Air sports suffered an enormous loss yesterday; Eli Thompson lost his life doing a wingsuit jump in Switzerland. The Red Bull guys have a memorial to him here: redbullairforce.com/2009/08/eli-thompson-1973-2009. We send his wife Sarah, two daughters and soon-to-be son our condolences and prayers.
We’d like to publish a look at Eli’s life and contributions to the sports of skydiving and BASE jumping for the October issue—contact us at lara@blueskiesmag.com if you have anything you’d like to share about his many, many achievements or how he’s impacted your life.
We have a printer!!! A printer who loves us for who we are, accepts us for our potty mouth and dirty pictures, and promises to stay by our side unconditionally. As long as we pay on time. Just like a real relationship, except for the paying on time bit. I usually get a seven-day grace period for late relationship payments, but I think that’s just because I have really good credit.
Anyway, we are finally finalizing the September issue and it should be to the printers by Wednesday, putting it in your homes starting September 9th-ish. Then, over the next few months, we’ll slowly bump up print dates so that the issues get to you by the 1st of the month. The new printer should hopefully take care of some of the distribution issues we’ve been having, too. And then I won’t have to go apeshit on poor, innocent Greeks on dropzone.com who post about magazine delivery times.
So thanks to everyone for your patience! And, if you STILL don’t have your August issue yet, e-mail kolla@blueskiesmag.com and please accept our apologies; mailmen around the world are enjoying our magazine so much that they just don’t want to give it up, apparently.
We hope you like issue #3—we have a guide to jumping with fruit by Simon Bones, a vicious Summerfest YouTube smack-down, a starter’s guide to speed flying for skydivers, SkyGod’s monthly edicts, another juicy “No Shit” story and hopefully enough boobs and butts to make it worthwhile to have gotten kicked out of a printer. Please, please, please give us your honest feedback on what you like, what you don’t, what you miss and what you want; we’re working on some easier feedback forms here on the website so hopefully it’ll be a snap to send us your thoughts. In the meantime, e-mail us at admin@blueskiesmag.com with your feedback, dreams, hopes and desires. We’ll do what we can to make the magazine-related ones come true.
The range of naked skydiving experience is far and wide. For some, their only skydive ever was naked courtesy of a tandem jump sans clothes, perhaps with Fast Eddie of Huntsville, Ala. Fast Eddie Grantland has taken 111 naked tandem passengers since 1991. Number 111 was two weeks ago.
For some, it’s just something to do to change it up a bit. Warren Cleary of Atlanta makes one naked jump a year on his birthday and has done so for the past four years. Says Cleary, “Me and my buddy’s birthday are one day apart and one year we just said, ‘Lets go jump naked.’” He’s been doing it once a year ever since. Yet for others, it’s a regular occurrence. Jeff Dawson of Wisconsin has made 2,436 jumps to date, of which 325 were naked. He has made at least one naked jump in the past 95 consecutive months. Jeff says he is the world record holder for naked jumps.
But whether it’s your first jump, or you are working to get a world record in naked jumps, there are a few things to consider when it comes to rigging and the gear-up. “I own what I believe to be the only rig that was specifically designed for naked skydiving,” Dawson says. “When Mr. Booth and Company made my Vector 3, I had them add an ROL pocket on each leg strap. One is for my cell phone…the other is for my shorts which I put on after the naked jump.”
Safety rules don’t go the way of your clothes when it comes to naked jumps. Wearing shoes, goggles and a helmet is encouraged. Grantland insists that his naked skydiving students wear tennis shoes to reduce the chance of injury if they do decide to walk or run out the landing. For slide-in tandem landings, Grantland (who, as the instructor, does wear a jumpsuit for his passengers’ naked tandem jumps) puts his legs together to give a lap for the passenger to sit on during landing. Eddie doesn’t want to give his students any road rash.
Being without a jumpsuit is a big enough change, so adding any other new variables to the mix such as a different rig, new canopy, new helmet or the first time in sandals is not recommended for naked newbies. “Keep as much of your normal stuff as constant as your can,” Dawson says.
Freefall speeds will be faster and the rig may position itself differently on your back. Practice touches are a good idea. Prepare your openings by packing for a slower opening, as getting “spanked” by your canopy hurts more sans suit. Your rig will “generally feel loose” on a naked skydive, says Dawson. “My leg straps are tightened about one inch more on a naked jump…and be especially careful your male equipment (if you are so equipped) is clear of the straps.” If you can’t tighten your leg straps tight enough for a naked jump, go see your local rigger to see if an adjustment can be made.
For women, the chest strap is the bigger issue. Grantland says he does position the chest strap centered or slightly above the breasts so on opening the chest strap doesn’t dig up under the breasts, or slide across the nipples, which could be painful…especially with piercings. “There are stories of piercings being ripped out during opening,” Dawson says. “Small band-aids placed vertically over the nipples will help protect the piercings from the chest strap.”
Clothing either before boarding the plane, during the climb to altitude or after landing is optional. It will depend on your comfort level, others at the drop zone and local DZ rules. If covering up before the jump, Dawson has seen the following options, although not all are necessarily recommended or allowed. So ask your local DZO, S&TA and pilot for the best option for you.
