Team Polte is a brand new team from Finland. Team member Lauri says, “The concept of Polte is to have fun and fly free, and share it to the world by videos and photos. That’s how people can really see what Polte and skydiving is all about. Our future plans include competing and get more involved in different skydiving events around the world and arrange our own events in Finland. At the same time we offer services for companies to promote their products in form of videos, photos and stories.”

Team Polte: (l to r) Matti, Tuomas, and Lauri

• Lauri Aapro
• Tuomas Hulkkonen
• Matti Miilumäki
• Jonne Kuoksa

We can’t wait to see what comes out of Finland and Team Polte!

From Gillian Parker, hard core freefly chick, sprinkled with much awesomeness, reporting live from Arizona:

There is much to be thankful for at Skydive Arizona right now. The hangar is teeming with talent of the female freeflying variety, the skies are blue and clear, and a 39-way record attempt has been drawn out. Day 1 of the Women’s Vertical World Record Attempts is now officially in full effect.
The excitement is palpable, as the ladies gather to find out who is to make the first jump. The names of the women on the first attempt have just been announced, and ALL of the women are ready to get down to business. For a morning that has been touted by some to be the coldest Thanksgiving in 80 years, the exhilaration of being a part of these 4th WVWR attempts is more than enough to take away the chill…well, maybe not, but it sounds warmer to think that way.

First dirt dive has been completed. Everyone has their sight pictures locked in their mind’s eyes. It will be quite the vision to behold 39 women uniting in the sky from the Skyvan and her two trail planes. 60 minutes until a potential world record….

A few minutes later we got this one:

“Jump 1 is out of the way with a promising build that left just a few elements to tweak. In fact, more women were docked on this formation than were in the last record, for sure!

The talent pool is present to do this, without a doubt! One of the more impressive aspects to this record is how negligible the difference in skill level is amongst the participants, making the task of assigning slots to so many capable women all the more challenging for the organizers of the event! Who would have thought that in just a few short years since the last attempts that the group of accomplished female badass freeflyers would have doubled?! Thank goodness for Steve Curtis keeping the firecrackers on the support team ready to swap in and out!

The debrief was a fast one, with the determination being made to keep things the same, just a bit faster….

10 minute call!”

Then, rudely enough, Gillian’s computer died an untimely death, and future updates with it. But, as the world knows by now, the girls went ahead and beat the old record of 20 by a landslide – 41 gorgeous skydiving chicks built the new one.
Congrats to everyone that participated in the record, both those that made it on it and all those that supported it and made it happen!

Olly Burgin sent us this brand spankin’ new photo of the brand spankin’ new official British head-down record, done yesterday over Skydive Hibaldstow. Cheers, guys!

British Head-Down Record | Photo by Olly Burgin

It’s Friday! Video day!

To kick us off for the day, Blue Skies Mag’s awesome monthly columnist, Melanie Curtis, shares a jump from the Elsinore Echelon CA State Record Head Down Camp at Skydive Elsinore. It’s a wild ride; watch for bump 1, bump 2, then check out the reflection in her visor.

Brian Buckland has really amazing prints of the 108-way for sale over on his blog, blog.brianbuckland.com.

Own a little piece of history, support an artiste and get a discount. I really don’t know what more you could want. Well, maybe I do, but they don’t sell that. Well, maybe they do, but it’s not legal. Well, maybe it is, but this isn’t Nevada, you know.

Text and photos by videographer Brian Buckland

Record participants on the ground

Ready for a record attempt

I have to be honest…..I was impressed this morning.  8:40 am and 5 Twin Otters took off from Skydive Chicago with 108 freeflyers and 5 cameramen in search of a new World Record.  I never imagined that our wake up skydive for the day would result in 101 connecting.  It was looking good.

Jump #2 and it only got better.  Having been dealt the hand that the Skyvan was down for repairs, we were launching the base out of the lead Otter and it was turning out just fine.  We worked out timing and put a super floater out of the lead plane to get more fliers in the air under the base.  It was a good idea and we built up to 106 out of 108.  This was the way to start a record!

Exit exit!

Formation building

Jump #3 rolled around and we took a step back.  Three pods were having issues and the bench erupts (inside voices) with cheers   One person was in the wrong slot and that threw off two pods but all in all the skydives were very smooth;  not a lot of big movements or waves.  With only a few minor collisions, more just bumps the record attempts kept pretty safe.

Jump #4 came and it was more of the same from jump #3.  More new faces are rotated in and the bench is starting to bustle with activity.  Going for a record of 108 people and having at least another 40 that are sitting on the edge of their seats waiting for their chance.  Things were getting a little tense but spirits remained high!

Break off

Building it biggier!

Jump #5 …..107 out of 108.  Soooooooooo close!  As they say….the worst part about being on a 108 way is watching a 107 way. The team had the energy and the vibe was right, but you could see that the day was wearing on the group yet the organizers decided to go for one more jump before calling it a day.

Jump #6.   There I was, sitting underneath 108 freefliers watching a pod with 3 or 4 out and I see super Pat from the far side of the formation start carving around 107 of his closest friends searching for his slot.  He reached the un-built pod and as he picked up his slot, the true professionals that were waiting for him, jumped into position and grabbed their grips out of the sky.  It didn’t build for long…..but we did it!!!!!

Where's my slot??

Amazing!

A new 108 way World Freefly Record set!  The party is starting so I need to get off this computer and go enjoy the celebration!  Pictures will be posted soon and we’re also putting together a very nicely edited DVD of the event from dirt dives to warm ups to the record shot by our friends over at GetHypoxic.  Please contact me through my website if you are interested.  I’ll post a link to that later.  In the mean time, congrats everyone!!!!

Way to smash a record in 6 jumps!

This is it: 108-Way Freefall Formation

Blue Skies Magazine congratulates all participants, pilots, judges, Skydive Chicago staff, packers and everyone that helped make this record happen – awesome job everyone!