Jump for Diabetes: PD Canopy Raffle

(Love the new logo! Thanks, Nick Bagnoli)

Alright y’all. It’s time for an exciting announcement from the Jump for Diabetes (JFD).

As some of you might know, I’m a huge advocate for this cause, what with Rick being a type 1 diabetic and loving the sport of skydiving (really?!). Two of my passions in one event – that’s pretty freakin’ awesome if you ask me.

Anywhoosits – this year Performance Designs has teamed up with JFD to give away a custom canopy to one lucky donor.

I know, right, that’s huge!

Just by being one of the first to donate $100 or more to the cause you have a 1 in 100 chance of winning a custom canopy from Performance Designs. BAD ASS!

The coolest part about it is that all the proceeds from the raffle go to benefit diabetes research and help find a cure. That right there should bring you some warm fuzzies .

Check out the JFD blog to find out more info. Or simply send an email to jumpfordiabetes@gmail.com with your name, address, email and phone # to get the process rolling. Donations are collected via PayPal then you’ll receive an eTicket. Winners are drawn at the event, but you don’t have to be present to win. So anyone, anywhere can enter to win!

The raffle is being kicked off today, so don’t delay in making your donations…wouldn’t want to miss out on your chance to win that new Pulse you’ve been eyeing, would you?

Don’t forget to visit the Facebook fan page for the latest updates as well.

Happy hump day, jump day!

Blue skies!

Ashley

Carolina Revisited

Last week Rick and I took a trip to South Carolina for a long weekend. The main purpose of the trip was to visit his aunt who he hadn’t seen since the 80s, but our adrenaline addiction benefitted greatly when we heard that she lived an hour from Skydive Carolina.

So needless to say we spent some time at this Southern DZ!

The first thing you notice when arriving at Skydive Carolina is the HUGE LZ. H.U.G.E. It’s 70 acres! And there are outs everywhere – not that you frequently need them. Even I didn’t have a problem hitting my target

The only issue we really ran into was turbulence and thermals off the runway.

We were pleasantly surprised when we ran into a few jumpers that we met at the Everglades Boogie. We posted up near a group of belly flyers who made us feel right at home and got a chance to jump with one of the freeflyers who we also met in Clewiston.

On the last day of the trip we were able to jump with Justin, a friend from Skydive PA and now a resident of South Carolina – this was the weekend he made Skydive Carolina his home.

The first jump of the day was a little hairy for me – what with getting kicked in the face and almost getting clobbered by another freeflyer. Whew!

After spending a few days there, I have a good feeling that Justin will be right at home there. The people are so nice and down to Earth! There’s a strong community feel, very encouraging. Most of all, people are just there to have a good time – even the teams in training took the time to chat and share in a few laughs.

Another Southern DZ I highly recommend! If you decide to pay this dropzone a visit, tell Annette that Ashley and Rick said hi

Blue skies!

Ashley

What kind of skydiver are you?

So we all know the obvious answer to this – if you’re a belly flyer or free flyer, swooper or camera flyer – but what I’m referring to here is more about your involvement in the sport.

Sure, the great majority of us would prefer to have the ability to make a skydive anytime the urge hits us – which, let’s be honest here, is practically every hour of every day – but due to things like careers, obligations or even just personal choice, we become a certain type of skydiver.

Based on my experiences at a number of different dropzones are the country, I came up with a list of categories. Of course, this is intended to be a fun list of very subjective classifications based on my observations as a fairly new skydiver, so please take it as such. I’m interested to see where people think they fall!

Some of these overlap a little, and there is a possibility to be in more than one category in some instances (in my case, I fall into two of these classifications). If there’s anything I’m overlooking or you have a category you’d like to add, please chime in with a comment! Now onto the list!