• A pair of oversized shorts can be worn over your leg straps during boarding and the climb to altitude. These can easily be removed before exit. Dawson sticks his shorts in his extra ROL pouch before exit.
• Wearing only your jumpsuit under your rig and then disrobing on the way to altitude or during a separate pass. But the danger is that you have to remove your rig and re-gear up after taking off the jumpsuit. Dawson has seen this done on a separate pass after all the other jumpers are out of the plane.
• Wearing a large t-shirt over your entire rig is another option; the shirt can be removed at some point prior to exit. Dawson doesn’t like this method as it can be dangerous in an aircraft emergency if you are unable to get the shirt back off.
• Lastly, a t-shirt and pair of loose shorts worn under your rig that can be cut off carefully is Dawson’s favorite method. This allows you to gear-up normally and not have to adjust any straps later.
For after the jump, the skydivers at Sky Knights Sport Parachute Club have an alternate landing area behind some trees where they stash some clothes. Then it’s a golf cart ride back to the hangar. “I have seen a pair of shorts carried in a fist from exit to ground. I have seen clothes ‘secured’ to leg straps and chest straps,” says Dawson. “I even once saw a guy pack his parachute with a pair of shorts inside the tail of the center cell. They were still there when he landed.” Of course, if you can stay naked the whole time, clothes are not an issue at all.
Finally, always remember the “Mo Rule,” says Dawson. “No matter what you are doing on skydive you still need those things necessary to accomplish the skydive safely.” According to Dawson, the story goes:
“Mo is a young lady who was making her first naked skydive, a hop & pop from 5k. Prior to exit she was sitting on the bench nearest to the door. She forgot to unbuckle her single point seat belt and exited. The seat belt was long enough that she got out of the door and bounced on the underside of the plane. Two jumpers managed to haul her back in the plane and she landed with it. Her only injury was a big knot on her forehead. Scary, especially with the knowledge that she was not wearing an AAD.”
So, on a naked skydive you still have to do all those things that you normally do on a clothed skydive—including all those things that save your life.
Skydive naked, baby!
[Ed: Possibly NSFW. Pictures may be unsuitable for boss, kid and/or bare-bum-hating eyes; in other words, click play at your own risk.]
On the 4th of July 1974, back in his native country of Norway, a nervous but excited 18 year old Roy Torgeirson was getting ready for his first static line jump.
The rig was not exactly custom made – it was club owned Army surplus gear from the 50’s, sporting a TU-7 round main and a belly mounted reserve. No wonder the guy looked a little pale.
The jump went as planned, and between the years of 1974-1984 Roy managed to get about 500 jumps in. No small feat considering Norway’s long, cold winters and generally not the most favorable skydiving weather, even in summertime.
Family 4-way team in Norway 1977
Then life got in the way a little as it is want, but in 1997 after a 13 year lay-off, Roy returned to the skies.
Now, 5000 jumps later, you can find him at Skydive SW Florida in Punta Gorda, FL pretty well every weekend – usually with a tandem, AFF or static line student in tow.
Up-jumpers trying out static line
To celebrate the 35th anniversary of Roy’s first jump, Skydive SW Florida offered free static line jumps this past 4th of July to any up-jumper wanting to experience it. Unfortunately they were not able to get their hands on any decent rounds in time, so they had to settle for today’s modern student gear. Looks like they had plenty of fun with it anyway – and were probably somewhat relieved to not have to jump the rounds!
Jumpers in the photo (from left) are Lee Horton, Shane Nelson, Will Fastige and static line jumpmaster Roy Thorgeirson – photo by Bruce Gifford.
Hopefully you’re all getting your August issues of Blue Skies Mag right about now. We’ve heard a smattering of issues with delivery, so keep letting us know if you still don’t have your July issue or you have any questions about your subscriptions.
And on to September’s issue…well, we do have a little issue. Rather, our printer—who has been nothing but accommodating and wonderful to work with—has a little issue. We had no idea this was possible, but it turns out they (or, more to the point, their other, church-going customers) don’t like exposed breasts quite as much as skydivers seem to. They were a little leery about our July issue, but maybe thought that we’d tame it down for August. Seeing that issue go to print, they realized we weren’t kidding about not being “family-friendly” and respectfully declined to print any future magazines for us.
So we’re trying our best to find a new printer that will treat us as good as the first one (minus the whole dumping us part) and get a good quality product out for you guys. We do have some solid leads and don’t anticipate too much drama, so we’re charging ahead with the September issue—but it might be a day or two later than we had planned. We’ll keep you posted on expected mailing dates for September. October should be right on target, and from then on, obviously smooth sailing towards global extreme sports media domination.
I didn’t realize quite how prophetic our analogy of wanting to be the silly little brother running around the living room naked and swearing—while the grown-ups try not to spill their coffee—would be. We knew it would be a wild ride when we started, but this one sneaked up on us from behind—and has us giggling all the way to the loony bin
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