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All Imagery By Konwent Photography After completing 3 rounds of Zone Accuracy, 2 rounds of Speed-Distance, 2 rounds of Distance and 2 rounds of Speed - all swoopers were ready to relax. Out of 59 CP competitors only 22 decided to take part in Freestyle competition on the very last day of 5th DIPC in Dubai. In one of the previous bulletins an important change was announced. Last year every competitor could decide for himself to participate in CP Freestyle or not. This year only the first 30 competitors of overall were supposed to be allowed to compete. “Supposed to” - because apparently this limitation has been cancelled 1h before the first round when only 10 approved competitors showed up. That’s why all CP competitors were finally allowed to compete. All day long were able to watch 22 swoopers doing NacNacs, Kowboys, Flips, Lazy Boys, Supermen and many other tricks. We’ve also asked Bjoern Korth, Event Judge of Canopy Piloting about the reason of new limitations. “The majority of swoopers focus on Distance, Speed and Accuracy in their training. For safety reasons we didn’t want to allow all swoopers to participate." - “The majority of swoopers focus on Distance, Speed and Accuracy in their training. For safety reasons we didn’t want to allow all swoopers to participate. Some of them might never done freestyle before. Competition is not the best place to start.” - says Bjoern - “Freestyle is also difficult to judge, it was not judged often before. Of course we have guidelines from FAI, but it’s still something new.” But looking at those who took part in these additional 3 rounds, they all seem to be happy about the jumps they’ve made. Even if not swooped perfectly, they were doing some really cool stuff with the pond just as it was their playground. We all hope that next year more competitors will take part in this spectacular show. - Well, I think that people don’t want to get hurt on the last day of the competition. Many of them leave Dubai tomorrow and the wet rig weights way more - laughs Marat Leiras from Skydive Dubai Team - Freestyle is great, lots of fun, everybody is relaxed and can explore this beautiful swoop pond. I try to use my imagination, free my mind and soul. During World Air Games 2013 organizers tried to combine Freestyle with “regular” Distance, Speed and Accuracy and it was really great. Something fresh and new in the sport. The last day of 5th DIPCBelieve it or not, but during CP Freestyle the audience was much more active and numerous than during any other swooping discipline. Hundreds of people were giving big applause for every trick that ended up in the water and even bigger for spectacular maneuvers finished smoothly on the ground. - It’s really cool, I hope that next year I will be able to watch it again! It’s a new style of swooping, exciting and probably very dangerous - says Lydia watching the show. - I had to decide between Accuracy landings on the Beach DZ and Freestyle Swooping here - says a man with a Kazahstan T-shirt - but it was worth staying close to the swoop pond. As the CP Freestyle rules are difficult to follow for most of the audience, Regan Tetlow (Media Presenter of DIPC) and Greg Windmiller (USA National Team) explained every trick and the guidelines that competitors should follow. But not only the trick itself matters. Judges asses everything: setup, trick accuracy, landing and how long the trick was held on the pond. Final results are impacted by all those factors. - DIPC is doing great job for parachuting and skydiving in general. They really try to keep CP close to the public. Everything is organized so great, that it could be a kind of “benchmark” for all other parachuting event organizers - says Greg Windmiller. Bye bye, Dubai2014 DIPC took 8 long days. The variety of all skydiving disciplines, colorful surroundings, airshows, extreme sport itself - made the event great for professional and amateur photographers. HIPA organized the contest holding one of the highest money prize in the world ($7000 for 1st place, $25000 in all awards). - "It’s a great event for us, photographers" - Juan Mayer, Skydive Dubai photographer - "I don’t have many chances to see the Jumeirah Palm from other angles than usual, but when jumping on the Beach DZ I could really rediscover its beauty." The submission is already closed so we all look forward to see the results. Just before the Closing Ceremony a 50-way formation was jumped. Skydivers created “43” number to celebrate 43rd National Day of UAE. After spectacular airshows of Al Fursan, Zoltan Team and Parabatix - all medals have been given to the heros of the event. France, Russia and USA (and other) anthems were played many times during this evening. And this is how 5th DIPC became history. Current results can be found at both Omniskore's and EAF's websites Marta Molińska is a 28 year old skydiver, event organizer, PR specialist, journalist. She currently lives in Poland, running social media and event management for her domestic Dropzone Sky Camp. She fell in love with skydiving 2 years ago, and has over 600 jumps. She smiles a lot (like it was her trade mark).

All Imagery By Konwent Photography The first day of CP in Dubai was supposed to take place on Tuesday, 2nd Dec on the Independence Day in Dubai. Unfortunately strong winds put both Accuracy and Canopy Piloting on hold. From canopy disciplines only CF was actually flying. The busy dropzone was focused more on perfomers, airshows and holiday celebration. First swoops were made on Wednesday morning. - "The conditions change between rounds but in the first round I was able to make good adjustements and scored 100" - says Curt Bartholomew from Alter Ego Team after first round of Accuracy - "Of course I prefer to go headwind, this is how it was today, but everything depends on location specifics and here Accuracy goes always in the same direction. Sometimes it’s downwind, sometimes headwind. The factor we cannot influence." - "I’m happy with the results so far" - Cornelia Mihai from Skydive Dubai Team with a big smile leaving the swoop pond - "We’ll see how it goes with next rounds." "The truth is that even the slightest change of wind speed or direction can make a huge difference in the results. It’s not rare for comeptitors to have more than one canopy of the same model (like Petra or Peregrine) but in different sizes to make a choice just before the jump accordingly to weather conditions. - In practice round I took Peregrine 75, but for the first round I flew Peregrine 67." - adds Curt. The pilot is a real engine of his canopyThe choice of the canopy seems to be one of the CP aspects which may determine a career. To make it simpler, there are two manufacturers that provide swoopers with high performing canopies: Performance Designs and NZ Aerosport. They delivered to the market, the Peregrine and Petra, which are already used by the majority of competitors. As none of them are useful for everyday freefall jumping, users needed a canopy with performance of Peregrine/Petra and terminal deployment tolerance. (NZ Aerosports have, since publication told us that the Petra is able to open in terminal and opens well with a normal slider and RDS) So more than 1 year ago Leia form NZ Aerosport was announced to be ready to sell and just two weeks ago PD released trailer of Valkyrie. Both canopies are described as high performing with smooth openings and being perfectly good for freefall jumping. "If you take basic aerodynamics, this is the logical direction to go." - John LeBlanc - "If you take basic aerodynamics, this is the logical direction to go." - John LeBlanc, PD vice-president and head of R&D; - "But I must admit that the Valkyrie project started before the Peregrine development. We have 40-120 prototypes every year and we only announce the new product to be ready when it’s really great." - "It’s a step up from Velocity or Comp Velocity. It was designed to be an everyday usage canopy with higher performance." - says Albert Berchtold, marketing representative of PD - "It’s a different canopy than Leia, even if some claims otherwise. We were working on it at the same time as NZ for a couple of years now and we’re really happy with what Valkyrie became. Just ask users if they like it!" And we actually did. Pablo Hernandez, winner of DISL (Swoop League) says: "The first thing that comes to me when I think of Valkyrie is the amazing openings. Really smooth and soft, my neck and back loved it from the frist jump. It also has a lot of rear risers power and toggles power. It can be used as an everyday canopy but it’s good for competition as well, mostly for Accuracy. I don’t jump it here, as I only have 30-40 jumps on it but for the next competition I will probably take it." The first users’ descriptions of Valkyrie performance seem to be similar to Leia characteristics. - "We arrived at the Leia trying to find Petras little sister as it were" - says Richard Munro from NZ Aerosport - "A high performance wing that incorporates many design elements of Petra without some of the practical limiatations. It’s probably reasonable to think PD had similar intent with their canopy development. In the end, the competition between the manufactuers only leads to better canopies - the pilots are the real winners." - "I really love Leia, it’s good for Accuracy jumping in competitions but I would say it’s more dedicated to everyday skydives" - claims Lee Barraclough, competitor from NZ Aerosport - "The openings are really nice." "I really love Leia, it’s good for Accuracy jumping in competitions but I would say it’s more dedicated to everyday skydives" - Lee Barraclough But the truth is that aerodynamic and gravity rules stay the same for all canopies. If constructors want to achive a specific goal or parameters - no mercy - they will probably come to the similar conclusions and ideas. - "The canopy is only a tool, the pilot is a real engine" - explains Nick Batsch, competitor from Alter Ego Team - "It doesn’t really matter if those canopies are different (probably not much, by the way). If there actually is any dispute between manufacturers is more about ‘who did it first’, and not ‘who did it better’. It shouldn’t be taken too seriously." We tried to find a swooper who actually tried both canopies and apparently Curt Bartholomew is the only one. - "I admit Valkyrie is similar to Leia, it feels a little bit different as the manufacturers use probably different fabrics and materials and the construction is somehow different, but the openings are supersoft in both canopies, similar risers pressure and toggle power. Probably I would benefit Valkyrie more in Distance and Speed but to be honest, they are both really good." 5th DICP almost doneWindy weather 4 days in a row is not a common thing in Dubai. Organizers keep up with the competition but many disciplines were put on hold because of difficult conditions. Distance and Speed were done only during the second day of CP, on Thursday. First two rounds were a combination ob both, so called “Speed-Distance”. It’s an experimental combination (not confirmed by FAI) where one result of a jump influences two traditional categories: Speed and Distance. This means that the stake is doubled, the pressure is doubled and of course the risk of loosing precious points is also doubled. - "I’m happy that there is a trend of experiments, which I’ve already noticed in Klatovy, to make Canopy Piloting more interesting for the public. To make it more attractive and spectacular" - says Sebastian Dratwa - "But having in mind that this is the most important goal, I can’t understand why the Accuracy was completly isolated form the audience. Even Regan [media presenter] had to choose between being close to people and actually seeing how competitors landed." It is true that the Canopy Piloting discipline is the most interesting for the audience. But from all three categories, only Distance is easy to understand. Even if Speed is simple, without instant results on the screen, it’s not that exciting. On the other hand it really is great (also for competitors) that the negative zones in Accuracy were removed. It’s easier to follow the rules for competitors, not to mention non-skydivers watching the show. All attempts to bring CP closer to the audience are great. There is still a lot to improve in future editions but kudos to organizers for all their efforts. - "It’s great here, as every year. Sometimes the weather is not helping with organization of the competition." - says Regan Tetlow, media presenter of DIPC - "I love this place. Actually I decided yesterday to move to Dubai, I change my life from now on…!" As all three CP categories are done, there is an extra one for tomorrow: CP freestyle. Last year around 40 competitors (out of 70) took part in this additional event. Sadly, this year only the first 30 are allowed to participate. Let’s keep fingers crossed for them. The 5th DIPC will soon be over… Current results can be found at both Omniskore's and EAF's websites

