Zach Sabel, Colorado TunnelGod, posted this video his dad made for him on Facebook and we just had to share. (Original post)

This is a video put together by my dad. He made it for me when I got hired as an instructor at SkyVenture Colorado. I have been fortunate enough to work there for the past three years. I can honestly say that I have loved everyday. Its nice to look back at my videos and my experiences just like this. At one point, I didn’t know how to fly, at some point nobody knew how to fly.

Just like many others out there, I have always dreamed of flying, I still dream of flying and I like to imagine myself flying at a much higher level then I do right now. whatever your dream is, make sure you take everyday to love the people you love, experience what there is to experience, and dare to Dream the life that you are living right now.

His dad’s original post was:

My daughter in law Laura sent this song to me with a note saying ” does this remind you of anybody? ” I only had to listen to the song once to know I had to make a video as a tribute to Zach who followed his childhood dreams.

Many thanks to a dear friend of mine Sharon Pace who spent many hours producing this video.

The story is self explanatory. As a child, when Zach was not wearing some kind of cape he was on his magic carpet. I called home from work one day and I could tell that Kathi had been crying. When I asked what was wrong she said ” oh….I’m just being a mom, Zach is on the porch again. He’s sitting on his magic carpet …..he thinks he can fly and I don’t know how to tell him that he can’t. We never told him that he couldn’t fly……and he did.

I told that story to Zach the night before he did his level six and seven jumps of his AFF certification and the rest is history.

Just a side note……..Zach’s brother Adam always played with blocks and leggos. Today he works for an architectural firm in Tucson. Parents…….pay attention to your children’s childhood dreams…..you may already be seeing what they will be when they grow up.

Follow your dreams guys…….follow your dreams

Sabels, are you accepting applications to join the family?

Skydiving Book Service, the fabo folks who brought you Skydiving magazine, are having a great sale on books and videos. Some great steals in there, so break out your plastic and do a little shopping: www.skydivingmagazine.com/clearance.htm

A few of our choices:

Bedtime Stories for Skydivers

by Larry Schatz. A collection of humorous short stories, including “The Man Who Loved Cat Chasing” and “Downplane to Hell.” Professionally illustrated. As one critic put it: “Outrageous and disgusting drivel lacking in any redeeming social value whatsoever” and “Not for the squeamish or prudish.” You’ll love it. Comb bound, 142 pages, 8.5 x 5.5 inches. Regularly $14.95, on sale for $4.95.

 

Hookin’ It!

DVD by Sonic and Donna Bayrasli. Since 1996 the Ranch Parachute Club’s annual swoop meet has served as the Super Bowl of swooping competitions. This compilation includes the most dramatic and entertaining footage taken over five of the annual meets. 99 minutes. Regularly $34.95, on sale for $4.95.

 

Skydiving Magazine Back-Issue
Collection — All of Them

This collection consists of every issue of Skydiving magazine that are still available in our files. It runs from Issue #6 (published in 1979) through #330 (published in 2009) — about 220 copies in all. Hundreds of hours of informative and entertaining reading covering 30 years of our sport. Only $199 postpaid to US addresses.

You’ve probably heard that Felix Baumgartner and the Red Bull Stratos team are back at their goal of breaking records with his planned 120,000′ skydive. You probably also know that the project was halted because of a lawsuit.

You may not know that the project almost stopped even before the lawsuit—because of Felix himself.

“I couldn’t do it. my head was letting me down.”

Before ascending into the stratosphere and free falling back to Earth in spectacular, record-breaking fashion, the Austrian BASE-jumper, 42, had to face his demons. At the high point of his life thus far, he hit an all-time low.

The Red Bulletin: All went quiet on Red Bull Stratos for nine months. What was going on behind the scenes?
Felix Baumgartner: Let’s go back to the time before the project was stopped because of a lawsuit. In December 2010, we carried out the last major tests with the space suit and it was clear to me that I had a problem – one I never thought I’d have – with my psyche. I had trouble putting on the space suit and it got worse and worse. I could barely stand a couple of minutes in it.

Could you describe the symptoms?
The idea was that the suit should feel like a second skin, but it’ll never be like that. Your movements and your perceptions are restricted. As soon as the visor closes there’s this nightmarish silence and loneliness – the suit signifies imprisonment. We hadn’t originally conceived of a test that confined me in the suit for five hours – that’s how long the entire mission should take – with the visor closed. After all my past exploits, all the extreme things I’ve done in my career, no one would have ever guessed that simply wearing a space suit would threaten the mission, me included. In the end, the symptoms developed into panic attacks.

