Mirage ad. Thank Ward.

• Mirage Systems has an open call for “a hot, experienced skydiving girl [who] would like to be on a National TV show filming in late July.” <Mirage>
• Judge rules Skydive City, [Freefall Express] must coexist until trial. <Tampa Bay Online>
• Nutty lady claims highest freefall jump, despite … well, every skydiver’s common knowledge. Bonus round – find all the ridiculously funny problems with this backstory article. <AOL news>
• Italian wins that other World Cup. Jump4Heroes was also there with their poppy canopies. <ProBASE World Cup>
• VA Beach firefighters rescue SEALs from trees. <WAVY>

Director Marah Strauch of Scissor Kick Films is working on putting together a non-fiction feature film, aiming to capture what it feels like to jump off a building, cliff or a bridge, and walk away alive.  She wants to capture the essence of life, of freedom, of what it feels like to defy gravity for a moment and fly.
This is a huge project and Marah and her team are currently working to raise funds to be able to complete the work – specifically they are launching a fundraiser focused on the restoration and transfer to HD of the Carl Boenish film archive.

Please visit their Kickstarter fundraising page, where you can also get more information about the project.  In Marah’s words, this film is meant to be more than a simple history of BASE, it is to be a film that will inspire BASE jumpers and non-BASE jumpers alike to follow their dreams.  And here is her brand new blog.

Best of luck to the Gravity film team, we look forward to see the final product!

Baffin Island, Canada

The month-long Baffin Island BASE Expedition is on right now! Check out that link for a lot of cool information, including an up-to-date blog, mission info, team member profiles and photos and videos from the last trip to the island in 2008.

The team includes some pretty big names in the BASE world, including the PD Factory Team’s own Jay Moledzki. We were also really psyched to see so many chicks on the team. Yay, chicks!

Good luck to the whole expedition!

Jump 4 Heroes

See the TV interview below and a short edit of the jumps below that.

Next, we have a little favor to ask our loyal readers. We want to include a copy of Blue Skies Mag in all the jumpers’ registration packets. To do that, we are looking for someone who will be driving up to Bridge Day early in the week from either central Florida or the Charleston, SC area to take up a couple (heavy!) boxes of magazines. E-mail me at lara@blueskiesmag.com if you can do this!

Last, you may know of our printer woes, and how we were saved by a printer who shares our love of shenanigans and partial nudity. After reading the Bridge Day guide mentioned above, our rep (coincidentally, we’re quite sure) decided to take a boy’s weekend in the Fayetteville, WV area the weekend after next. So, if you run into a whuffo dude named Shawn from Virginia, please be sure to give him a good Bridge Day welcome—and thank him for saving Blue Skies Mag

Now people have another reason to visit Playboy, besides the articles. The company that started the first and classiest men’s magazine is now showing a BASE video on their Web site.

Andrew Karnowski and Tom Lundergan were offered an amazing opportunity to participate in a building jump in the city of Miami for Playboy magazine’s Web site. The video can be seen here: www.playboy.com/articles/dossier-miami-base-jumping/index.html.

The planning phase of this jump began long before Andrew or Tom knew about it. A filmmaker in Miami who owns and runs Running Roots Productions was moving out of his condo. Towards the end of the moving process his friend—a skydiver—mentioned that the height of his condo was sufficient for a BASE jump. The idea was born and grew into a project. It was then pitched to Playboy and they gave Running Roots Productions the green light.

Running Roots then posted an advertisement on BASEjumper.com looking for potential participants for their documentary. After some e-mail communication and submission of applications, Andrew and Tom were selected.

Varying experience levels were represented by the two chosen. Andrew at that time had approximately 300 BASE jumps, 240 skydives, and 5 building jumps. Tom at that time had 50 BASE jumps and 2600+ skydives but no building jumps.

Date picked, flights booked, and the excitement increased as the weekend approached. Andrew’s flight was a red eye with two layovers, Tom’s first flight was canceled and his second flight delayed, however none of that put a damper their mood.

Once both jumpers were in Miami, Running Roots Productions went to work picking them up, getting shots of them at the airport, taking them to their hotel to drop off gear and then to the business at hand.

The crew followed them as they surveyed exit points, considered logistics and evaluated potential landing areas, followed by interviews in a park and a delicious dinner at a local restaurant.

The Saturday morning wake-up call came early. The crew picked up the jumpers in a white, unmarked van and delivered them to the object. They immediately went to the exit point picked out the previous night.

Running Roots was there to film a jump, Tom was there for his first building and Andrew for the experience. The slight crosswind posed a complication and the safety of the jump was discussed. Neither of the jumpers in the past had ever been in a situation where there was a timeline or pressure to jump and this added a mental complexity.

Tom jumped first and despite a slightly awkward freefall had a good jump with quick reaction time to an off-heading opening and a spot-on landing. Now it was Andrew’s turn; all the cameras disappeared from his awareness as it was go time! Again, another off-heading opening, but corrected and managed to land inches from Tom!

Next was to quickly stuff their gear into stash bags and sprint to the running van waiting to make their getaway. The rendezvous point was an undisclosed location where all met up to watch the many different videos while enjoying coffee and donuts. With their work complete, the jumpers spent Saturday enjoying Miami: two skydives, an art walk and plenty of partying at various bars and clubs.

To answer the most common questions: no, they did not get paid, no, they did not get laid, no, there were no bunnies, no, they did not get invited to the mansion, and no they did not meet Hugh Hefner.

Both jumpers thoroughly enjoyed working with Running Roots Productions and jumping from a building. The final product was polished and professional beyond their expectations and they got to share an experience they will never forget!

BASE for the Cure

I’m sure you have heard about Jump for the Cause before, and should probably prepare to hear about it a lot more in the coming weeks as the women’s world record event draws closer.

But, the chicks are not the only ones using extreme air sports as a way to bring attention to cancer and raise funds to support cancer research.
Two crazy guys (by their own admission) had the idea to use Bridge Day 2009, now in it’s 30th year, to raise funds to benefit VCU Massey Cancer Center.  You can follow the journey of James Bennett and Christopher Anderson by visiting their website, where you can also show support and donate to their cause.
We wish them all the best and hope that both the fund raiser and Bridge Day 2009 will be a great success.

Photos by Jason Bell, Vertical Visions, LLC

Today’s That Guy is the guy who buzzed the European ski lodge in a wingsuit, prompting the local mayor to attempt to ban BASE jumping, wingsuit BASE jumping, wingsuit BASE jumping within 3 meters of a recreational skiier and really, just anything that comes close to what that guy did. The video and resulting press coverage was all over the whuffo world, and we want to know: Who is that guy?

That guy is Dominik Loyen, German ex-engineer turned drop zone owner turned blue skies free spirit, whose penchant for all thing Spongebob leaves everything just a little uncomfortable. He currently splits his time between teaching first jump BASE courses at 3-2-1 BASE in Spain and AFF/camera/coaching in Norway.

Stay tuned for an in-depth, heart-wrenching, tell-all interview with Dom . . .