All imagery by Konwent Photography FS (previously known as RW) is a classic discipline in skydiving, known and developed for years by those who love cooperation, synchronization and team spirit. VFS can be treated as a modern variant of FS flying, however it is different in almost every aspect. The future of both disciplines will probably not be the same neither. Entry level too demandingBoth FS and FVS are skydiving disciplines where four people have to cooperate really close, get the highest level of precision, mutual understanding and speed. What makes them different is the orientation. Cameraman is part of the team and goes together through all ups and downs. Regardless omnipresent admiration of freefly in general, VFS appears to be less and less popular, belly flyers at the same time are getting stronger. - It is very difficult to start a serious training in VFS. Being able to move forward, backwards, sides and turns on a belly is enough to start even the simplest training. VFS is a completely different story, the entry level is much higher and you need to gather five people with required skills in headup and headdown positions. It’s not easy to create a team - claims Karla Cole from 5th DIPC Judges Committee. - I would also say that the cooperation between the team and cameraman is also more demanding. It’s much easier to catch all grips from above, while here cameraman needs to move quickly, needs to know sequences and figures very well to adjust movements and his (or her) own position to show grips to the judges. Tunnel future for VFS?When you listen well to skydivers’ whispering you’ll hear that VFS will more likely move to the tunnels. What’s interesting is that you can’t say the same thing about FS flying. This classic discipline is growing and in this case tunnels are only improving skydivers’ skills. Many FS competitions take place in the tunnels but outdoor “oldschool” skydiving is still in charge. On 5th DIPC there are 13 teams on FS Open and 8 teams on FS Female. In the same time - we only have two VFS teams (keep in mind that $7000 award will not be given to anybody). - Of course freefly is more fun at the moment, but VFS is something really different. People love dynamic stuff, carving around, doing snakes, layouts… - says Benoit Lemay, member of Canadian Evolution team, which compete in both FS and FVS disciplines - I think that either VFS will move to the tunnels, either 2-way VFS teams will start to participate because it’s easier to practice and to organize. - I don’t think VFS will migrate to the tunnel and stay there. Tunnels provide great training conditions and these days are more accessible to everyone. - explains Marcin Seń from Almost, polish representation - You don’t have to be a skydiver to train in the wind tunnel, that’s why there are more VFS teams competing in the tunnels than in the sky. And let’s face it, VFS is much more difficult than FS. Freefly is about imaginationBenoit is not the only one who noticed that skydivers are more interested in dynamic freefly than in competing FVS. Also Olav Zipster says that freefly is more about using your body in every way possible than about following formal rules of 4-way flying: randoms, blocks, strong dynamic exits etc. Freefly is more about emotions and imagination, you can do literally whatever you want. It’s like swimming in the air, go faster, go slower, invent new rotations, adjust your movements to what you want to achieve. That’s what counts for example in freestyle, I think this is the future of freefly on the competitions in years to come. - Olav Zipster, freefly legend with 28 years of experience - I think FVS is really difficult to train and it doesn’t really feel natural for freefly to stick to the rules and demanding frames. No matter how both VFS teams fly during this competition, it’s difficult to say that the battle is exciting. We can only hope that in next competitions and championships more teams will participate to keep the discipline alive. In the same time in FS competition TOP3 varies from one round to another so we all look forward to the very exiting end of it. Canadian, Belgium, USA - these three teams are working hard for the gold medal. - We started with Hayabusa 5.0 which means that we have a new member, Jeroen, instead of Roy who decided to choose professional coach career. We treat this competition as an additional training, but we’re doing good, and hope to win - says David Grauwels from Hayabusa, Belgium FS representation (2nd place after 7th round) - We really don’t have any secret plan, we just verify round after round how it goes and where are our weak points. It’s all about cooperation and trust in the team. What’s new in DIPC5th and 6th day of the competition is still very windy, so Accuracy was put on hold for the majority of both days. Competitors were able to do only one round in the evening. Everyday there is an air show of Zoltan’s team, Parabatix team and plenty of music, gymnastics and sport performers at the dropzone. Also every day organizers draw 10 lucky winners who get iPads and iPhones 6. Today, on Tuesday, Canopy Piloting should start their rounds, but after two first loads organizers decided to wait for better conditions. Afer one day of relax and DISL celebration, all swoopers are ready to show how they perform with speed, distance and accuracy. Looking forward to the real show! Current results can be found at both Omniskore's and EAF's websites

All Imagery by Kuba Konwent 5th DIPC: Accuracy, VFS, 4-ways and CF flying hardThe fifth Dubai International Parachute Competition is already started and going on from sunrise to sunset. The dropzone is closed for all commercial activities (AFF, tandems, fun jumps), but a collection of jumpships including 2 helicopters, 2 Twin Otters, 1 Cessna Caravan are going up and down with short breaks for refuel. The essence of skydiving community is just here. Accuracy in the very centerAs the swoop pond will be silent for a couple of days, accuracy landings attract most of audience’s attention. Some say that it is a discipline which is not under intense R&D; but apparently it’s very exposed and divided between group and individual competition and also between seniors and juniors. - Some rules changed since last year - says Matthias Maushake, Head of Manifest - We now allow Juniors to jump with Seniors in one group, so that’s one of the main changes. We try to adjust competitions to the reality and we observe how it goes to be able to come up with conclusions. - Everything is great, the discipline is getting bigger, canopies are being improved. I look forward to the future of Accuracy - claims Saeed Alhashimi from Judges Comittee. Womens Team Accuracy Results Pos Nat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total 1 Belarus 5 5 5 2 2 5 4 5 33 2 Russia 6 7 0 1 10 4 1 8 37 3 China 19 3 5 5 8 4 3 6 53 4 Poland 10 10 6 3 6 12 19 10 76 5 France 25 18 18 6 26 19 8 8 128 Mens Team Accuracy Results - Top 5 Pos Nat 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total 1 Slovenia 3 3 4 1 2 0 2 2 17 2 Italy 7 3 1 5 1 0 2 2 21 3 Russia 4 2 0 2 0 7 6 1 22 4 Hungary 2 4 3 4 2 2 6 3 26 5 China 4 0 2 3 6 5 1 7 28 What Lies Ahead for VFS?For a very long time before the competition only the Canadian VFS team was registered. Just a few days before DIPC one additional team from Poland declared their attendance, making it one of the disciplines where there are fewer entries than previous years. - It requires a lot of comittment and patience. Having an average of 10 points is a huge effort not only for one person, but for four and of course the cameraman - says member of Canadian team member - We’re happy with the 48p. we have in total now. However it would be perfect if we had more teams to compete with. Having only 2 teams on board, it’s not the same, but of course we will do our best to have the highest score possible. We have also asked the Polish team how they feel during their first competition: "We only have 2 months of training as a team. The atmosphere is great and we aim for getting some experience. We don’t expect a miracle to happen but it’s important to compete with the best." - says capitan of Polish representation, Marek Nowakowski. Windy dropzone and Swoop LeagueSaturday’s afternoon was already quite windy. Accuracy competitors were released for the rest of a day. Sunday morning wind was around 15-17 knots, so competition started around 11am. Accuracy still on hold, but everyone else is doing their thing. Also at the Desert Campus Swoop League is going on. Today new category was introduced to the competitors and public: “max-speed” which is a combination of Speed and Distance. Competitors are supposed to enter with a maximum speed and fly as far as they can. Here is how it looks like: Post użytkownika Performance Designs. 4-ways Open/FemaleFormation Skydiving is a classic. You can see 4-way teams training on the creepers everywhere, coaches circuling around and giving hints. We asked Karla Cole from Judges Committee how does she feel about FS skydiving during this competition. - It’s a classic discipline, I don’t think it will ever going to be less popular. There were disciplines that have died already, as Skysurfing, but FS is not one of them. I’m a little bit worried about VFS, because it really is awesome and yet… we only have 2 teams registered. Only time will show the future. - says Karla. Asked about FS and VFS development responds: Well, definitetly VFS requires more high skills and of course the mutual work between the team and cameraman. It’s easier to catch all grips from above than in VFS where you have to be sometimes headup, sometimes headdown and know better how to show the grip to the judges. Sometimes only one point decides who is the winner. The same for FS. And indeed - In FS Canadian and Belgium team have both 88 points in total. That’s the sport spirit we’re all looking for in skydiving! More results can be found at both Omniskore's and EAF's websites

All imagery by Kuba Konwent Dubai is a special place and for a skydiver - it really is unique. If you want to feel like a professional athlete and member of a serious global community - there is literally no better place. Skydiving is not a niche sport here - it’s a main one. Skydivers are not freaks with a weird hobby, but appreciated professionals and VIP guests. Different world, no questiones asked. In the recent days skydivers of all disciplines were registrating and jumping over the Palm and on the Desert for training sessions. Accuracy, 4-ways, swoopers, freestylers - the magic of diversity was visible all around both dropzones and in the tunnel. Busy days for the Manifest, organizers and competitors. - I’m definitely more experienced than a year ago and I also have a smaller canopy size, which can be helpful - says Cornelia Mihai from Skydive Dubai swooping team, starting in Canopy Piloting discipline. - Of course I aim for winning, as everybody. I trained a lot and I will do my best. Today first rounds of Accuracy, 4-way Open and 4-way Female took place. The weather conditions were positive for the majority of a day, but in the late afternoon and evening stronger wind made swoopers worried about tomorrow’s Dubai International Swoop League. It is considered to be a warm up competition before DICP rounds but it has a separate results and awards. A couple of changes were applied this year to the general rules known so far. We will publish more details soon, just before Canopy Piloting which starts on 1st Dec. - I’m always planning a new record - laughs Nick Batch (8 Distance and 2 Speed world records) - Of course Speed is more demanding, so I will definitely be focused on that. But I also feel there is a lot to do in the Distance area. As always, between swoop pond and national teams’ booths, there is a lot of fun going on, but one place seems to be more crowded than the others. It’s a wingsuit simulator with a specific ‘tracks’ displayed in a special big goggles mounted on a head. Everyone can feel the thrill of wingsuit proximity flying, after lying on a special device which is sensitive to all body movements. To make it even more realistic, you can feel wind on your face and sounds of the air going faster and faster. Really great entertainment not only for non-skydivers. As every year, there is Photography Competition taking place and everybody can submit their pictures. Spectacular views and performances, big format event and colorful surroundings make the place perfect for professional (and amateur) photographers. Many of them could be spotted at work during sunset PPG (powered paragliding) flying: beautiful and unique view. At 8pm the official opening of DIPC took place in the artificial stadium built a couple of days before. It was truly a stunning performance of sky-dancers hanged on the ‘sky’ displayed on walls and ceiling. Hanging on a ‘circus’ handles all performers were literally flying 2 meters above the audience. Skydivers watching the show would notice that their movements are not only beautiful but suprisingly accurate and professional. After a short while everyone was already sure that the real skydivers were actually performing. This fact made a show even more incredible. With fireworks just above heads and hearts full of music - everyone is ready to make this competition legen… wait for it ... dary.

