i75: March 2016
On the cover
Front to back: Shonda Smith, Eiméar McGovern, Sara Curtis and Nancy Koreen exit above Skydive Arizona during the SIS in the City boogie. Photo by David Cherry.
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Cover Photo | David Cherry
The most fun looking train over Eloy at the recent Sisters In Skydiving boogie, organized by The Working Girls. Full story on page 16!
Featured Photo | Keith Creedy
A Chilean head-up carve.
The FlyBy
Take It DZ comic by Adventure Creative
Get Current at blueskiesmag.com
Apex BASE’s FLiK II
BOOM Fest. Because what the world needs now is more wingsuit BASE videos.
D’oh! We forgot to credit photographer Patrick Reuter for last month’s Featured Photo. Sorry Patrick!
Photo Interview: Jason Moledzki | Zach Lewis
The master Zach introduces you to another skydiving badass: Jay Moledzki of the PD Factory Team.
I had no idea that I was going to be a skydiver. I went to make a jump on a Saturday morning like a lot of people do. I immediately took a 90-degree turn and my life headed off in a direction that I didn’t anticipate. It only took a couple of years before I left my career of almost a decade and followed the path of being a professional skydiver.
High Jinks, Part IX | James L. Hayhurst
Turns out the data for Felix Baumgartner’s record-setting jump wasn’t exactly crystal clear.
It seemed to me this situation fell under the spirit of the rules. And frankly, I didn’t want to be the “rules Nazi” who cast dispersion on one the most magnificent human achievements the world had seen in a long time. Felix made the jump . . . the world had watched him do it.
SIS and the City at SDAZ 2016 | Chazi Blacksher
Chazi and her Working Girls team put on yet another must-attend event at Skydive Arizona.
This event creates an outpouring of positive energy. It is a supportive, mentorship jumping and tunnel event and it’s freaking awesome with personal touches!
Centerfold | Michael Anderson
Martin Sutton on the loneliest part of any skydive (we hope): tracking away.
Man on a Mission| Kolla Kolbeinsdottir
Kolla chatted with Andy Stumpf about his record-setting wingsuit flight.
The motivation for the jump was very straightforward: Do something that would get some attention, then push that attention toward the fundraising. The idea for the jump came from my goal to raise money for the Navy SEAL Foundation; everything we did along the way was to support that goal.
hiraeth | Annette O’Neil
Annette puts the pain of the last few months into beautiful words.
Manufacturing 100-Percent Reliability | James La Barrie
You may not know just how much you owe James’ interview subject.
In 1986, a German skydiver named Freddy Leising died on a big-way jump, unable to deploy a reserve in time to save his life. This fatality would forever change skydiving as we know it. Freddy’s grieving friend, Helmut Cloth, had had enough. He’d witnessed several AAD misfires and lost many friends; Freddy’s death would drive Cloth to create a solution the industry needed desperately. A successful entrepreneur who had started and sold two businesses, the time was right for this soft-spoken, quiet engineer to create the Cybernetic Parachute Release System—or, as we know it, the CYPRES.
+Turning Points+ Bring on the Defending Champions | Kurt Gaebel, NSL
Why can’t advanced class 4-way teams defend their titles?
The solution to the problem of leaving exhausted teams and competitors behind is a very simple one: USPA could remove the obligation to move up from the advanced class into the open class from the rules.
A Long Overdue Apology | The Fuckin’ Pilot
I just don’t know what to say about this one.
It was the worst possible end to a horrible winter season I could have possibly imagined, and probably the worst beginning to a season he never would have imagined! I actually haven’t spoken to the poor bastard since. So …
The Boiled Frog | Melanie Curtis
If you’re knocking off the rust this spring, pay attention to what scares you.
What I’m talking about though is that not-so-easily-identifiable stuff that happens in our heads and comes out in our physical bodies as anxiety, tightness and that hard-to-pinpoint thief of our lightness. And I’m not talking fall rate. I’m talking those times our brains get the better of us, twist our insides into knots, and squeeze our spidey sense of safety such that we don’t even realize it’s narrowing our vision.
SkyGod 2016
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