From the Dubai Parachuting Championships and Gulf Cup 2010, we got word that Jonathan Tagle has inched ahead of Marat Leiras to claim first place, with Jay Moledzki in third in canopy piloting!

In the 4-way competition, USA’s Arizona Airspeed beat out Belgium and France; the women’s results are France, Germany, Spain. And, in accuracy, it’s Christian Auswoeger, Quargaf El Hassane and Al–Suwaidi Matar.

Congrats to everyone! Full scores here.

Jay celebrates with team mates Ian, Shannon and Jessica

From the PD Blog:

Posted with permission from Performance Designs, Inc.
Photo courtesy of Performance Designs, Inc.

Photo courtesy of Skydive Midwest

Giedrius “G” Kasiulynas was injured during a training jump at the World Cup in South Africa and is currently in critical condition. Although he is on staff at Skydive Midwest in Wisconsin, his family is in Lithuania, where he is originally from. They need to get to South Africa to make medical decisions about G’s life, so an account has been set up to help them make the trip.

Julie from Skydive Midwest sent us this information this morning:

The info for his sister; Inga’s PayPal account, for donations: gaizauskiene.inga@gmail.com

LT197044060003600396

Her other info:

Inga Gaizauskiene
AB SEB bankas
Gedimino pr. 12, LT-01103 Vilnius
SWIFT Kodos CBVILZX

N3 Audio by Alti-2

It is not April 1, so don’t bother checking the calendar. Alti-2 has begun production on the N3 Audio (N3A), a new audible altimeter and electronic logbook…with a twist. Instead of speakers, the N3A has one mp3 player input and one headphone slot.

Music from your mp3 player can be played during your skydive, with interruptions from the N3A at your pre-set alarm times. At the first freefall alarm altitude, you will hear “Breakoff Breakoff”, then “Deploy Deploy” at the second alarm. OR…you can record and upload your own alarm .wav tones. (The third flatline alarm remains the same and is not changeable for safety reasons.) The N3A can also optionally be set to announce altitude at every thousand feet (twelve… eleven…ten…).

Canopy alarms sound the buildup tones like normal, but at the end of the buildup, a voice will say “Downwind” at the first alarm, “Base” and “Final” at the second and third alarms, respectively. Like the freefall alarms, you can record and upload your own canopy alarms.

An mp3 player is not required to function; those with frequency-specific hearing loss (common among people with repeated exposure to things like turbine engine noise) can use the N3A to play tones or voices at more audible frequencies.

We want to hear your best custom alarms! Submit them to shenanigans@blueskiesmag.com by January 15, 2010. Grand prize is one new N3 Audio, courtesy Alti-2.

Contest fine print:

• Audio file length: 3.5 seconds maximum
• Audio file format: .wav
• Alarm set: three (3) freefall alarms and three (3) canopy alarms. Final freefall alarm cannot be used in the N3A, but it is allowed and will be judged in this contest.
• Include your name, e-mail address and theme name.
• N3 Audio is not required to create pull tone alarms.
• All submitted audio files become the property of Blue Skies Mag and Alti-2, Inc. Files may be posted for public download on either or both company Web sites.
• All judging will be done by Blue Skies Magazine.
• Submissions will be accepted to shenanigans@blueskiesmag.com until midnight, Eastern Standard Time, on January 15, 2010.
• First prize is one (1) N3 Audio from Alti-2, Inc.

Two teams enter, one team leaves. Given the solid lineups of the Kaleidoscope dives, which predatory bird team will kick more ass and take more names?

Cheat sheet courtesy Kaleidoscope Web site:

West Virginian/jumper Marcus Ellison and Bridge Day BASE jumping coordinator Jason Bell gave us the locals’ scoop on just what there is to do in Fayetteville, WV—besides jumping off a huge-ass bridge. This, along with our Bridge Day ’09 guide in the October issue of Blue Skies Mag, should keep you set for legal activities during your Bridge Day experience. As for the other kinds of activities…we actively discourage them. (But get pictures!)

View What to Do for Bridge Day in a larger map, including Google Street View of the bridge

Based on the great help we got from all the local businesses Marcus recommended in his piece, we have to believe Fayetteville is one of the coolest towns ever. We’d have liked to print more of the great pictures they sent, but there were just too many cool establishments to have room for them all!

P.S. The Mystery Hole is not the quietly-whispered-about strip club. They’re here.

Smile! You're on BlueSkies Camera!

So, for your viewing entertainment, we bring you the first day of Last Big Splash. Let us know what you think (but be kind, it’s our first foray into video-land!) and enjoy!

We’ll also have several sweet photos from photographer Justin Carmody in the November issue of Blue Skies Mag, so keep your eye out for that—and stay tuned for Day Two of Last Big Splash…

Competition started today at Skydive Spaceland with some rain, rain and more rain.  Around noon the skies cleared up enough so that meet organizers were able to get a handful of loads off the ground, enough to at least complete round 1 of intermediate 4-way.
At the close off registration yesterday 57 4-way teams had signed up to compete, with the majority of those being US teams with a handful of international guest teams competing as well.

Tomorrow looks like another wet day, but it is too early to tell if or how much the rain will hamper the meet.  The big teams are already pondering what effects (if any) this might have on team selection for the World Meet in Russia next year and some interesting thoughts on what might happen in case the weather doesn’t allow for a full meet are posted on the NSL website.  Kurt has been a busy guy, updating both his own website that caters more to hard core 4-way geeks, but also guest blogging on the CYPRES blog, where he writes posts geared more towards people with casual interest in 4-way.
Check both out for pictures and videos from Spaceland.

I’ll leave you with a gorgeous photo of a lonely Spaceland Otter, waiting for the rain to let up.

Photo by Nik Daniel

You may have heard the sad news that PACK’D, the team we were following to Nationals, is unable to go now. So, Blue Skies Mag is holding the first Get Alex VB Relay (GAVBR); instead of following a team, we’ll now follow a case of beer.

Alex is an Australian jumper now working and living at Skydive Spaceland in Houston. His birthday is coming up. He is thirsty. Alas, the one place in the entire U.S. of A. where he can find his favorite Aussie beer is a wine shop called Cellar360. In California. 1,953 miles away.

We are sending out this plea to our fellow jumpers. We know there are angels out there willing, ready and able to answer the call and quench Alex’s Aussie thirst.

The first leg of the GAVBR will need to acquire the beer from Cellar360 at Ghirardelli Square in the Woolen Mill Building and get it started on its trek southeast. Maybe you are a San Franciscan (San Franciscite? San Frannie?) headed to Elsinore for the weekend. Maybe you are driving through on your way to Eloy. Wherever you are from and wherever you are going, we will look for another volunteer at your destination to take it further east – and on, until it reaches Rosharon, Texas by October 12.

Of course, if one person can bring the VB all the way from San Francisco to Nationals, that would be ideal.

Think of it as good beer karma. If you can participate in the GAVBR, please contact us at admin@blueskiesmag.com. And let the relay begin!

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If you read Scott Roberts’ article about speed flying in our September issue, you might wonder what that would feel like. Nick Kaminski is here to show you speed flying from his perspective.