Image by Juan MayerThe Dubai International Parachuting Championships began yesterday with the opening of registration, arrival of delegations as well as the first series of practice jumps. Registrations will continue today, Thursday the 27th November 2014 with the addition of the first series of meetings and conferences for the judges, and managers taking place. Final (late) registrations will take place on Friday, as well as the first series of competition jumps which will begin at 09:00. Later in the evening the opening ceremony will take place. The competition will continue on until the afternoon of Friday the 5th of December, with closing ceremony, award presentation and farewell dinner in the evening. The last two days of the event will see the departure of delegations as well as an air show. The DIPC first began 5 years ago and has since become a highlight of the annual skydiving calander, playing host to the best skydivers in the world. They will be competing for a total prize pool in excess of $400 000. Dr.Rainer EXI Hoenle, chief judge of the 5th DIPC recently published a bulletin to the Emirates Aerosports Federation (EAF) website detailing some of the technical aspects and rules of the competitive categories, which can be viewed on their website. The weather forecast for the next 10 days is mostly positive, with only a chance for rain forecast by some weather agencies on the Monday. Otherwise everyone is holding thumbs for a jump friendly period, with winds hopefully remaining below the limits. Dropzone.com will be bringing you updates throughout the event over the course of the next 10 days, so be sure to check in regularly. Video footage from the 2013 Dubai International Parachuting Championship

The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) - The World Air Sports Federation, was founded in 1905. Skydivers from all over the world have been waiting for this moment of recognition where the indoor skydiving collides with skydiving and the indoor sport competition becomes real. In November 2014, history was made in the air sports. For the first time ever Indoor Skydiving was recognized as a sport by the FAI and a World Cup was held at iFLY Austin in Texas, USA. Many countries were represented such as Russia, USA, Canada, Mexico, France, Sweden, Czech Republic and Monaco. This is also the first time that a junior category has been recognized within the air sport. Aerokart Akademie sent their best flyers, two FS junior teams with flyers ranging from 10 to 13 years old and an average score of 12.8 and 10.7, Akademie 1 and Akademie 2. Both teams have been training hard and competed against five other teams in the same division leading the way for the Bad Boys, representing Czech Republic, with a beautiful win of 20.9 average score. Close behind was our USA team Spaceland Lite and Team eXact from Sweden. The podium never looked so good with so much international talent. In the female category, team Aerokart Deep Blue had a smashing victory with a 24.7 average score, allowing the female team from Czech Republic, Hurricane Factory Chicks, to get second place. These girls certainly made an impression with their coordinated jumpsuits and smiles. The Freefly discipline, part of the Artistic Events, always amazes the general public with the synchronized movements and sent the crowd rallying with applauses. Not to be surprised, team USA has put an enormous dedication into showing the world their passion for indoor skydiving and created a routine that took the judges off their feet. Team Mandrake, composed of Chris Dixon and Javier Serrano, won Gold with a 65.0 total score. Collective, the other USA team followed with the silver and Orion Freely from Sweden took bronze showing the judges’ one of the most challenging synchronized team exits of the competition The Mexican team, Avix, showed to everyone that with love and dedication, being part of the first world cup was an experience of a life time and to not ever be forgotten no matter what place you got. If you enjoy a dance routine performed by a single person that is full of emotion and energy; full enough to make your arm hair spike, than you know that the Freestyle category blew away many eyes and made many heads turn. Music choreography and soft dance moves were incorporated to impress the judges and general public. The indoor World Cup hosted seven Freestyle competitors and they all had their unique signature moves. USA was represented by our ‘Golden Boy’ Reese Willson with an total score of 60.4 and a final round flown with his arms inside his jumpsuit to encourage the disabled to participate in the sport! In second place were the famous pointy toes of Mike Silva with team Collective of the USA, followed by the exquisite flying technique of Olga Bakulina and Leo Volkov with the Russian delegation. Following up the Russians was Drew, Man of Steele, of the USA with his shocking triple flips, then the youngest world medal holder in indoor skydiving history Mateo Lumnios with his matching orange shoes. Lastly in the Freestyle category, Lise Hernandez Girouard represented Canada and got the crowd singing to “pretty woman” during of one of her performance rounds. Three countries were represented in the VFS category, USA, Poland and Mexico. SDC standard held their world class status with an average score of 24.3, sharing the podium with team Fly Definition in second place and Avix from Mexico in third. SDC Standard teammates Mickey Nuttall, Will Pesek , Rook Nelson and Jason Peters set the bar really high for anyone that would like to take their World Champion title away next year! A few years ago Gillian Rayner, the IPC Controller, explored the idea of creating the World Cup Indoor skydiving, working with Axel Zohmann, Director of the IBA, and iFLY Operations Manager, Erin Horton. Modifying the rules of skydiving and adapting them to an indoor 14 foot wind tunnel, we dedicated this World Cup to all future World Champions that will come after this grand year. To many hours of flying in the wind tunnel and to leaping into new winds, may this year motivate many of us to train and to empower our community to achieve new flying skills. We raise the glass to the FAI for making this dream a reality for all of the competitors. Here Here!

Photo by HypoxicImagine a skydiving vacation over Halloween in Arizona... free registration, discounted jumps, paintball wars dressed in costumes, an off-the-hook costume party, organizers leading your jumps from Arizona Airspeed, Arizona Arsenal and the Arizona Training Center, and jumps from all different kinds of fast airplanes - skyvans, otters and a DC3... Does that sound good? Well, nearly 300 registered participants lived that imagination at Skydive Arizona's Halloween Carnival from October 31st - November 2nd, and if you weren't here - you missed out! Skydive Arizona went all out setting up the desert landscape with scrapped vehicles, planes, hay bales and an awesome sound system to set the stage for the Apocalyptic Zombie Paintball Wars! Over 100 jumpers partook in the first annual games winning jumps and tunnel time. Photo by HypoxicRigging Innovations put up this year's grand prize of a free Curve Container for the costume party. Skyventure donated several certificates for tunnel time, Skydive Arizona donated several jump tickets High But Dry Balloons donated 2 free balloon jumps and the Bent Prop threw in a few gift certificates as well. And that was enough motivation to get people to dress up in clever, bizarre, and detailed costumes. A 5-panel judge calculated their scores and awarded these 3 homemade costumes top 3: 1st Place - Wookie/Big Foot (Casey Vanhyhuys) 2nd Place - Pixar Lamp (William Cain) 3rd Place - Magic Carpet Ride (Tomer Falach) Other categories winning prizes were Sexiest Male/Female, Best Group, Best Presentation, Best Product Placement and Most Disturbing. Photo by Niklas DanielIn conjunction to the Carnival, Sara Curtis and Ryan Risberg led a group to prepare for the Head-Up World Record Attempts coming up this November 20-23. Helping them out flying camera were Sam Baker and Nick Blacksher. The success of the camp was building 22 out of a 29-way. Don't miss out on next year's Halloween Carnival! Mark your calendars now, I dare you! Photo by Niklas Daniel Photo by Niklas Daniel Photo by Niklas Daniel Photo by Sam Schwan Photo by Sam Schwan Photo by Niklas Daniel Photo by Niklas Daniel

Photo by Ori Kuper | USPA | SDCThis was my 4th year at USPA Nationals (and my 3rd at Skydive Chicago), so when I rolled up to Skydive Chicago on September 12, the day before 4-way FS was scheduled to start, I knew the drill. Get there early in the day before the registration lines get too long. Receive and dispense hugs from your friends from around the country, some of whom you only ever see at Nationals. Manifest for a couple of low-key “get the butterflies out” jumps with your team before chilling out until the briefing and draw that night. Except this year, Mother Nature had different plans. The first two days of Nationals had brought the miserable weather the Midwest is sometimes known for. The dropzone was full of maudlin vertical formation skydiving (VFS) and mixed formation skydiving (MFS) competitors, so some of those hugs were of the “Awww, I feel your pain” variety, as friends who’d trained all year were facing the possibility of weather truncating their competition to only a couple of jumps. The only competition going on was on the ground, with a friendly game of Four Square taking place outside, and a more competitive ($5 buy in) game of Corn Hole inside the hangar. Practice jumps on Friday were out of the question, so we went to bed with those butterflies holding strong, with their only to be exorcised on the first competition jump. Never fear, though, both Mother Nature and the meet management delivered on Saturday morning, with skies dawning clear (and pretty cold), and five Twin Otters ready to go to get not only the 10 4-way VFS and 10 2-way MFS teams in the air, but also get the Nationals’ largest event, 4-way FS (with its 56 teams) rolling. Photo by Ori Kuper | USPA | SDCPausing for a moment to acknowledge what it takes to keep five Otters turning for two days straight, it’s hard not to be impressed by what the host DZs (and the supporting meet team from USPA) pull off every year, even with perfect weather. It’s a massive undertaking, and each time I compete, I’m impressed with how seamlessly it all seems to work (at least from the competitors’ perspective). I know that behind the scenes there’s a giant group of people working long hours to make sure that every part of the operations, from the judging stations to the fuel trucks to the toilets are working as they need to. Five Otters doing two passes per load means a jump run roughly every 2 ½ minutes. Skydive Chicago has a giant landing area, and the winds were favorable for parallel jump runs that still put most if not all of the jumpers in a good position for a safe on-field landing every time. Over my 10 jumps there, I only recall one or two times that we had a delay on jump run for traffic and spacing, and only one off landing (and that might’ve had as much to do with a slightly low pull as with the spot). Photo by Ori Kuper | USPA | SDCSaturday and Sunday brought two near-perfect days of weather, providing Meet Director Bill Wenger with almost enough of a window to complete the full competition for 4-way VFS and 2-way MFS. There was a heroic amount of scheduling Tetris taking place to alternate rounds of the two disciplines, especially considering there was quite a bit of competitor overlap. The vertical flyers competed at an atypical pace for Nationals, collectively agreeing that they’d rather accept shorter-than-required calls for the opportunity to get most or all of the competition rounds in. Saturday ended with MFS finishing five of its scheduled six rounds, and VFS finishing seven of eight, with the winners recognized at a medal ceremony Saturday night. At the same time, all of the 4-way FS competitors got through half their scheduled 10 rounds on Saturday, setting the competition up for an easy finish on Sunday with the predicted great weather. Sunday dawned clear and a hair warmer and a great day of weather allowed the 4-way FS competition to finish up. As Sunday’s jumps wrapped up in the early afternoon, both in the Open and Intermediate categories the race for Bronze came down to the final jump, with a crowd of competitors gathering around the monitors in the hangar to watch the judging of Round 10 live to see who would go home with a medal. Photo by Ori Kuper | USPA | SDCSpeaking of medals, one of the best parts of Nationals is the awards ceremonies, which are scattered throughout the event as each discipline finishes up. There usually aren’t any surprises in the medals – the standings were set as soon as the judges finished their work, but it’s a chance to be recognized in front of your fellow competitors for a job well done. This year’s 4-way FS medal ceremony Sunday evening brought a special opportunity for USPA Director of Competition Jim Hayhurst to recognize someone that anyone who’s ever competed in 4-way has admired – Mark Kirkby – who is retiring from full-time competition with Arizona Airspeed after this Nationals. Typical of Mark, he won’t slow down much as he steps back into the alternate role on Airspeed, and will continue to coach and organize in Arizona and around the world. The enthusiastic and extended standing ovation for Mark showed just what an impact he’s had on the competitive 4-way world in the 20 years since he was a founding member of Arizona Airspeed. I’ve been privileged to jump with and be coached by Mark several times at Skydive Arizona, including my 1000th jump in late 2012, where I managed to talk three of the then-current members of Airspeed into joining me for a 4-way! Like so many of the top names in our sport, he remains ever helpful and humble as he passes on his wisdom to the next generation of skydivers and being part of the crowd that honored him was a great way to end my 2014 4-way experience. About Krisanne Combs: Krisanne Combs is a weekend warrior who has logged 1450 jumps in her 10 years in the sport. She competed in 4-way FS this year as part of 5th Wheel, a Northern California-based team. Krisanne lives in Oakland, California, where she has a paid job for a large health plan, and an unpaid job as staff for two freakishly large male cats. When she’s not in her local skydiving haunts of Skydance Skydiving or iFly SFBay, she’s probably planning her next skydiving trip. More of Ori Kuper's photography can be found on his website and Facebook page.

