Articles

2013 | General

• 

  Jun 30

  Tips for Skydiving in Cold Weather

  Ahhhh - the chill is in the air.....back to school, crisp mornings, the early sunsets.....that's right. It's that time of year again. While it can be comforting to not be sweating all day, when we are not jumping - the weather is perfect. A nice warm sweater does the trick. But how cold is it at altitude for your first...

• 

  Jun 15

  Falling vs Flying

  So, you've done your AFF/AFP levels, you were maintained in a small area of the sky thanks to your instructor(s) and did a few turns and such. From there - you had the sky all to yourself while you did your solo's and then worked a little bit with a coach. You have all of the fundamentals now to make...

• 

  May 30

  Let’s Talk About Tracking

  This is a very important topic - so I'd like to break it down into pieces - and then tie it all in together again in the end. It is an extremely important topic in this sport - yet one that is often done incorrectly and/or neglected, yet has so many moving parts to it - that it warrants a...

• 

  May 15

  Arrive Alive – 10 Tips To Keep You Alive

  Below is a piece that was not originally mine - but I couldn't have said it better myself. It is riddled with knowledge so I felt obligated to pass it on....I'd added in my own two cents here and there - so hopefully you have some good take-aways from this. Skydiving is a sport where you never stop learning. Even...

• 

  May 01

  Balancing Skydiving and Life

  There is a reason that people who crave that rush of adrenaline that skydiving and other extreme activities brings are called adrenaline "junkies". After a while, it becomes like an addiction. How many times have you smiled and nodded politely after hearing about someone's first time skydiving as they excitedly rambled on about it? You know it's the only thing...

• 

  Apr 15

  Let’s Talk about Patterns

  What is a Pattern and Why Do We Have Them? The primary reason for a pattern is so that everyone in the pattern knows what everyone else is doing. If you see someone flying opposite landing direction, they are flying downwind, and will soon be turning base. You can fly above them or downwind of them without risk of collision....

• 

  Apr 01

  Having Fun as a Couple: Skydiving Together

  Having Fun as a Couple: Skydiving Together OK, well not as a couple per se', but as a team of "two". Two-ways are a great way to start weaning yourself into the fun of skydiving after you completed all of your AFF solo's. You did a bunch of solo's, but now what? Pick a partner and start having some two-way...

• 

  Mar 15

  Skydiving with an Action Camera

  Skydiving is such an exhilarating experience, wouldn't you want to capture it on video so you can relive it whenever you want? For many tandem students, your jump is a once and a lifetime experience. Between the adrenaline - emotions - excitement you are feeling, chances are you will look back at your video for some time to come trying...

• 

  Mar 01

  What is Jump Run?

  Jump Run has always been a little pet peeve of mine. Not the "term" or "function of it" per se', just the lack of explanation of it. We're all on the plane ride up, talking, laughing, discussing our dives - but how many of us actually look out the window and pay attention to the way the plane is flying?...

• 

  Feb 15

  Buying Your First Rig: What To Know

  Every first jump course there is a student that just completed their training tandems, does their first level 1, and then starts scouring the dropzone sites looking for their own gear. This itch to have their own gear only gets enhanced further once they finish their levels and have to pay for gear rental. Trust us when we tell you,...

• 

  Feb 01

  Learning To FreeFly

  If one wants to truly strive to become an excellent freeflyer, honesty is the key. If one cannot be honest with one's own skills or another skydiver's skills, digression and possibly disaster are the results. If there are individuals teaching freeflying who are not truly proficient, but who claim to be, the progress of a student is marginalized. When we...

• 

  Jan 15

  Skydiving Fun Facts

  Skydiving Fun Facts 1. Captain Kittinger recorded the highest skydive from a height of almost 102,800 feet, in 1960. Kittinger descended for almost 85,000 feet freefalling at a speed of 715 mph, before deploying his parachute. Update: In the desert surrounding Roswell, N.M., on Sunday, Baumgartner broke Kittinger's world record for the highest and fastest free fall. UPDATE: Felix Baumgartner...

• 

  Jan 02

  The History of Skydiving

  While the use of parachutes dates all the way back to 1100 in China, the activity we call "skydiving" can be most directly linked to France in the late 18th century. Skydiving has come a long way from the beginning of parachuting, which dates all the way back to 10th century China. The activity we know today is more closely...