Cypres Tubes at the Skydive EXPO 2012 – Skydive Deland

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?

Trunk, of Hypoxic fame…well, there’s actually nothing I can say about this video besides penises and teeth.

Andre Lemaire wrote up his testing of the MagBag, a prototype main d-bag created by Jerry Baumchen. Here, in all their raw glory, are the test jump videos.

It’s always a good day in the media when skydiving/skydivers are featured in a positive and exciting manner – and the boys from Thunderstorm (the Denver Broncos demo team) got us some good press recently.

Michael Demma edited this great video showing their jump into the stadium but also gives a glimpses of what the team does behind the scenes to prepare.

Slipstream Airsports members Justin Thornton and Stuart Schoenfelt do a great job during the interview. We are also happy to report now that Movember is over, Justin has shed the hairy upper lip.

A little bit of bad-assery for you to check out, right before you clock out of work and start your weekend. Get inspired and go make your own videos this weekend and send to us Monday

Video by Marshall ‘Snow Angel’ Miller, a member of the GoPro Bomb Squad.

We’ve all heard of those students that come down after a spectacular performance in the sky and get the bowling ball talk from their instructors.

Nik Daniel from AXIS Flight School in Eloy joined a few other skydivers for a jump where they took this bowling ball thing to a whole another level

Photo by asleeponasunbeam
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Morten Pedersen, a local DeLand videographer had a bit of a shitty day at work recently. Or a really good day, depending on how you look at it. After an uneventful tandem video, he deploys his Velocity 103 main and encounters a brake fire. The canopy spins up and Morten cuts away. The main canopy takes off with the SkyHook and as you can see in the video the freebag/reserve pilot chute are thrown around wildly. The red SkyHook lanyard breaks and once the reserve canopy is clear, Morten works hard to get an inflated reserve over his head.

Mission accomplished about 150 ft off the ground – aims for the nearest available clear area and flare…. In this case a little extra altitude at the top definitely saved the day and the big sigh at the end of the video says it all. Well done Morten – a good reminder to all of us to never stop fighting.

This incident has promoted some discussion about the use of a SkyHook with high performance main canopies such as the Velocity. Morten has shared his footage with the manufacturers and they will review it closely to see what can be learned from this incident. For a bit of background, Morten has been in the sport for more years than we care to count and has extensive experience behind him in almost every facet of jumping. He was jumping a SkyHook equipped Sun Path Javelin, a Velocity 103 and an Optimum 126.

We would love to hear your thoughts on the topic in the comments or on Facebook, especially if you are one of those high performance pilots.

Photo by Yell Saccani

The Jump4Heroes guys have been at it again.  This time they’ve been skydiving with an animated character called Mobi. He’s the Mascot of Phones For Heroes, a company that raises money for military charities by recycling cell phones. The team wanted to help them raise awareness of their cause and so set about donating a cell phone while in freefall and alongside the company’s mascot. The cause is especially close to the hearts of the Jump4Heroes team – 2 of them are currently serving in Afghanistan (this was filmed just before they deployed).

So please check out the video and help support our Troops:

See more of Jump4Heroes on their Facebook page: www.facebook.com/jump4heroes or on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jump4heroes

The Bluest Office!

Now it’s your turn. Help the DeLand kids getting some free tickets and a night out on the town, along with promoting skydiving to the public. You do that with your mouse… or fingers for those of you on mobile devices.
CLICK HERE – look at the pretty picture and scroll down a little bit to vote for Skydive DeLand. You can vote as many time as you want. We suggest to keep on going until your hand cramps up, but that is of course a personal choice. So, get going. Share on Facebook. Tell your friends. Do whatever just help ‘em get to Blue Man!