Andy Farrington of the United States won the world’s first Red Bull Aces Wingsuit 4 Cross Race in the skies over the central Californian town of Oakdale on Thursday, flying at speeds of up to 135 miles per hour (217 km per hour) and beating three other rivals in the final down a slalom course in the premiere of the new sport. In the high-speed, high-altitude race through four stationary gates that started with a leap from the back hatch of a sky van airplane at 7,000 feet and descended to the finish line at 3,500 feet, Noah Bahnson (USA) took second and Julian Boulle (South Africa) was third in a field of 52 of the world’s best Wingsuit racers from 16 countries. “This is just amazing, cutting edge and really the start of a revolution,” said Farrington, a professional sky diver who did stunt work in the film “Transformer 3” of his historic victory in the new sport that is attempting to make Wingsuit flying safer with the start and finish at higher and safer altitudes. “This is racing and this is the way to hold a competition. You are racing the people right next to you, at the same time and on the same, set course – just like in any other sport. Just like in ski racing, it’s cut and dry. You either make the gate or you don’t. You either finished ahead of the other guy or you didn’t. And you’re doing it all thousands of feet in the air.” The race format is in essence ski cross in the sky with four Wingsuit racers flying against each other at a time in a test of skill and courage as they navigated the slalom course. From the start at 7,000 feet, the racers descended at accelerating speeds to the first of four gates (at 6,500 feet) and then to the subsequent gates and the finish line (at 3,500 feet). The racers then pulled their parachutes at a safe altitude of about 3,000 feet. Farrington set a course record of 40:16 seconds in the final. American Katie Hansen was the best of five women in the race that does not differentiate between male and female and made it into the top 32. Results Red Bull Aces: 1. Andy Farrington (USA) 2. Noah Bahnson (USA) 3. Julian Boulle (RSA) 4. Jhonny Florez (COL) 5. David Covel (USA) 6. Sebastian Alvarez (CHL) 7. Jason Moledzki (CAN) 8. Charley Kurlinkus (USA) Photographers: Joerg Mitter, Balazs Gardi

Photograph by Andrey Veselov/APAttempts are currently under way in Eloy, AZ to break the two point big way world record. The World Team has 222 skydivers from 28 countries are working hard at carving their names into the record books. The goal is an ambitious one with the previous world record standing at only 110 jumpers, so should the World Team successfully accomplish their goal, they will have more than doubled the number of jumpers on the record that currently stands. The event is being held as the 20th anniversary event for the World Team. Training jumps began already on Friday, March 28 when warm weather and a light breeze offered the jumpers near perfect conditions for the first day of training. The first training jumps consisted of 4 groups of jumpers, a base group of 42, along with three other groups of 66. Initial jumps were quite successful with the base group managing to complete four successful jumps, while the groups of 66 managed to perform three jumps with two complete sectors on each jump. The record attempt schedule set three days aside for practice, with record attempts beginning on March 31st. On the second day of training the bar was raised with only two groups being created, as opposed to the four groups that jumped on the first day. The formation practice was now done via the formation of a 90-way and a 132-way. Each group managed to make four jumps on the day and again progress was clearly evident, as the jumpers gave it their all. Safety is always of the highest standard during big way events, and despite the extremely skilled nature of the team, the demands that a large scale record attempt puts on the competitors make it easy for concentration to lapse. The practice days of the event seek to slowly build up the quality of the jumps and move the team closer and closer towards the final goal. The final day of dedicated training began with some reshuffling of the formation sectors. The 132-way group which was operating on a full base got some practice in on the mini base by downsizing to a 90-way group, while the 90-way group from the day before would spend some time getting practice on the full base as a 132-way group. Practice on this day was cut short by 30-knot winds at 1600'. Time that was lost in the sky was spent by the team practising their jump with some dirt dives on the grass. Earlier in the day the 90-way team was able to make a first point completion, but the 132-way team was still struggling due to difficulties with the base. Record Attempts BeginThe World Team began early on Monday, with a forecast for some less than ideal wind conditions later in the day. The plan was for a couple of final practice jumps in the morning before the record attempts would start, at around noon. The base managed to make two practice jumps, with only the Alpha team docking as one sector. The second jump provided a well established base and it was then decided for the record attempts to begin. The first jump would not seek for completion but rather aim to establish the build in stages. The base would complete and then allow the jumpers from the sectors to get into their quadrants and feel become comfortable with their position in the formation, there was no pressure for them to dock during this exercise. Unfortunately, as predicted, the wind did come up in the afternoon and cut the attempts short. The down time once again being used for dirt diving practice. Photograph by Gustavo Cabana/APImprovements were made on Tuesday, 1st April when the team began practising achieving the full 222-way formation. The first jump of the day saw the teams beginning some of the docking on the base, while the second jump saw a further improvements in the attempt. The third and final jump of the day was the most successful with the formation then nearing completion. The team would look to then, on Wednesday further the progress and attempt to make their first point. Once the first point is made, the sights could focus on completing the two point formation. It was an early start on Wednesday when the team began through first dirt dives just after 06:30 in the morning, but before being able to get into the air at the scheduled time of 07:00, low cloud came in and caused a delay to the progression of the record attempt. The teams decided that they would spend the morning period while unable to get in the sky, to practice with smaller groups, which would then take to the sky once the clouds had passed. There were some changes to the base in order to give the group confidence that they would have a solid base to build on. The first jump after the weather cleared would consist of the 42-way base which would be docked on by a further 66-way group. This jump was extremely successful with the base building quickly and the remaining 66 jumpers slotting into position with good form; a 108-way formation was done to perfection and eyes then turned to the ultimate goal of completing the 222-way. Photograph by Andrey Veselov/APThe second jump of the day saw all 222 jumpers and come very close to completion. One of the sectors were complete while another fell just short. Overall things were very close, and hopes turned to being able to complete the formation and break the record later that day. Unfortunately however, the weather once again hampered proceedings and high winds meant that it would be the last jump for the day and attempts would resume on Thursday. Tragedy StrikesOn Thursday, 3 April 2014 the atmosphere in the camp changed dramatically. Early in the morning one of the Diana Paris of Berlin, who was participating in the event suffered a malfunction. Paris, aged 46 was declared dead on the scene after her parachute was released too low, and unable to open fully prior to impact. Diana Paris was an experienced skydiver with over 1500 jumps. The team honored Paris later in the day by performing a "man missing" formation. The team have also decided that out of respect, they will not be replacing Paris for the record attempt, and instead will be aiming for a 221-way record instead of a 222-way. Despite suffering the loss of Paris, the team are still motivated to accomplish their record on Friday, the final day of the attempts. The Final DayThe World Team returned to the record attempts on Friday morning, but were unfortunatly unable to complete the FAI sanctioned world record. Things were looking solid at the end and the team came extremely close, falling only two skydivers short of the record, with them being unable to link. As such an unofficial record of a 2-way 219-way skydive was achieved. Information sourced from The World Team Blog

After a grueling 38 hours in the car to Puerto Escondido Mexico, via Central Texas, (mostly brought on by a bad sense of direction and a belief that I could plan a better route than Google, the real drive should have only been around 21 hrs.) We arrived in the quaint coastal town of Puerto Escondido, OAX, for the new years boogie put on by Skydive Cuautla. Puerto Escondido is a small ocean town on the pacific coast, known for its beautiful beaches and friendly people. Puerto Escondido means “hidden port” because it has remained relatively untouched by commercialization that so often takes over tourist destinations. While not as well known as its neighbor, Acapulco, Puerto Escondido has been a longtime favorite vacation destination for the locals, allowing this town to hold on to a truly genuine feeling. As we descended from the mountains south of Oxaca, our first sight of the small Mexican town was of a picturesque beach, bright sun, gentle sea breeze, and blue sky, punctuated with the bright colors of the canopies soaring through the crisp ocean air. We quickly followed them to the landing area, a white sanded beach with deep blue water dotted with small umbrellas and sun bathers, and inquired as to where to find manifest. Everyone was more than happy to point us in the right direction, maybe a half a block up the street we found their buses out front of a beautiful traditional style Mexican patio, surrounded by a wrought iron gate, draped with banners urging us to come, "jump in paradise". Just a few steps inside this oasis-esque courtyard stood a thatch roofed cabana, with a set up of tables and computers. We quickly made our way over there, and after an attempt to comprehend my limited knowledge of Spanish vocabulary in regards to skydiving, an English speaking staff member found us and pulled us aside to help out. We had our gear checked, a safety briefing, and then told us how to purchase jump tickets, and informed of the white party that was set to occur that evening. We told them we would probably not jump that day, as we needed to find a hotel, shower (most importantly) eat and then come and jump. The organizer then immediately got on her phone and helped to find us a room at a local hotel. EVERYTHING was booked up, and she spent close to an hour of her time calling the hotels around us, until finally she was able to send us in the right direction. We ended up getting a room at the Caracol Plaza, which was the best hotel I have ever stayed at in my life, but that is a review for Hotels.com (but if you want to be treated like royalty, for the price of a pauper, definitely look them up). We washed up, grabbed some food, and headed back to manifest. We decided to do a warm up little two way jump, though we received a warm welcome and invitation to jump from everyone there, we made our way to the bus, and headed off to the airport. The loading went smooth, and their shuttles were clean and comfortable. Which made for an enjoyable ride to the airport. The Airport was located just 5 minutes up the road on the mountain top overlooking the city, where we were unloaded, geared up, walked out onto the flight line, loaded into the otter, and then airborne lickety split! The climb to altitude was as quick as it was beautiful, and we even got up to 14k AGL on this jump. The Otter was in tip top condition, clean and maintained better than most planes I have seen in the states. The other jumpers on the plane were helpful in describing the landing pattern again, and helped to make sure we had a good spot. We had a Great Jump, nice soft landings on the HUGE beach landing area, and headed back up to the manifest area to pack. The packing area was a large shaded area right across from the manifest hut, with tarped over floors, and a large grassy area behind the manifest hut. We had ample room to pack, and they even had some packers on hand to help with any overflow. As sunset load came down we headed over to the beach to watch everyone come down, where we were greeted with beers, and everybody took pictures and celebrated a good day of jumping while a Fire orange sun sank low into the into the sea, casting a warm glow upon the smiling faces of the jumpers. We retired to our hotel to prepare for the New Years Eve white party. I was skeptical at first to spend 700 pesos a person on a party (roughly $60 USD), but after we arrived at the party every ounce of doubt was removed from my mind. They had paper lanterns and sparklers for us to light off on the beach, the paper lanterns floating skyward like fireflies into the cool night air, while we drank sangria, and took group photos, before walking up to a restaurant courtyard area. There we sat at long tables, surrounded by friendly people, a DJ spinning music, skydiving videos playing on a projector screen, and the smell of food grilling floating through the air. The Beer was cold, the conversations warm, and many new friends were made that night, (shout out to all of the Canadians that came out to escape the winter weather!). Some speeches were given, translated into both Spanish and English, and then food was served; And let me tell you, we ate only local food the entire time in Mexico, and the food they served was the second best we have had in all of Mexico! They passed out party favors, hats, tiaras and horns for everyone, as well as champagne and grapes, which might not have been the best idea, because it was a large group of skydivers, and we just can’t have nice things, so it took less than a minute for grapes to begin whizzing through the air followed shortly by tortillas and paper plates! At the stroke of midnight a firework show kicked off, and the party jumped into high gear! It was a beautiful moment as the moon shone brightly overhead, fireworks cracked in the sky, music floated through the air, and everyone was happy and together, not separated by culture, country or language, but united as Skydivers doing what we love. We enjoyed the festivities, hailed a cab, and retired to the hotel for a night of finally sleeping on a real bed, and not curled up in the seat of a car. Our second and final day there, Manifest did not begin operating until around noon, so we had the morning to experience the town, visit the small tiendas, enjoy the food from roadside vendors, and visit the beach. There was much more to do in this little town, and beauty was everywhere you looked, from the fantastic landscapes, architecture of the buildings, to the street art plastered on the alleyways and building around town. We were invited on more jumps, and had more wonderful experiences with the staff and fun jumpers at the boogie. We ate in the cafe on the manifest grounds, our home DZ still has the best kitchen in the world, but the food and service here was a close second. We had awesome jumps that day, and even got to see the awesome staff in action when I landed off on a tracking dive (surprising right?), and saw a cutaway on our jump. Someone was in a boat and grabbed the main and free bag right as they hit the water, and a bus and people on ATV's were there to check on us and give us a ride back to the manifest area before I could even stow my brakes. We made it back, packed, and then set out for a night on the town before we left for home in the morning. EVERYTHING about this boogie ran like a well-oiled machine, the staff of Skydive Cuautla and their volunteers did a phenomenal job of organizing this boogie. The people, all over Mexico, not just at the boogie, were friendly, the facilities were top notch, both the Super Otter and the Sky Van were in incredible condition, loads went up fast, and the altitude was always generous. We have definitely found a new years tradition, and will sing the praises of this boogie to all of our friends. I will be there again this coming new year with bells on! This is one boogie you MUST attend at least once in your lifetime, as you are surely missing a big chunk of your skydiving life if you do not!

