Archive | September, 2010

Moving in!

After over a year working out of home based offices (at times we had 3 different desks in 3 different states!), the time has come for Blue Skies Magazine to step it up to a proper brick and mortar OFFICE.
The details will be announced after we formally sign the lease, get the keys and bum the furniture, but our little unit has for many years faithfully served various skydiving ventures.  I’ll give you a little hint – it is located in DeLand and just a stones throw from the dropzone and the many skydiving manufacturers in the area. And our landlord is fearsome!

After we get desks, some chairs, Swingline staplers, coffee pot and a fridge for the beer (basic necessities) we plan on decorating and organizing.  This will involve some tiki lights and definitely a trip to IKEA.  We also have our hearts set on getting one of those cool wall-sticker-decal-thingie for the entryway (cheesy samples here).

We want it to be a quote.
We want it to be inspiring, funny, witty and relate to flight, the sky; that feeling that keeps bringing us back to the dropzone and into the air.
And snazzy.
And not too long, because they charge per word to make it.

So this is where we need your help, because we can’t come up with anything that momentous ourselves. Come up with a saying yourself or bum it from someone else, quote your favorite instructor or rigger, find it on the internet or in a book – we don’t care where it comes from, just bring us the perfect quote!  Oh and remember to note who you are quoting. Even if it’s good old Anonymous.
Submit your idea in the comments section, on Facebook or drop us a line via e-mail with your suggestions.

If we pick your idea, you’ll get a pat on the back and quite possibly a totally cool Blue Skies Magazine sticker in the mail… ohh yeah… how’s that for motivation?!  Plus, the next time you visit the Blue Skies Mag OFFICE, you get to point to the wall and say “yeah, that one is all me.  ALL ME.”.

2010 USPA Nationals

USPA Nationals are in full swing again at Skydive Chicago, IL. This past weekend saw the 4-way formation skydiving teams battle it out, with Arizona Airspeed taking 1st place as so many times before, but not without stiff competition from younger teams such as Perris Fury and the new generation of Golden Knights.
It is now on to more formation skydiving (8-way, 10-way, 16-way), followed by  vertical formation skydiving, freeflying, freestyle and canopy relative work (CReW).   Nationals then wrap up with the classic events of style and accuracy.

Right before Nationals there was a wee bit of drama concerning a certain someone slapping up a 3rd party website intended to host news and information from Nationals.  That page was taken offline per USPA’s request, as it had no affiliation with the real deal.  There were some hurt feelings, but seeing that Skydive Chicago is doing a pretty good job of posting scores as they become official, most people were able to dry the tears and move right along.  You can read more about USPA’s stance here –  and really it’s pretty easy to identify with their point of view.

James LaBarrie from Skydive Carolina has been on site and on behalf of Blue Skies Magazine put up a shitload ton of news and photos on our Facebook page.  If you are on Facebook and hungry for Nationals news, check it out – he’s been doing an excellent job!

Speedflying Video

The cats over at the Ground Rush Air Sports recently posted a very speedflying cool video on their blog. To save you from wearing out your clicky-button, we have simply put it here below.
Lots of cool flying, plus their interesting take on why speedflying is really very well suited to both skydiving and paragliding pilots alike.

Ozone Speedflying from karl steslicke on Vimeo.

View in: Mobile | Standard