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USPA

Condolences Thread - Adrian Nicholas

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I posted a report in Incidents.

My condolences to his girlfriend, daughter, family and friends. The skydive comunity will miss a pioneer, but girlfriend and daughter will miss so much more... [:/]

Subject line edited by slotperfect so this "condolences thread" doesn't get mistaken as a cross-post. It had a duplicate title to that of the Incidents thread. I also corrected the spelling of his last name.
The trouble with skydiving; If you stink at it and continue to jump, you'll die. If you're good at it and continue to jump, you'll see a lot of friends die...

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I met Adrian on my third North Pole expedition in 1994. He was an instantly likable, as well as impressive guy, and we have been friends ever since. His re-creation of the da Vinci parachute was brilliant. This is a tremendous loss to all of us. Adrian was a wonderful spokesman for skydiving, as well as a great motivational speaker. (He "wowed" my Rotary Club just last year.)

I can't believe I have lost 4 good skydiving friends in less than a year: Gus Wing, Egon, Piers (Plane crash in the Keys), and now Adrian. Please be careful out there guys.

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He was stubborn, proud, determined, outspoken and the bane of manifestors everywhere. More than that, however, he was a very kind and generous man with a shining mind, a razor wit and the good sense to send Katarina to manifest in his stead.

If ones immortality lies in being well-remembered, Adrian will live forever.

If you read this, Katarina and Spotty, I am thinking of you both in this dark and terrible time.

Love,
rl
If you don't know where you're going, you should know where you came from. Gullah Proverb

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I posted this in Incidents. I'll repost it here. I can't think of anything else to say right now.

Adrian was a fine man, and possibly one of the greatest skydivers of our time. It was my honor and pleasure to work alonglside him at several large formation camps in Stockholm, and many Hercules boogies. He never ceased to amaze me with the sheer brilliance of his flying. My heart goes out to him, Katerina, his child, and all the Swedish commuity that were lucky enough to have him as a friend.

If it proves that his Cypres was the deciding factor that caused this, mine are coming out of all my rigs. I personally have had one misfire that couldn't be explained. Think of it as my gesture to Adrian.

For those of you that knew him, raise a glass of red wine in his honor tonight. If you didn't know him, do it anyway, because he advanced your sport in ways that you don't know, and you owe him much respect. Don't be raising any crap to him either, he was a man that knew his wine.

Goodbye and blue skies Adrian. Don't worry about Katrina and your kids. The Swedes will take care of them. You called Sweden home, they called you family. Rest easy.....

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I have never met Adrian. However I spoke with his best friend for a while today after he heard the news. He told me a number of stories about Adrian. Hearing about the way that he lived his life and how he treated people made me wish that I had had the pleasure of making his acquantaince. From Spotty's description he sounded like a beautiful person; the type of person that we would all hope to be friends with.

I hope his family and friends are able to lean on one another during this tough time.

We're thinking about you Spotty, and I look forward to hearing more stories.

-Karen

"Life is a temporary victory over the causes which induce death." - Sylvester Graham

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Wow!!! This sucks. My first EVER skydive was an AFF level 1 at Sebastian in march of 2001. Little did I know that this guy sitting next to me on the plane was one hell of a pioneer in the sport. he could tell I was way nervous. about a minute or two away from jump run he turned to me patted my leg and said "remember, your here to have fun"...gave me a mondo smile, and I was instantly relieved of alot of tension.

It was Adrian that was my seat mate in the casa that day. What a great guy and I will sorely miss him. unbelievable.:|

Marc
otherwise known as Mr.Fallinwoman....

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If it proves that his Cypres was the deciding factor that caused this, mine are coming out of all my rigs.



Mine will come out as well if this is the case. The risk of free fall collision is always there but you often don't see it happen. But I'm performing high performance landings on virtually every skydive that I make.

BSBD [:/]


Try not to worry about the things you have no control over

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Only met Adrian once in Eloy at the FreeFlyFestival in 1997. I only had a handfull of jumps. He explained me how to use my frontrisers. Thanks for this and all you gave the sport.
My sincerest condolences to every who love an admire him.