Event organizer, Monika Peligro Davalos, dropzone manager, Hector Montaño and the entire staff at Skydive Cuautla outdid themselves hosting another amazing New Year’s Boogie in Mexico! 110 registered skydivers invaded the shores of Puerto Escondido for their 20th Annual New Year’s Boogie. The eleven-day boogie from December 26th – January 7th, brought skydivers from all over Mexico, Austria, USA, Holand, Brazil, Canada, Australia, Peru, France, Spain, Uruguay and Argentina. Organizers were: Fernando Gallegos from Peru, Jose Alejandro “Negro” Novoa from Mexico, Jess Harper from Canada, and Melissa (Nelson) Lowe from the US. Monika Peligro Davalos organized several group dinners, as well as the annual, infamous lagaoon party, and white party that included launching lanterns, a banquet at Hotel Arcoiris with a DJ who spun away pop American music to latin salsa. Puerto Escondido is a remote paradise located on the west coast, far south in Mexico. Not only does Puerto Escondido still feel like Mexico, the drop zone is a paradise itself with flushing toilets, bunkhouses, a café, and a shaded packing area. The drop zone is also beautifully landscaped that adds to the essence of Mexican paradise. From the organized sunset tracking to the early bird 17,000’ jumps to the Mexican hospitality, this has been one boogie to remember. Skydive Cuautla is located an hour from Mexico City and hosts two annual boogies and more information can be found at www.SkydiveCuautla.com

The Christmas New Year's Boogie at Skydive Arizona ran from December 21st to January 1st. The drop zone pulled out all the stops to make sure there was something for absolutely everyone at this year's boogie. The registration fee was only $35 and jump tickets were discounted to $21 for the duration of the event. The boogie fleet included Skydive Arizona's Otters, Skyvans, and the DC3. Burner's Skydive Arizona hot air balloon (High But Dry Balloons) was also available for jumps most mornings and afternoons. The weather was nearly perfect for most of the boogie with afternoon highs frequently reaching the 70s. Load organizers from the Arizona Training Center, Arizona Airspeed, and Arizona Arsenal were on hand for the full event for belly flyers and free flyers, and Sean "Monkey" Horton was available to organize wing suits. The drop zone also hosted numerous skydiving events for those who wanted more structure to their jumping days. These events included an AXIS Flight School B-License Canopy course complete with water training; Women's FS Sequentials with Brianne Thompson (AXIS Flight School) and Sara Curtis (Arizona Arsenal); two 4-Way Days and two Big Way Days with Arizona Airspeed; and a Hybrid Day, a Tracking/Angle Flying Day, a Head Down Formation Day, and an Upright Formation Day with Arizona Arsenal. The fun continued every night after sunset with free boogie beer for all registered jumpers. To help cut down on drinking and driving, Skydive Arizona offered a free shuttle service for boogie participants every night from Christmas to New Year. Evening seminars were offered some evenings including Canopy Flight with AXIS Flight School, Intro to 4-Way FS with Arizona Airspeed, Big-Way Flying with Arizona Airspeed, Tracking/Angle Flying with Arizona Arsenal, and Basics of Free Fly with Arizona Arsenal. The boogie also offered free appetizers on Christmas Eve at the Bent Prop, a Christmas movie night (National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation), a Hypnotist show, a Skyvan Tailgate party (to celebrate the arrival of Skydive Arizona's new Skyvans number six and number seven), an 80s Dance Party, a bonfire and hot dog roast (an annual Skydive Arizona tradition), and a wish lantern release. The biggest hits for evening entertainment were definitely Casino Night and the New Year's Eve Party. The top prize for Casino Night was a trip to Lost Prairie 2014 or the Skydive Arizona Christmas New Year's Boogie 2014 won by Jesse Williams. Other prizes included SkyVenture Arizona tunnel time, Skydive Arizona jump tickets, Bent Prop gift certificates, a Phantom X helmet from Square 2, a balloon jump from High but Dry Balloons, massages from Toltec Wellness Center, and lots of other prizes from Rigging Innovations, Cypress, Bev Suits, Vigil, UPT Vector, and Icarus Canopies. The New Year's Eve Party included free champagne and a balloon drop at midnight. Select balloons contained even more awesome prizes from the sponsers/vendors already mentioned. Overall, a great boogie. Everyone had a chance to relax and have fun but also work on developing their skills in their chosen disciplines. Thanks to all the Skydive Arizona staff for their hard work that made this event run smoothly. And of course thanks so much to the 500 skydivers who came out to play!

The Women’s Vertical World Record [WVWR] attempts brought 95 women from 18 different nations to Skydive Arizona November 26-December 1st. I can’t help but reminisce back ten years ago when Amy Chmelecki and I organized our first WVWR and only had 20+ women from 5 nations. The rise of female participation from 2003 to now has been remarkable However, what makes this event so remarkable, are the women who participate in the journey of making history. We organizers, Amy Chmelecki, Sara Curtis, Anna Moxnes and Domi Kiger and myself, set the stage by hosting camps around the world to help prepare women for this venture. And that’s what it’s about, the journey, not the destination. We were set out to break our own world record of 41. There were many women whose journey’s I was so honored to be a part of, that inspired me in my own journey that I asked three of them to share a bit of their story. Shannon Fitzgerald D’Alessio made her first jump in September 2002 at Skydive Crosskeys. She attended her first WVWR camp I hosted at Skydive Elsinore in October 2012 and said she had the most fun there than in the past ten years of skydiving. “I left the camp feeling energized to improve so I could be on the record the following year.” After she made the resolution, she found out she was pregnant four days later. At age 17, Cathy O’Sullivan did her first jump out of a helicopter but it wasn’t until college days that she did her AFF Course. Cathy jumped off and on but in 2010 she moved Skydive Chicago and decided to seriously pursue learning to freefly. “The WVWR was the perfect goal to set in order to improve my skills and be a part of something amazing.” On June 30th 2013, just a few months before the record attempts, Cathy’s canopy collapsed about 30 feet from the ground from turbulence that left her hospitalized for a week and a broken pelvis/sacrum in four areas. Valentina Solis pulled off the most epic covert move from her parents at the age of 12 – she did her first tandem, without her parents knowing! That moment became much more for than just sneaking away, she knew that she was destined to be a skydiver and in 2007 started her AFF in Mexico. In 2012, Valentina finished her first marathon. Along that journey she met Cathy O’Sullivan and she sent Valentina a link of all the WVWR camp info. She knew then that was to be her goal for 2013. But she was just getting proficient flying on her head. When Shannon learned she was pregnant, she stopped jumping and flying in the tunnel. She did her first jump back after having a healthy baby boy ten months later, when he was 7 weeks old. “I wasn’t sure if I would be ready to participate. I went to the last scheduled WVWR camp in Eloy last Halloween and my flying was not awesome. I was pretty disappointed,” Shannon recalls. She not only had to deal with coping with her uncurrency, she also had to tend to sleepless nights and an enormous amount of energy to nurse her newborn. Cathy helped me organizing logistics during the Summerfest camp at Skydive Chicago, and I would glance at her as I reviewed our jumps. Her eyes were wide open with complete focus, sitting with her legs crossed, leaning forward with her fist under her chin. She had the look of determination. “The goal of the record stayed in the back of my mind. I tried to stay involved and sat in on the WVWR during Summerfest on crutches, and watched the debriefs in an attempt to learn as much as possible from the ground.” Valentina came to my camp in Sebastian for the Invasion Boogie in 2012/2013. I could tell she was a new freeflier, but that’s exactly why we hold camps. “I attended the first camp in Eloy and I realized how hard this actually was, and that is what made me stick to it and train hard,” Valentina said. “My husband Daless supported and encouraged me in every way,” begins Shannon. “He said to me, ‘How cool will it be to tell JD [her son] you’re a world record holder? If you don’t try, you’ll always wonder if you could have made it.’” Shannon’s husband took care of their son while she did more skydive training and the Nor Cal crew worked with her in the tunnel. Cathy’s doctor cleared her to “ease” back into normal activities less than 2 months to the attempts. She used a hanging harness to determine if her pelvis could handle opening shock, did stability drills in the tunnel and a friend organized a big way skills camp so she could get current flying with others. She said, “With the memory of my accident still fresh in my head, there were a lot of issues with fear that I had to learn how to manage as I was trying to ‘ease’ back in the sport. By far, the biggest challenge of getting back into the sport that fast was overcoming the fear of getting hurt again.” Valentina’s journey lead her through intense moments of frustration. She was training in the tunnel and attending big way camps. However digesting huge amounts of information on how to exit and approach formations and applying them were on two different tracks. “For me, the biggest challenge was building my confidence, controlling my emotions and having positive thoughts, despite the frustrations between the good and bad jumps." A world record requires so much focused energy – mentally and physically. It requires you to be your best for the team to succeed. There’s so much pressure and expectation to perform and it is the job of the organizers to select the team to conquer that goal. We organizers said at the initial debrief, “there’s no crying in skydiving. Only when someone dies or you’re at the Grand Canyon.” When the team was selected, Shannon was part of the first attempts, however Cathy and Valentina were not. Shannon explains, “My goal was to have fun and be safe. If I made the record, awesome. If not, I was spending 5 days doing awesome skydives with amazing women. So when my name was called for the first attempt, I was utterly shocked. Followed immediately by nerves and adrenaline.” “Having to tend to a sleepless child and breastfeed was a lot of hard work and controlled chaos. I had to do things that I never imagined would be a part of my skydiving routine. Every morning I would pump in the car while my husband drove me to the dz. I hired a packer, so in between loads I could jet off to the bathroom to pump again. I’d get done just in time for the debrief and dirt dive.” Cathy’s perspective shadowed Shannon’s. “By the time I got to Arizona, I had set my expectations realistically, expecting to be on the B team. I felt the B team was going to be an amazing outcome by itself, and would be valuable training for another record someday.” Valentina explained, “The beginning was very hard for me, as I wasn’t part of the attempts, so I had to keep focused and positive to do my best on the B team. On every jump I thought to myself, ‘this jump is my record and I will make this happen.’” After the first day’s attempts, Shannon was rotated out of the formation. “When Melissa walked towards me, I knew I was cut. I was disappointed, but not surprised. Jumping with the B team was awesome – a relief! I told myself I had nothing to lose, so my goal was to be consistent and solid.” The third day was challenging as the ladies were starting to feel the physical effects of going to 18,000’ for the last few days and facing the mental challenges of repeating the same jump over and over. Since the third day was the last day, we changed the size of the formation from 69 to 65, then 63. We organizers tirelessly reviewing the B teams jumps. “Melissa came up to me and asked if I was ready. I asked, ‘ready for what?’” Cathy recalled. “My initial response was disbelief, then I realized what was happening, then I said, YES!” “Working on being solid on the B team paid off!” Shannon explained. “I got put back onto the attempts!” Shannon kept a mature perspective throughout the changes. She even said to me that she had to concentrate on staying calm in the plane and in the air to control her nerves and focused on small things to improve. “When the final day of the attempts came I was super nervous and stressed, but deep inside I knew I was ready,” Valentina remembers. “One by one I felt I did a very good job on each jump. Then Anna came up to me and said, ‘get ready, you’re in the record.” Day 3, Attempt 12. The core 40 built quickly. The levels were looking good, the energy was there. A small part of the formation exploded and one person flew out, yet the rest of the formation was unaffected and finished building. The troubled section rebuilt and the last dock happened the last second before break-off. We knew we built a new world record! “It feels freaking amazing! I’m still in awe of all the hard core women who made it happen. In such a male dominated sport, I’m proud to be part of a group that reached this level of flying!” explained Shannon. “It’s still a little surreal. When the judges announced that we got the record, the floodgates opened and I literally had tears of joy streaming down my face (which was cool because the record was over and we couldn’t get cut for crying)!” she joked. “I looked around the room at all of the amazing people and was so proud of what we accomplished, and so grateful to be a part of it.” “Words are not enough to express how amazing this whole experience has been! I’m thirsty for more!” Valentina said. The mental strength played a big role for me and this quote became my mantra, “A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch, but on it’s wings. Always believe in yourself.” On every jump, cameraflyer Jason Peters had with him the ashes of our fallen comrade, Stephanie Eggum. The plan was to release her ashes on the world record. Although the judges weren’t in the air to confirm that Attempt #12 was official, through his lens Jason knew without a doubt that we had it and let Stephanie free. So to us organizers, we really built a 64-way. And this is why I keep doing this. The amazing experience, the amazing women, and the amazing ride. This is my 11th World Record, and it just keeps getting better.

