This weekend a group of pretty special people will be descending upon DeLand, Florida as a part of the Defending Freedom Wounded Warrior Weekend (go ahead and say that five times fast!).
This gathering is a part of the bigger Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) which is a project that seeks to assist American soldiers that have been severely injured in the line of duty in either Iraq, Afghanistan or other locations around the world.

Complete Parachute Solutions (CPS) is coordinating the event, with the support of many skydiving companies and local businesses.  This is the 4th annual event and this time around 34 wounded warriors are attending. Quite a few of them will have the opportunity to make a jump at Skydive DeLand on Friday – and then those that are so inclined will be playing in a golf tournament on Saturday.
More information can be found on a website dedicated to the event or on the Facebook fan page.

Some of the younger pups out there might never even have heard of a 10-way speed, but here it is in all it’s glory, as captured by videographer Nik Daniel in Elsinore last Saturday, January 29th, 2010.

It’s a fun event, but can get a little combative, with 10 people squeezing on the proper side of that black line you can see taped on the floor.  Back in the day I did a few 10-way jumps under the “guidance” of the legendary Carl Daugherthy. I’ll admit that I was a little intimidated when during the dirt dive he handed out elbow and knee pads – that came in handy on exit.   I didn’t last but a couple of Saturdays, before I retreated back to the relative safety of newbie freeflying, where a light kick in the head seemed like a piece of cake in comparison.

If you happen to be a straight shooter with upper management written all over you, take note.  The PD Factory Team (aka Flight-1) is looking for a person of the organized variety to become their General Manager of Operations.   We don’t know exactly what that means, but it sounds fancy.

If you’d like more information about the position, check out their website.  On there is a link to their Facebook feed that you must click on, so we are guessing that fluidity in Facebook speak is a must.

As this fine Thanksgiving Day comes to an end, it is only fitting to look back and reflect on the first few months of Blue Skies Magazine.   It started back in February, the idea born as Lara struggled to get out of the smoggy airport of Reno, Nevada.  It’s hard to believe that now, just a handful of months later, we are an actual proper magazine.  Printed on real paper, in pretty colors, rated M, being mailed all over creation to our subscribers.

We have much to be thankful for.  This dream would have died on the wine if it had not have been for the incredible support of our friends and families near and far – if it hadn’t been for the masses of jumpers that took a chance on us sight unseen and subscribed – if it hadn’t been for the support of skydiving manufacturers that busted out their checkbooks and signed up to advertise with us (even after being warned that this wasn’t going to be your grandpa’s skydiving magazine) – if it hadn’t been for the awesome writers and photographers that continue to submit to us….  well, if it hadn’t been for all of that and a good heaping helping of insanely hard work and some dumb blind luck, there probably wouldn’t be a Blue Skies Mag.  But, here it is – we did it – and continue to love every minute of it.

To all of you that help make Blue Skies Magazine what it is – thank you for being a part of this adventure.  We plan to stick around for a long time, and continue to bring you news and information, photos, videos, snark, sarcasm and all that good stuff.  And yes, you can still count on Blue Skies Mag to be the bringer of the boobies from time to time, because that is just how we roll.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Meet Brianne Thompson…  4-way gal, member of Spaceland Blue, can usually be spotted around the dropzone sporting a big smile and infectious laugh.
Nik Daniel snapped this photo of Brianne at Chicks Rock in Skydive Elsinore, where she was load organizing over the weekend.  Nice rooster-tail on the pond after a good jump with the chicks.

Brianne dragging a bootie

Now who was it that said chicks can’t fly their parachutes??

Photo by Nik Daniel

Jim Slaton setting up a swoop course

“Serial Entrepreneur” Jim Slaton has added YET another web outlet to his already impressive list of websites, this time a Canopy Piloting TV Channel that promises to broadcast footage of swooping and high performance canopy flight.

In the event that you don’t already know who Jim Slaton is, you can learn more about him on his website, read his blog, read his OTHER blog, check out the Elite Flight Training website, his Blade Running website, the Pro Swooping Tour website, CanopyPiloting.com website, Swoop Week website or lastly the SwoopPark.com website.  Oh yes, and then there is a blog for 2009 Swoop Week too.
I can’t rule out that I might have missed one or two (leave a link in the comments if you find more), but this is a good start. 10 websites and one TV channel.  Jim, seriously, we can’t keep up with all of them, how about doing a “one website to rule them all” kind of thing?

All kidding aside, Slaton might be a prolific website creator, but the guy has worked hard to promote canopy piloting and along with a few other pioneers was instrumental getting the discipline recognize as a competitive one.  So for those of you that are into swooping, be sure to check some of those out.