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I had the pleasure and previledge of meeting Adrian a few years ago in Hawaii, he was a stunning man and a gifted skydiver, and a bold explorer of all things relating to flight and poetry of motion in the air. This is a tremendous loss for the skydiving world.
My sincerest condolences to his family and friends. He will be greatly missed and remembered as a unique talent, and one of the very best of the best.
Tim
SCR-21

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Mine will come out as well if this is the case. The risk of free fall collision is always there but you often don't see it happen. But I'm performing high performance landings on virtually every skydive that I make



Again, couldn't the control panel / unit be re-routed, or the Cypres redesigned, to allow for a manual shut off under a good, soon-to-be-swooped canopy?

Still not really registering this news :(

"where danger is appears also that which saves ..." Friedrich Holderlin, 'Patmos'

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Sorry i posted this originally in the wrong place.

Adrian came to our school(www.aldenham.com - go to media, and you will see a photo of him which he gave to us) as a pupil a while back, and we were privileged enough to have 1 hour 30 of his time where we shown all his skydiving achievments. we were amazed.

But it wasn;t the skill he possessed which charmed us, but his wonderful humour and jokes he cracked while talking to us, and the generosity which he was filled with, which just radiated from him right from the start.

the fact that we never knew him personally and only met him, and yet discovered these things in that shorter time is indicative of his wonderful character - imagine how many more wonderful things we could learn about him if we could spend more time with him.

Also, on my first jump back in december, a tandem, his name was mentioned by a fellow experienced jumper, and only positive and lovely comments followed, not a bad word at all - again indicative of how fantastic a person he was.

I only wish i started jumping earlier and could have spent time with him, yet i am very glad to say i was fortunate to be around when he gave that lecture, and that memory will never fade,- our school will miss him dearly, as will his family and friends, and my deepest thoughts and prayers go out to them.

This is a very trajic loss, yet thankyou Adrian for opening our eyes to think outside the box, and a personal thankyou for introducing this wonderful sport to me via your wonderful presentation.

Thankyou, and Blue Skies for ever.


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when I had less than 100 jumps, Adrian gave me that lecture about not having to turn into wind to land if that meant a low turn and taught me braked turns after having seen me land just once.

I know he didn't just teach me things that have since saved my life, but others too. It is just really sad that he won't be around to teach even more people. It makes me more determined to so in his memory.

tash
Don't ever save anything for a special occasion. Being alive is a special occasion. Avril Sloe

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I never met Adrian but when I was 16 I saw a documentary about the development work he did on Patrick DeGayardons suit. The passion he had for jumping and the way he spoke of the camaraderie of the sport was the reason I started skydiving.

Condolences to all he left behind
Blue skies
Do you want to have an ideagasm?

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The Dreambook for Adrian Nicholas
-one of the greatest men i ever meet-

This site will eventually be moved to http://www.adriannicholas.com but for now it will be hosted here at http://www.friflaj.com, hopefully I will be able to provide this site with some of the amazing stuff Adrian did over the years.

So eventually the thing I last expected happened. There was no way I thought that I would be sitting down writing on a page like this. Just only a couple of weeks before Ella’s first birthday.
My thoughts are with Katarina and Ella. I’m so grateful that I got the opportunity to be part of your life and I truly do feel blessed for being one of those who can call you one of my friends.
I don’t know what to say… not now, maybe in a couple of days or so.
All I can say right now is thank you for making me a better man and thank you for believing in me and showing me a greater life.
At least until things have settled down. Right now it is all unreal.
Please do raise that glass of wine in memory of Adrian and please do remember him by being just as safe as he tried to teach you all to be.

www.friflaj.com

please visit and sign the Dreambook

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OMG what a tragedy!

I met Adrian and Katarina on the Sweedish Friflaj Festival a couple of years ago. I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to jump with Adrian and have a chat with Katarina on the landing area at a few occasions. What a truly amazing couple! Adrian you will be sorely missed by very many. Thank you for making skydiving a better, more colorful and safer world. Katarina, i can't even begin to express how sorry I am and just how much my heart goes out to you and your baby daughter.

Glenn, my deepest condolences to you and all of Adrian's friends and family.

R.I.P. :(



Take risks not to escape life but to prevent life from escaping

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