Yes, the wingsuiters are at it again - at Newcastle Sport Parachute Club. On the weekend of 21-22 September 2013 Australia's oldest parachute club was the host of one of skydiving's newest disciplines - artistic wingsuit flying. Organised by local wingsuit coach Roger Hugelshofer and artistic competitor Jason Dodunski, the camp focused on building skills for the precise and technical style of flying involved in competitive acrobatic wingsuiting. As we all know, wingsuiting is one of the newest developments in skydiving, but competitive forms of wingsuiting are still in their early stages. While much focus has been on performance flying - flying with the goal of achieving the best glide ratio or forward speed, or lowest descent rate, relative work has also been developing in more formalised directions - these being flocking and artistic flying. Flocking generally involves a number of people flying together, but competitive artistic flying requires a much higher level of precision. An artistic team is one of three jumpers - two performers and a camera flyer. Points are awarded for achieving moves and docks in the same way as other relative work, but moves include barrel rolls, front loops, and up-and-overs (flying up and over your team mate, then docking on their opposite hand). The camera person is also judged on their ability to keep the subjects in frame, and using creative methods of shooting such as backflying. In fact, camera can be considered to be the most demanding role Since the competition is judged on the footage, no matter how good the performing flyers are, if they move out of the frame 'it didn't happen'. Roger and Jason had much advice to give on how the competition works. Fresh from placing second in the intermediate division at the International Artistic Wingsuit Games at Skydive Texel in the Netherlands with his team Jetstream (also including Ben Futterleib and Leon Hunt) Roger is now focusing very much on artistic wingsuit flying in his jumping. Jason also recently competed with Roger, as part of the team Can’t Fly at the Australian Nationals – which they won. With generous support from the APF (thanks APF!) the day was planned with the idea of mixing the teams up and allowing everyone to have their turn at performing or flying camera. We were ready at 8.30am and totally amped. Soon we had a load together with the crew all parcelled up into 3-ways, including well known local hardcores Trent Conroy, Dallas Drury, Paul Munro, Sarah Hughes, Zoran Stopar, Jake Bresnehan, Kieran Turner, Jason and myself. Roger was absent for some time but we forgave him eventually as he was teaching two first First Flight Courses. After the first load we had a lot of great footage of our three groups, which was then debriefed by Roger and Jason. The initial focus was on ‘simple’ moves like docking and barrel rolls. For the camera person the obvious task is to get both the jumpers in frame, but from there the job takes on a more technical aspect. It’s not as easy as it sounds keeping two wingsuiters in frame when one is falling faster than the other one, then slower, then faster again. It is here that repeated jumps with the same teammates really pays off. Like everything else in skydiving, practise really does make perfect, or at least it gets you to screw up less than everyone else does. For the artistic wingsuit flyers it means that they achieve a much greater level of precision – speeding up docks, adjusting to fly more efficiently with each other in order to have more ‘working time’, and being able to learn more advanced manoeuvres like carving, fruity loops, the Howling Hobbit and Jabba’s Moist Sail Barge (actually one of these is made up). For camera flyers it means being able to anticipate their team mates, know how much height they’ll lose in transitions, and adjust their framing accordingly. What I like most about artistic wingsuit flying is that it offers a challenging way of flying with precision. Getting into a wingsuit for the first time can be an amazing feeling of freedom, suddenly having the ability to stay up in the sky for twice as long – the feeling of precise control and of the different speeds both forward and downwards that can be achieved can lead a new wingsuiter to think they’ve suddenly found the pot of beer at the end of the skydiving rainbow. However, once beyond the basic safety skills that are needed to complete a Wingsuit Crest (or your local equivalent), it’s easy to lose focus on the more technical and precise aspects of the sport. Just flying along with one or two of your buddies a few metres away can make it seem like you have everything under control – but not until you try and dock with them do you realise that there is a whole new level of skill available to tackle. On top of that, this style of flying is best done in a beginner/intermediate suit as the extent of the surface area on the larger suits means that transitions more difficult – so it’s yet another awesome use for your first wingsuit. The recent Wingsuit Artistic Camp was a resounding success for all involved, we all learnt a lot about the discipline, and had a ton of fun. Massive thanks to Roger, Jason and the team at Newcastle Sport Parachute Club for another awesome weekend. I’d like to encourage any wingsuiters to give artistic and acrobatic flying a red-hot go. Being able to fly relatively and consistently with someone else is just the beginning. Training for precision by practising docking will translate to tighter, more consistent flocking abilities, and learning acrobatic manoeuvres will also help prepare you for the inevitable moments instability that we must prepare for as wingsuiters (often caused by bad exits). Not to mention, if you practise, practise and practise, there are local and international competitions to win – so get up there and get into it!

Lately, my mantra has been, “It’s about the journey, not the destination.” It reminds me that I miss the best things when I’m in a hurry. It reminds me to feel the wind on my face and enjoy the company I’m surrounded in. The destination is just a bonus, because when you get there, a new journey begins. In 2003, Amy Chmelecki and I set out to gather the best women freefliers to set a Women’s Vertical World Record (WVWR) at Skydive Arizona. We spent a few months putting together our first big-way camps, and taught ourselves all the ‘behind-the-scenes’ work to put on such a feat. In those days, there weren’t very many lady freefliers. We had no idea what outcome to expect, but we walked away breaking several records during that event, ending up with a 16-way. Now, ten years later, October 24-26, 2013, Chemeleki and Sara Curtis hosted the last official WVWR camp before the official attempts on November 27th – December 1st – again at Skydive Arizona. Thirty girls in total came out from all over the country to sharpen their skills, build their endurance, and train for a goal. Chmelecki and Curtis lead the team beginning with 2-plane shots from the get-go. The plan was to launch a 6-way base with 2 breaking in. I helped as plane captain in the trail plane and we worked out our exit order, sight picture, dive and break off. It was a beautiful day and the nerves were setting in. The large base proved to be a challenge, but once it built it was solid and the formation would grow. A few jumps later the base peaked and had a hard time holding. At the end of the day, Chmelecki and Curtis were at the drawing board reengineering the dive. The second day had better hopes. The girls were riding the wave of energy, being happy for success on one jump, and not on another. The reengineered skydive wasn’t working as best thought. Some dives were clean, others were not. Slots were being switched around. New plane, new exit, new sight picture. The stress and fatigue was settling in. Not every dive goes to plan, so being able to cope with the base turning, planes not being tight enough in formation, over floating or breaking off too early, was a great platform of learning. It provided a real perspective on how world record jumps flow. The 138-way co-ed Vertical World Record took 3 days and 15 jumps to achieve. No matter what happened on the last dive, you still had to do your best on the next one. The organizers decided to go with a 6-way base on the last day, and use the same formation as the current 41-way WVWR. This seemed to work out a few kinks and the group improved. The last 3 jumps we went to 16,500’ and used oxygen – another great experience prior the record attempts. The group consistently built several successful 20+ ways throughout the camp. As I think back about the journey, although we didn’t build 30+ ways, in 2007 the current WVWR record was only 20! We’ve come such a long way and are still growing! The desert was turning cool as the sun met the horizon. We went up for our last jump right before sunset. The lead plane was silhouetted as they flew in formation up to altitude. In the trail plane, we put our hands into the center and I said, “this is the last camp before the record. You should be really proud of how far you’ve come to get here. Keep it simple: level, slot, dock. And be safe!” The energy lifted and we went out and had the best jump of the camp! It’s been a year and a half of training women getting ready for the upcoming record. It takes a lot of time and money to get to this point in your skydiving career, and the journey isn’t always easy. In August we lost a comrade, Stephanie Eggum, and I think of her often. I think about our journey that has gotten us all together for this common goal. Skydiving has taken away so much from me, but it has also given me so much. Meeting new women in skydiving has inspired me to keep progressing in the sport, the World Record is just a bonus.

Skydive Orange. Nestled in the countryside of the historic town of Orange, Virginia. The town’s old Silk Mill was one of the major producers of parachute cloth for World War II. However, what we skydivers know Orange for is the drop zone’s annual Skydive Orange Boogie and this year’s theme was tight and bright! A little over a year after completion, the annual boogie was held under their new hangar which held the 228 registered jumpers. Like many skydiving centers going from the historic barnstorming-type hangars, Skydive Orange’s new hangar is one to boast about: tons of indoor, padded packing space; large flat-screen TV’s for debriefs; and nice, clean bathrooms! The short-lived weather holds and weather forecasts did not detour many. Over the three-day boogie there were 1,129 jumps made from a super otter, CASA and R44 Helicopter. RW Organizers Kirk Verner, local Jim Smith and Joost Luysterburg kept all levels from big ways to beginner 4-way formations. Freefly organizers Matt Fry and myself did everything from tube jumps, beginner head down, angled and tracking jumps. And Andreea Olea and Cristopher Kotscha fed the birds wingsuit flocks all weekend. Undoubtedly Skydive Orange has a colorful tradition – awesome themed parties! These parties are the not-to-be-missed. This is where the sexy, the weird, the questionable and the creative deck it out in some ridiculous threads – or lack thereof! And for historical purposes, stripping down and laying the numbers (if this doesn’t make sense, it means you need to go and find out next year)! Quotes from random jumpers, “Memories of glow sticks flying through the air, and a glowing figure decked out lit up in Christmas lights running down the runway…” “Some idiot tried to take a ghost pepper challenge. And lost horribly! He was gracious enough to run and hurl outside the Tiki Bar though.” Ghost pepper one, Mike Norton zero. Props to DJ Ron Douglass, who tirelessly spun rhythm and bass until, more or less the next day. Skydive Orange ran like clockwork: smooth operators. This goes with the efforts of many who are up early and up late making sure the planes are fueled, jumpers and manifested and registered, organizers are fed, bathrooms are cleaned, planes are flown and everything in between. Props go to: the manifest crew, pilots, loaders, Liz Kang-event organizer, load organizers, Barclay & Collins band and the vendors who donated prizes: L&B;, Paraclete, Aerodyne, Join, Vertical, Liquid Sky, Blue Skies Magazine, Tony Suits and Cookie; to the vendors who came out: Chuting Star, Icarus, Sunpath, Birdman, Invertica and Liquid Sky.