The Careerist – these are the DZOs, the tandem instructors, the full-time videographers and riggers of the world – the people who have made skydiving their career. I’ve seen this in a number of lights: some do it to make $ to jump more and then fun jumps become few and far between, others make it work for themselves and they still take time to fun jump with their pals and of course there are variations in between. But either way, most of your time is spent at the DZ, if you’re not living there

The Frequenter – these are the people who have the ability to carve out lots of time (and money) for skydiving. Whether they have unusual work schedules, own their own businesses, or they’re the type you always wonder exactly what it is they do, they’re always up for a jump, no matter when or where. These are the go-tos when it comes to organizing mid-week jumps – you can always count them in for a random day of skydiving.

The Organizer – these are the people who frequently organize the jumping days. There could be sub-categories here, like the travelers who are always organizing groups to go to a bigger DZ or boogies, the mid-week jumpers who are trying to fill loads so they can get up, or even the dirt dive kings of the world who decide exactly what point will be turned on the next skydive. Regardless of how, these people get things done, they get people to jump.

The Weekend Warrior - most often these are the people with day jobs who work pretty typical hours and are available to skydive on the weekends. This is me in a nutshell. I can get the occasional day or afternoon off to make a few jumps, but for the most part weekends are committed to skydiving so long as long as the weather plays nice. I’m also one of those people who doesn’t quite know what to do when it rains on a Saturday afternoon.

The Weekday Warrior – reverse of the Weekend Warrior, these are people who tend to work more on weekends and have random week days free. They’re also usually the organizers of the mid-week jumps.

The Traveler – the person who doesn’t necessarily have a “home” dropzone and spends lots of time traveling to other DZ, events and boogies. This also includes those jumpers who fly their personal aircraft into whatever DZ they feel like jumping at that weekend (oh to be a pilot, I’d love to take advantage of that!). I definitely consider myself a traveler, I love visiting new DZs, jumping new aircraft and meeting lots of great skydivers along the way.

(Still from one of David Schwartz’s videos last weekend at Skydive Carolina – freefly with Rick and Justin)

The Occasionalist - from my experience, these are the people who busy day jobs, families and lots of personal obligations on the table. They are busy people, juggling lots of activities. They make it to the dropzone when they can, but it’s not the top priority. Someone with a life outside of skydiving…you’ve gotta respect that!

The Groupie - at first this term sounds negative, but I promise it’s not. These are the people who really fit in at the dropzone, the people you look forward to seeing when you’re skydiving, but that may not jump that often, if at all, for one reason or another. These are the jumpers that make the after-hours bonfire  just that much more fun! They get the sport, they’ve jumped, but they’re mostly there for the community and/or to support someone who falls into one of the above categories. It takes a very patient and understanding soul to be able to put up with all the type As at a dropzone

So, that’s what I’ve got. What’ve I missed? Any categories you’d like to add?

Taking words from my interview with Norman Kent, no matter which group(s) you fall into, embrace it!

As a pretty typical Weekend Warrior, I’ll be the first to admit that I had higher expectations for myself than is actually possible, but then again I’m the type of person who thinks she can do it all and punishes herself (and sometimes those around her) when she can’t.* I’d love to be able to set my own schedule and make jumps at my leisure, but of course, who wouldn’t? Sure, I envy those jumpers who can head out on a sunny day mid-week to make some jumps together, but then again, I’m blessed to have enough vacation time to travel to different dropzones and meet some great people along the way. And during the week, I do have a day job I enjoy, so really, how can I complain too much?

In the end, it balances out. That’s the take-away message here. Be proud of the type of skydiver you are! In the end, we’re all skydivers who enjoy the time we spend together in the air and on the ground, and that’s what really matters.

Blue skies!

Ashley

*this is my way of publicly apologizing for being a douche. Sometimes my words get the best of me – I’m only human.

Weekend Happenings

Hello beautiful weather! Spring is finally here, which means skydiving season is in full swings. So it’s time for another Weekend Happenings.

For those who many not be aware, I usually posted these on Friday, but seeing as I’m going to already be jumping out of the Otter at Skydive Carolina come Friday, thought I’d provide y’all with these updates a day early.

