Smoke on the ... Everything

Competitors at the Canopy Piloting World Championships are plagued by the dense smoke that has engulfed the area.  So, at breakfast in the hotel, PD Factory Team members and some of the South African delegation decided to bond with the locals with a few vodka toasts to set the morning off.  The smoke is pretty thick outside so our chances of jumping are low.  These guys started the meet roulette game early.

Breakfast of Champions

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While many of you will have been following the outstanding achievements that have been going on at the World Championships in Russia, you might not be aware of the other dangers that are present.  The Canopy Piloting World Championships is about start at Kolomna, near Moscow.

Competitors are still arriving and some have been here for a week.  But Moscow and huge parts of Russia are engulfed in smoke from peat fires that have arisen after the unusually high temperatures this year.  Many of the competitors that gave such inspiring performances in all of the disciplines that have already competed are still stranded in Moscow- the staging airport on their homeward journey.  They should get out in time, coughing and spluttering, but for some of us our competition hasn’t even started yet.  In fact, an Air Base in the town where the competition will be held was recently consumed by the fires and 200 aircraft were destroyed.  Just a few hundreds metres from one of the hotels that we’re staying in there are blackened trees showing how close the fire came.

But now the fires are heading to Chernobyl and there’s a risk of radioactive material mixing with the drifting smoke.  Canada and Poland are evacuating their embassies and the Russian Surgeon General has recommend that anyone that can leave the area should do so.

All this sounds pretty challenging and our lack of on-site training jumps is a real concern.  But really the more problematic issues are that of a huge bunch of skydivers hanging out and not having much to do.  This is when it gets dangerous and mischief comes in to play.  So watch this space to see how it plays out (assuming we’re not consumed by the smoke and fires that is).

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Pinup Girl

Your best x-rays, of course. Dr. Mark Duber (Dr. Doobie to us) is writing a special Top Ten list for us next month: The Top Ten Most Expensive Orthopedic Injuries. We need your high-res x-rays to illustrate what we’re talking about. And just to look at and get freaked out by.

E-mail to lara@blueskiesmag.com or comment and let us know where we can download yours.

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It’s about a million degrees in Florida right now, so there will be no clever witticisms, puns or jokes. Just sweating and swearing at the sun.

So, we have some very cool things planned for our birthday June/July issue, one of them being some very special pictures by the talented Justin Carmody. Some behind-the-scenes teaser pics below

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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>

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Rockstar/Skydive New England vidiot Sean Rogan (featured in our November 2009 issue) has another awesome video for the song he wrote about his Sabre 170, “Canopy Song.” We won’t delay your grinning time any longer, so here it is:

To download this song and more, check out www.seanprogan.com.

PS – We are loving “No Jumping in Lebanon Today”

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and “Ready, Set, Go!” too!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

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