Bartholomew wins Canopy Piloting Triple Crown, Hernandez earns European Canopy Piloting Championship & Windmiller sets new Speed World Record at the 7th FAI World Cup of Canopy Piloting They say there’s no rest for the weary and the pros at the FAI 7th World Cup in Canopy Piloting & 3rd European Championships were ready for battle as the competition got underway Wednesday. The World Cup in Kolomna, Russia is the third major Canopy Piloting championship in the past two months and while some began the competition with an eye on sweeping the three events, others arrived ready for redemption. 7th FAI World Cup of Canopy Piloting: This leg of the competition season has seen the same 4 competitors battling for the top spot time and again: Team Alter Ego’s Curt Bartholomew and Nick Batsch versus the PD Factory Team’s Tommy Dellibac and Pablo Hernandez. However, 76 other pros arrived in Kolomna ready to take over. Day 1 - Speed & Distance There was no playing around during Day 1 when competitors completed 6 rounds of the competition and closed the day with a new Speed World Record and a tight point spread between the top 15 competitors. US Army’s Greg Windmiller (USA), began the competition with three Speed World Records listed in his resume and would add one more to the list before the first day was halfway over. With a speed of 2.371 in the final Speed round, he became a 4th time Canopy Piloting Speed World Record Holder. The field quickly shifted to Distance, and another World Record would be challenged in the first round with Skydive Dubai’s Cornelia Mihai (UAE) setting a new Female Distance World Record after flying 138.54 meters. Curt Bartholomew (USA) flying his canopy 154.02 meters was only .07 meters short of teammate Nick Batsch’s current world record of 154.09 meters. Batsch, however, would continue to dominate the Distance rounds, ultimately besting Bartholomew and the UAE’s Billy Sharman. Day 2 - Zone Accuracy Rounds 1 & 2 The field awoke on Day 2 with expectations of an intense 3 jumps, with the scores so close that anyone in the top 15 could still podium. Bartholomew would broaden his lead over the other competitors with a 91 score (100 points) in the first round and a perfect 100 score in the 2nd round, which would be the only perfect 100 scored by any competitor throughout both completed rounds. After the second round, Bartholomew was comfortably in first by nearly 60 points, leaving Dellibac to protect his silver standing from Sharman and the rest of the top 15, who were all within striking distance should they outscore him in the last and final jump. Event organizers had planned to complete the competition on Day 2, but only about half of the field were able to complete the final round before a weather hold stopped the competition for the day. The competitors arrived the next morning ready to complete the final round, but would end up spending two days waiting on weather to clear to finish that final Zone Accuracy Round. With weather forecasts not showing a promising window, event organizers called the competition complete Saturday afternoon without the final round of Zone Accuracy. The World Cup of Canopy Piloting victory gives Bartholomew what is known as the Canopy Piloting Triple Crown - the current champion of the World Cup, World Canopy Piloting Championship and the World Games. Overall Winners: Gold: Curt Bartholomew (USA) Silver: Tommy Dellibac (USA) Bronze: Billy Sharman (UAE) Speed Medalist: Gold: Curt Bartholomew (USA) Silver: Tommy Dellibac (USA) Bronze: Billy Sharman (UAE) Distance Medalists: Gold: Nick Batsch (USA) Silver: Billy Sharman (UAE) Bronze: Curt Bartholomew (USA) Zone Accuracy Medalists: Gold: Curt Bartholomew (USA) Silver: Pablo Hernandez (ESP) Bronze: Dominic Roithmair (AUT) 3rd FAI European Canopy Piloting Championship In addition to the World Cup events, 43 competitors were also vying for the title of European CP Champion. Hernandez would lead the field following a comanding lead in Zone Accuracy, followed by Brice Bernier (FRA) and Dominic Roithmair (AUT). Overall Winners: Gold: Pablo Hernandez (ESP) Silver: Brice Bernier (FRA) Bronze: Dominic Roithmair (AUT) Distance Medalists: Gold: David Maleze (FRA) Silver: Roman Dubsky (SVK) Bronze: Johan Karlsson (SWE) Speed Medalists: Gold: Brice Bernier (FRA) Silver: Peter Kallehave (DEN) Bronze: David Maleze (FRA) National and World Records Several new World and National records were set throughout the competition, showing the continued push in the discipline as competitors are going further, faster and harder. World Records: Speed: - Greg Windmiller (USA): 2.371 seconds Distance - Female: - Cornelia Mihai (UAE): 138.54 meters National Records: Speed: - Netherlands National Speed Record: Erwin Baatenburg de Jong: 2.505 seconds - Sweden National Speed Record: Johan Karlsson: 2.503 seconds - Norway National Speed Record: Barton Hardie: 2.686 seconds Distance: - United States of America National Distance Record - Female Jessica Edgeington: 136.49 meters - Netherlands National Distance Record: Erwin Baatenburg de Jong: 130.95 meters - Sweden National Distance Record: Johan Karlsson: 131.36 meters - Norway National Distance Record: Barton Hardie: 130.24 meters One more international Canopy Piloting event is scheduled for 2013, the 4th Dubai International Parachuting Championship from November 27 to December 10.

Teamwork: work done by several associates with each doing a part but all subordinating personal prominence to the efficiency of the whole. Have you ever been a part of a team? Felt the pressure of performing? Emotionally and physically put your efforts on the line for a common goal? That’s what we did August 1st – 3rd – a group of 23 women from Mexico, Canada, Dubai, Sweden and all over the US converged to participate in the Women’s Vertical World Camp hosted by myself in the cornfields of Skydive Chicago during Summerfest. This is one of several camps in preparation of the upcoming Women’s Vertical World Record attempts to be held November 27th – December 1st at Skydive Arizona. The specialty of this camp was designed so women could experience 2-plane shots, practicing different exits, flying in a formation, and on the last day, attempt to break a state record. (The current Illinois Women’s Vertical Formation State Record an 18-way set in 2005.) Every camp faces their own set of unique challenges – cutaways, fatigue, nerves, etc. Our camp especially did. Participant, and overall badass, Stephanie Eggum died from a low reserve deployment on our 3rd jump of the first day of the camp. An hour later after the news digested, we re-grouped. I asked, “I’m going to jump. Does anyone want to join me?” Unsure how to move on, the entire group agreed they were ready to jump. “Then we’re going to do 2-plane shots.” Some gentleman jumpers joined in to be the base and grew our group to practice 30+ ways. Each jump a special camaraderie was developing even though our jumps only yielded 19 to 20-ways. The next day we awoke to cloudy skies, but met to discuss the finer techniques of formation skydiving including exit techniques, showing videos from the current 138-way co-ed Vertical World Record, talking about the mental and physical aspects and what it takes to get on a world record skydive. We also took this time to introduce ourselves, state our home dz, jump numbers and goals. Not too much later the skies started clearing and we were back up doing 2-plane shots. After lunch the camp’s direction shifted gears in selecting a group to break the state record. “This is where it gets emotional,” I began. “It’s not political or playing favorites. This is about being a team. Even if you’re not selected to be on the record, you’re still as much a part of this team. Our goal is to build the safest, largest state record.” We finished the day building 14-ways. Saturday’s weather couldn’t have been more picture perfect – high, puffy clouds, light winds, and 70°F temps. There was an intense feeling as we walked together as a group to the skyvan. We were 20. The plane ride up began with clapping, the silence. From the first day till now, some of the women weren’t ready to build a 20-way. But now, they stood at the door with the experience and skills to be a part of a team, to build a record. We huddled around 11,000’ and I said, “I know you can do this, that’s why you’re here. Now you have to know it too. Be safe and let’s build a record!” The skyvan door opened and I could feel my own heart beating faster. I smiled, “Ready, set go!” The formation didn’t build on the first jump. Nor the second or third. I re-engineered the formation and we tried again. No success. I re-engineered it again. By this time, the whole drop zone was rooting for us. Spectators watched us intently with awe as we’d board the plane and greet us when we landed asking if we were successful. Although each jump wasn’t successful, something greater was happening – we were truly becoming the essence of a team. It’s easy to go up and do one jump and be successful. But can you do it over and over? Especially after two days of an intense camp, lack of sleep and having lost a comrade? We really had to dig deep for the energy and motivation; we had to keep doing our best even when we were doing our job and others weren’t; we had to be patient and keep moving forward. The sun was low on the horizon and the temperatures were slightly dropping. We huddled together on the ground in support of each other. “I believe in you girls. Level, slot, dock. Be safe, let’s do this!” We cheered loudly as we got on the skyvan. We clapped, hooted and hollered on take-off and became quiet with focus. “No pressure, but now there’s pressure. This is the last jump of the camp and our last attempt. Stay focused. Stay safe. Let’s build it!” We exited cleanly. The stingers were docking. Wackers were building. Levels were awesome. The formation was flying! When we landed we ran to each other because the dive just felt so good. It felt so good we were unsure if we made the state record. We smiled, laughed, high fived and hugged. In that moment, it didn’t matter if we built it or not. We knew how much we progressed as a team and that was our best jump together! After reviewing the video, we saw we were super close to building the formation, but at the last moment, ditters were going off and we broke off. So close!! At the close of the camp I didn’t feel defeated. I was lucky to have a great group of girls who stuck by each other’s sides, improved their flying, and was so determined that we embraced the real spirit of teamwork. And in that, we were successful. My heart goes out to the Eggum family. Your daughter was determined to be on the next Women’s Vertical World Record. We will remember her during the attempts. Much respect. This camp’s success also goes with having to give praise to the many who helped make it happen: Mike Bohn from Colorado came out to assist in the camp as a coach Camera: Norman Kent, Jim Harris, Brandon Chouinard (To view or orders from Summerfest, please check out Norman Kent’s gallery here: http://www.normankent.com/photogallery-eventphotos-summerfest2013) BASE BOYS: James Garnant, Ben Roane, Paul Jones, BJ Miclaeli, Pat Collins, Dennis Cowhey, Ryan Risberg, and Doug Legally WVWR Camp Participanats: Melissa Nelson – Utah Hermine Baker – Sweden Julie Wittenburg - Dubai Amberly Brown – Hawaii Cate Allington – New York Stacy Powers – Pennsylvania Helen D’Astous – Canada Katie Blue – Texas Logan Donovan – New York Noelle Mason – Florida Stephanie Eggum - Illinois Kelly Isenhoff - Tennessee Valentina Solis – Mexico Natalie Pitts – Colorado Tyfani Detki – Florida Emily Royal – Missouri Amy Cowhey – Illinois Paula Rodrigues – Mexico Jen Sensenbaugh – Texas Jen Frayer - Indiana Alyssa Manny – Colorado Stephanie Beeguer - Switzerland Lauren Piscatelli – North Carolina