If you’re in the Carolinas, c’mon over and jump with me! If not, here are some other things that are happening in our community:

• 4/17, Skydive Hollister, Hollister, CA. Brian Germain is hosting a parachute flight course. I’ve heard great things – you should definitely check it out! More details on DZ.com.
• 4/17, Keystone Skydiving Center (PA) is holding their season opener this weekend. More info here.
• 4/17, Connecticut Parachutists is hosting a beginner RW camp…if you’re into that sort of thing Check it out.

Where ever you end up this weekend, hope there are blue ones!

Ashley

The small victories

(This is the one where I hope it doesn’t sound like I’m full of myself…take note, this post goes beyond just me, to my partner and fellow freeflyers. These past couple weeks have been incredible for everyone!)

I’ve been saying it for months, and it’s so true – skydiving is all about the little victories. Some of the best jumps I’ve had are those where we come down talking about the small improvements we’re seeing.

The past couple weeks I’ve really seen improvement with me and my freefly partner. We’ve been lucky enough to jump with some incredible freeflyers on random skydives that were not only incredibly fun, but very helpful to the learning curve!

We’ve been working for months on our relativity and forward movement / side sliding in sit. Our last few skydives have shown incredible improvement in this. It’s like, all of a sudden, something clicked!

There’s something to be said for jumping in groups of 3, 4 and 5, where there’s always someone to dock on. You’re also forced to make it to the low man or you’re going to be watching that skydive from the outside. Now who wants that?!

(Fun three-way with Susie. I bailed out of the dock because I had too much forward speed.)

(This 5-way campfire turned into a couple of two-ways, but there was a lot of penetration going on up there! – Now would be a good time to remove your head from the gutter. Thanks ).

This weekend at Skydive PA I finally nailed a controlled stand to make it down to the group. What an incredible feeling! Standing had always been my weakness, but as a smaller jumper it’s a critical skill in freefly. So I’m pumped for this success.

Wishing I had the video to share from that 4-way freefly, but my camera died so you’ll just have to take my word for it .

On top of that, you can’t forget about the head downs, transitions, forward and side movement that were accomplished in the sky this weekend. Not only does it feel great to have these successes yourself, but when you’re able to witness someone else’s victories, it’s just as rewarding!

(Rick showing us what it’s all about! We had some fun under canopy. I’m loving the Sabre 1)

This is one thing I truly love about the sport – there’s so much to learn and there are always new ways to improve. It’s the ultimate self-improvement activity! And in the end, you have plenty of reasons to celebrate around the bonfire with a cold beer.

What areas have you seen yourself progressing lately – in and out of skydiving?

Blue skies!

Ashley

Happy Anniversary

Last week was the 1 year anniversary of my first skydive.

It’s hard to believe how much my life has changed since that day. I make it a point not to discuss my life in too much depth, after all, you’re not here to listen to me talk about myself. It’s about the sport!

But given that I’ve been blogging about it for nearly a year, and I’ve politely avoided the personal inquiries along the way, I thought it might be time to provide a little insight into the author of this little corner of the universe I like to call my blog

This is a combination of a meme and the type of questions I’d ask the Experts in the Friday column – though oddly enough most of it relates to skydiving in some way. Since I’m far from being an expert in anything, especially skydiving, I certainly don’t see this worthy of a Friday post.

So for those who have inquired, or those who may be mildy interested (why, what’s wrong with you?) here’s a little about me and my experiences.

Do you think relationships are ever really worth it? Of course! Relationships are what life is all about.

Well kids, that’s enough about me for this year. Next post will be back to skydiving – I promise it’ll be much more interesting

Blue skies!

Ashley

Video update: freefly

Wanted to provide a short video update – from my perspective.

The first is a two-way freefly with my partner at Skydive Pennsylvania in mid-March.

The second is a much anticipated 2-way sitfly with Christa. This was a long time coming – so fun. This girl and I do not get up in the air together enough!

The last is a two-way freefly with Rick. The video does not do this exit justice – it was SO MUCH FUN. At the tail end, if you’re paying attention, you can see his cutaway before my camera shut itself off.

Hoping for more freefly fun this weekend (and no chops)!!

Blue ones!

-Ashley