again for allowing me to play with the flock for a bit. To be playfully honest, I do hope I didn't do TOO good a job on the ground... I'd like to be freed up to go fly with everyone next time!!!
Re: [peggs82] Wingsuit Bigway and City Year
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Head on over to Raise the Sky and check out our latest news.
I just posted the video I had made (and since improved) for the final party of the event. Hope you like it!
Phill Inspiring video, nice! The dedicatin of these volunteers is astounding. Team Ill Vision was gratefull to a part of this event, and put BIG smiles on the faces of the City Year volunteers.
Re: [Buried] Wingsuit Bigway and City Year
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Zach, thanks for the compliment!
To answer you question about being offered to go...yes and no. The visit was the day before the bulk of people arrived, but we were working on their schedule.
There was an open invitation for anyone interested to come out, but we also had to be aware that our visit was during "business" hours for the school. We kept the number respectably small, but we did have one jumper take us up on our offer. Simon Repton took the whole day off from jumping to come see City Year in action with us!
Also, a big kudos to Ill Vision! The City Year members really got a huge kick out of wearing all those wingsuits!! Many thanks for bringing the awesomeness!
Re: [peggs82] Wingsuit Bigway and City Year
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I am very glad that I went on the school visit, it gave the whole event a very special meaning above and beyond the obvious. I tried hard not to get in the way of things, it was a school and there were people there trying to do their jobs. However, I can't say I was upset when all those cute kids asked for my autograph! I was just blown away at how smart, engaged, vibrant and communicative they were, in those eyes I saw the future, and in the City Year folks I saw the energy to make futures a reality. Don't ask me what I was expecting to see, but I got a surprise.
How did I end up on the visit? I recalled that Taya had mentioned in a previous event email about a possible school visit. I grew up in a middle class UK environment, very removed from what I perceived South L.A to be. All I knew of L.A was from Death Wish movies.
I drove out to Elsinore about a week before the event and felt that it was important for me to visit the school, to somehow get me in touch with reality. I asked the night before the team went and invited on the trip. I spend $25 a jump, 3-4 times a day on the weekend yet still seem to think I need more, here are kids and families that need that same $25 for basic living expenses. You try to answer an inner city kid that asks "how much does that wingsuit cost?" or "how much does it cost to learn to be a skydiver?". I learned on that visit that even the poorest of skydivers is truly rich.
The majority of folks were just getting in, in fact that night I picked up a couple of organizers at the airport on the way back to Elsinore.
I look forward to participating in more Raise The Sky charity events in the future. Truthfully I skydive for very selfish reasons and to find ways for others to benefit is going to be important to me moving forwards.
CityYear_TeamillVision.jpg