What: Skydive Moab’s ninth-annual skydiving festival When: Sept. 26-30, 2012 Where: Skydive Moab (Canyonlands Airport off Highway 191) Cost: $15-$45 registration fee; $200-$235 per tandem jump More info: Tandem skydives, fun jumps, beautiful scenery, and nightly parties Get ready to free-fall over one of the most spectacular landscapes in the country! Beginning Wednesday, Sept. 26, Skydive Moab is hosting its ninth-annual Mother of All Boogies (M.O.A.B.), a five-day festival inviting thrill-seekers from across the globe to experience skydiving at its finest. First-time jumper? Accomplished skydiver? No matter your experience level, Skydive Moab welcomes individuals age 18 and older to revel in all M.O.A.B. has to offer. Jump with a professional tandem instructor or maximize your number of skydives as a fun jumper. View Arches and Canyonlands National Parks from 17,500 feet MSL, enjoy four- to seven-minute canopy rides overlooking the La Sal Mountains and the Colorado River, and top off the excitement with an array of nightly festivities. In collaboration yet again with Skydive Arizona, SkyVenture Colorado and a number of exceptional coordinators, Skydive Moab plans to deliver an unforgettable 2012 Boogie for approximately 150 participants. What to look forward to this yearUnlike past Boogies, however, this year’s festivities will begin on Wednesday. For $235, tandem students can jump and land at the Moab airport—a perfect location for taking in the beautiful desert scenery. Deduct $35 if you have jumped with Skydive Moab before, and ask about deals for locals, which are available during the festival and all year long. C-licensed skydivers (those with at least 200 recorded jumps) can also take advantage of this extra day to experience more remote areas of Moab. What better way to kick off the Boogie than with specialty jumps from a Cessna 182 into Caveman Ranch, a scenic site with its own runway along the Colorado River. The adrenaline will pick up again on Thursday morning with the arrival of a Skyvan and Super Otter provided by Skydive Arizona. Offering space for 22 skydivers per load, these aircrafts can accommodate individuals who prefer to jump in large groups or alongside friends and family: a perfect photo op for those interested in recording their exhilarating Boogie memories. Videos and pictures are available for purchase at Skydive Moab. In addition to the thousands of words’ worth of pictures taken, some of the finest organizers in the world of gravity-defying sports will be attending this year’s Boogie. Licensed jumpers and tandem students alike are sure to have a memorable jumping experience with help from coordinators specializing in all-that-is-skydiving. Skydive overload? M.O.A.B.ites can reflect on day two of jumping over delicious beer and grub at the Moab Brewery on Thursday night. But they’ll be at it again Friday morning. Boogie members interested in harnessing up with a tandem master can skydive at the airport all day long (until, of course, they’ve worked up an appetite). On Friday night, paid participants can celebrate another successful day of jumping with barbeque and a bonfire all night long. That’s right—Skydive Moab will be feeding all hungry adrenaline junkies for FREE. And things are bound to get heated with a spectacular fire show performed by Moab’s own Pyromancy. For all you fun jumpers out there, Friday evening will consist of skydives into spectacular Castle Valley. Surrounded by 1,500-foot red cliff walls and 13,000-foot mountain peaks, Castle Valley offers C-licensed jumpers yet another view of the incredible Moab scenery. The airport party continues through the weekend with—well, more skydiving (obviously), as well as a $10 feast and a little rock and roll. Saturday’s entertainment will be provided by the very talented Stonefed, a local blues band sure to bring the funk. The last of the boogieing will take place on Sunday, Sept. 30. Can’t attend all five days? No problem. Skydive Moab offers a $15 one-day pass for those with limited time in the area. Not just skydivingAttention fun jumpers: Free camping is available at the airport, or for you spelunkers out there, Caveman Ranch is providing unique hospitality for $50 per night. Its eight available caves are located 39 miles south of the airport. Visit www.cavemanranch.com for more information on this one-of-a-kind opportunity. Furthermore, M.O.A.B. participants with time permitting are encouraged to explore the plethora of other local activities and businesses. A world-renowned mecca for outdoor sports such as mountain biking, jeeping, base jumping and rock climbing, Moab also caters to the southwestern aficionado with its distinctive restaurants and galleries. Founded by Clint MacBeth in November 2003, Skydive Moab now claims over 30,000 recorded skydives, including tandem, sport and student jumps. Upholding its stellar reputation in the skydiving world, Skydive Moab also boasts the title of Best Scenic Cessna Drop Zone in the country. Bestowed by Blue Skies Magazine’s 2010 reader-poll, this accolade recognized Skydive Moab for its state-of-the-art piston-powered aircraft. Safety is priority number one at Skydive Moab. Jumpers can rest assured that they are in good hands, as the drop zone prides itself in using the most advanced equipment on the market, including Automatic Activation Devices (AADs) and United Parachute Technologies Sigma rigs. Helping to maintain Skydive Moab’s outstanding reputation are tandem masters Pat Martin and Jimmy Peterson, along with pilot Chris Garrison and FAA-certified rigger Greg Stone. The staff members have been acknowledged on numerous accounts for their welcoming attitudes, excellent proficiencies and entertaining performances. Enthusiastic about his role at Skydive Moab, Peterson states, “I have the best job in the world, and I love sharing the sport with new people every day.” Drawing on a combined expertise of over 75 years in the business, as well as more than 10,000 successful tandem jumps, Skydive Moab ensures a safe and comfortable experience for skydivers of all skill levels. And the customers agree. In addition to the numerous online testimonies, on-site customers have expressed their great satisfaction and appreciation, offering “sincere thanks to Skydive Moab. Your prep time made us feel like a friend!” Recognized for going above and beyond in training and prepping its clients, it’s no wonder Skydive Moab is the most referred skydiving center in Utah. First-time jumpers Shelly Steadman and Erek Burek even heard about Skydive Moab on a Colorado radio station. Although nervous at first, the marketing manager and software technician from Grand Junction were beyond pleased with their experience at Skydive Moab. “Not only were the views spectacular,” Burek said, “the operation went so smoothly and the staff did a wonderful job of keeping us calm and prepping us for our first jumps.” Steadman noted her “impressive stand-up landing,” stating that “the instructors were awesome” and “we would definitely recommend Skydive Moab to our friends!” Experience the hype for yourself by registering for Skydive Moab’s ninth-annual Mother of All Boogies festival. Skilled jumpers will pay $45 for all five days of fun, including the food, fire show, live music, and top-of-the-line airplanes not normally found in Moab. Tandem students and spectators are also welcome to join in the festivities. Come boogie with some of the best in the business! For more details or to register for M.O.A.B., visit www.skydivemoab.com or call 435-259-5867. Spots are limited.

Fredericksburg, VA (April 6, 2012) - Mark your calendars for November 9 - 11 to be at Skydive Arizona (Eloy) for the 2012 National Skydiving Museum Weekend and Hall of Fame Celebration. The weekend's activities will focus on the “Birth of Formation Skydiving - The Star Crest Recipient Award” with the highlight of the weekend Saturday evening when seven skydiving legends will join 17 others into the museum's Hall of Fame. More than 300 people from around the world are expected to join in the festivities and the event is expected to bring in more than $125,000 to support building the museum. The activities start Friday morning and include exhibit displays with some of the rich history of the sport, a theatre featuring great skydiving footage, and a special display on the history of the Star Crest Recipient Awards (SCR). Throughout the weekend, a group of large-formation skydivers will be building 64-way formations to commemorate the birth of relative work. For those looking to share skydiving memories and catch up with old friends, the “Pioneers Lounge” sponsored by Pope Valley Parachute Ranch will serve as reunion headquarters. On Friday evening there will be a BBQ where Bill Newell, Jerry Bird and others will share stories about the SCR Awards program and its contributions to the sport. The culmination of the weekend will be the Hall of Fame reception and dinner Saturday evening presented by the Parachute Industry Association. The 2012 inductees are Carl Boenish (posthumous); Bob Buquor (posthumous); Claude Gillard; Craig Girard; Dan Poynter; and Hank (posthumous) and Muriel Simbro. The Hall of Fame recognizes and honors those, who through leadership, innovation and/or outstanding achievements have defined, promoted, inspired and advanced skydiving at the highest and sustained levels in the past, present and for future generations of skydivers. Seating is limited at the dinner so make your reservations early. Skydive Arizona™, located half way between Phoenix and Tucson, is the premier place for skydivers of all skill levels. With Arizona's beautiful weather, one of the largest aircraft fleets, amazing facilities and the largest drop zone in the world, Skydive Arizona has the ability to offer more sun, more fun and more jumps. This skydiving resort has become a mecca for the skydiving community! The fundraiser will benefit the National Skydiving Museum's $6-million capital program that will raise the necessary funds to build the museum in Fredericksburg, VA. The museum has already acquired the land that is situated adjacent to the U.S. Parachute Association. When completed, the 15,000 square foot National Skydiving Museum will recognize and promote the sport of skydiving through public education and awareness; recognize the contribution to skydiving by its participants, suppliers and supporters; capture forever the history of the sport through is events, equipment and personalities; and enhance aviation safety as it pertains to skydiving. It is expected the museum will draw visitors from throughout the world to experience the thrill of skydiving through its history of people, equipment and events. The National Skydiving Museum is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporation governed by a Board of Trustees. For more information and to register for the National Skydiving Museum Weekend and Hall of Fame celebration, visit www.skydivingmuseum.org or contact museum administrator, Nancy Kemble, at 540-604-9745 or [email protected]. There are also a variety of sponsorship opportunities available for the event to show your support.

Bodyflight Bedford, the World's largest indoor skydiving wind tunnel once again plays host to the World Challenge - two heated competitions of Freefly and Formation flying. The Bodyflying competition attracts athletes from around the globe to pitch their flying skills against each other in a bid to win some of the £20,000 cash prize pot. The ex-MOD wind tunnel was built in the 1950s as an aerodynamics research facility. Its use was relatively short-lived and the site was converted by Nottinghamshire businessman, Paul Mayer into a new leisure attraction, opening its doors to the public in September 2005. LAST YEARJust seven months since its opening, the first Bodyflight Bedford World Challenge took place in April 2006. After a hard fought battle, Formation Skydiving champions, Airspeed Odyssey from the US took first place in the Formation event, walking away with £4,000. Second place was awarded to Belgium's national team, Spa Hayabusa who took home £2,000; the Swedish based Team 42 took third place with £1,500 and Fast & Furious from Italy snatched fourth place and £500. Teams were enjoying the fast turn around and trying to make the most of their 35 seconds working time, which kicked off as soon as the first team member went through an entry door. The Judges were scoring via DVD recorded from the overhead cam. With 12 teams entered, each round took approx 15 minutes to complete! On Sunday, Freeflyers took over. There were 11 teams entered the competition. The 2-way freefly competition was also run along the same lines as international skydiving events. Element-R (Cathy Bouetter & Fabian Raidel) were crowned the winners and received £4,000, second place and £2,000 was awarded to Babylon (Fred & Vince), Mamba Airkix (Joao Tambor & Mike MacKenzie) walked away with third place and £1,500 with £500 and fourth place being given to The Joe & Carlos Show (Joe Winters & Carlos Euribe). Cathy Bouette of Element-R said, "Winning the competition was such a big surprise for Fabian and I because Joe & Carlos are known as the 'Tunnel Kings' and won the last wind tunnel competition in the US! I could not believe it! We had the chance to train a little a couple weeks before to get our two routines solid for the competition!" "Each team had a 5-minute warm up before the start of the competition. Rounds 1, 3, 4, 6 & 7 were Free Rounds where we were able to show whatever you want and try to impress the judges for 60 seconds. We practiced 2 Free Routines trying to be as smooth as possible with a smile - and on time! Rounds 2 & 5 were Compulsories. They picked 5 randoms out of 8, separating Belly/Back & Sit/Head Down because of the speed changes. The judges seemed to be fairly happy, giving us high scores for the last round. I really, really enjoyed this event - and as my 1st tunnel competition, it didn't turn out so bad! It was such a privilege to fly with Fabian, he is really an amazing flyer with great energy! "There was a very nice atmosphere during this weekend from all the participants and organizers. I really like the fact that it is mixed, not only between men and women but also nationalities. Such a nice feeling to be flying, looking at people's faces on the other side of the window! It's kind of like being on stage, it gives you more energy than being by yourself in the big blue sky! For me especially, seeing the smile on my parents' faces before each round." THIS YEAROn 7-8 April 2007 Bodyflight will again host a competition of two categories; both of which are 'Open' so allowing a broad spectrum of flyers to enter and compete against each other. This year twice as many teams will be able to take part, up to 30 in each category! Both events will be run concurrently over both days with a celebratory party afterwards. As added excitement, participants in the Freefly category will be setting two of their free routines to music. Pre-edited tracks will be available for them to use or they may create their own. This state of the art progression will allow Freeflying teams to go that step further and express themselves by dancing to music in mid-air. Following the success of this first ever World Challenge and the overwhelming interest shown by the skydiving community, this year's event promises to be a must in the sporting calendar. Teams are invited to apply for a place in the Challenge online at www.worldchallenge.info