You’re exaggerating …
Not at all. When it came to the crucial pressure test at -60°C, under real conditions with pressure and altitude simulated, and surrounded by cameras, air force personnel and scientists, I realised I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t see a way around this problem. I’d easily mastered what seemed to be huge obstacles, like free fall in a pressure suit, but now my own head was letting me down. Instead of driving to Brooks [The Brooks Academy of Science and Engineering in San Antonio, Texas] to go testing, I drove to the airport and hightailed it out of America. I wept on the phone. It was the worst moment of my life. To that point I’d always known how to solve all my own problems. This time, in front of everyone, I’d found my limit.

Clearly, you’ve since pushed it higher.
We tried several things in training because from a medical standpoint a high basic fitness would also improve my stress resistance. But really, I mean… for 20 years I’ve done the most extreme BASE jumps, I’ve flown over the English Channel [in a wing suit], I’ve shown my stress resistance without hours of exercise bike sessions. The problem had to be solved another way.

Full interview online at Red Bulletin.

Happy birthday Melanie!

Miss Melanie, of course, is one of Blue Skies Mag’s amazing contributors, and has been with us from the start. Inspirational, courageous, giving, loving, hilarious, and awesome, Melanie has helped our little magazine in more ways than we can count. We’ve heard from so many of you that her words impact your lives, too. So, join us in wishing this beautiful woman a great birthday and another fantastic year!

PS – Maybe a good birthday gift would be to like her Highcomms.com Facebook page ;)

PPS – We have a $5 reward for any information on how in hell #6 got so lucky.

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!

Well there’s nothing like raising awareness for our Troops. Throwing yourself off some insane mountains, buzzing the cliff face in a wingsuit and having a ton of fun is certainly a great way to do so.

In the build up to Veterans Day on 11 Nov (the funny British way of saying November 11), our British colleagues sell red poppies and everyone around the country wears one in recognition of those that have served. Our friends Jump4Heroes have emblazoned their gear with Poppy logos in an effort to get the message out in their own ‘extreme’ way. Our favorite video of theirs shows some pretty darn cool wingsuit proximity flying in the Italian mountains. Check it out and click ‘like’ if you support their efforts.

Apparently the “latest trend in extreme sports” is extreme hotel booking. Is this a thing at your drop zone now? Are we all behind the extreme trend power curve?

Either way, it’s a fun commercial with the always adorable JT Holmes:

You could be just as awesome.

Want to join them in the ranks of awesome people who write for us? Talk to me! Email me, Lara, at lara@blueskiesmag.com.

Filmed on location at Chicagoland Skydiving Center, featuring Dean Ricci, Melanie Curtis and Sydney Owen.

Photo by: Despair, Inc.

Getting into competitive canopy piloting is no easy feat, as many bruised bums and battered skydivers can attest to. The siren song of whistling 300 HMA lines is irresistible to many and just about every day a guardian angel gets a workout as the next Nick Batch/Greg Windmiller/Jay Moledzki (pick your favorite) stabs out of the corner for the first time.

In order to provide an environment where canopy pilots can train safely and receive proper coaching and feedback, John Nolan has established Canopy Piloting Training Series (CPTS). The CPTS will serve FLCPA pilots and provide quality training events for the pilots participating in the FLCPA league meets.

Their first event is coming up next weekend and will be hosted at the Raeford Parachute Center September 2nd-4th. Wold class canopy pilot (and Golden Knight) Greg Windmiller will be the event coach. Participants will train on 5′ inflatable course markers on the Raeford pond in Speed, Distance and Zone Accuracy. This event will serve as a great training event for the upcoming USPA Canopy Piloting Nationals (Skydive Spaceland, TX, September 14th-17th) but non-competitive pilots will also given opportunity to be coached in high performance landings.

Watch this space for future announcements and updates from their camps, and check out the CPTS Facebook page for more information and camp dates.  We wholeheartedly support this kind of initiative and applaud John for taking this project on.

Cost for coaching is $100 per day, or $200 for all three days. Interested participants can contact John Nolan by e-mail or communicate through their Facebook page. The fee covers coaching and video debrief of every jump, refreshments, an event DVD (containing photos and edited videos to take home to learn from), catered meal (Saturday) and indoor air-conditioned packing.

The CPTS would like to acknowledge and thank Sun Path Products, SkySystems USA, Performance Designs, Alti-2 and Vigil for supporting this event.

John Nolan performs the weedwhacker flawlessly.

We had the competitors interview each other. They each chose 2-3 questions from the following list, plus 1 of their own:

* What does it take to be a Big Boy?
* What is your best pickup line?
* How do you stay safe while going all out?
* Explain why, aerodynamically, this event is being held at Mile-Hi Skydiving in Colorado?
* What is your occupation?
* What color and size are your big boy pants?
* Do you shave your balls? (Tutti wants to know)

Enjoy.