Winter Travel Time

Winter is fast approaching here in Chicagoland, and it’s about time to start thinking about a winter trip. Last year, as some of you might recall, Rick and I made a trip down to the Everglades boogie in Clewiston, FL. This is where I encountered lots of skydiving milestones like my first cutaway, my 100th skydive, my first shot from a closing pin ice luge, my first skyvan jump…the list goes on.

I was recently asked by a reader, “what is the best dropzone to travel to in the winter?” That’s a tough question to answer…I guess, it depends on what you’re looking for.

Let me elaborate.

Last winter, aside from the Clewiston boogie, we visited a few other dropzones in Florida and fell in love with Zhills (aka, Skydive City). The vibe is great, they have an Otter and a PAC, and they have everything you need right at the DZ. Everyone is so friendly, and it definitely lives up to it’s reputation as the friendliest dropzone in Florida. Though we didn’t attend, I hear the annual Christmas Boogie is pretty lovely.

I’ve also been lucky enough to visit other warm-weather dropzones like Skydive Carolina that have an incredible vibe. Everyone there was so willing to jump with you! Southern hospitality at it’s finest.

If you’re looking to head West, I do have to admit that I don’t have a whole lot of experience in this area, but I can tell you that Elsinore is pretty incredible. We were there for Chicks Rock at the beginning of October, and the otters were turning (as was the skyvan, for that weekend). For a Midwesterner, skydiving between the mountains was a pretty incredible site. I was also amazed with how friendly every was there (notice the trend here…if the staff and jumpers are friendly and welcoming, there’s a much greater chance that I’ll love jumping there. It adds to the experience more than you might think). Of course, I might be a bit bias as I was able to do a little bonding with Ms. Melsinore outside of the DZ before heading home…you may recall the Carls Jr. run in.

Anywhoosits, those are my recommendations for sure. Though I’ve yet to travel there, I’ve heard nothing but great things about Skydive Arizona as well. We’ve tossed around the idea of the Puerto Rico boogie, though it just might not be in the budget this time around.

I’d love to hear any other recommendations all you other jumpers have for winter travel. After all, though I’ve traveled at lot the last couple years, my experience is still pretty limited.

On another note, there are lots of end-of-season / Halloween parties going on this weekend at dropzones around the country. Very excited for my first Halloween at CSC, with a costume contest and $20 jumps for those who decide to jump in costume. I will be taking advantage of that!

If you’re not in the area, here are some other events you might consider checking out:

• Halloween Carnivale – Skydive Arizona: 10/29-10/31. Skydive Arizona goes huge for their Halloween event! Good jumps, good party and a FREE MIRAGE RIG to the best costume! They’ve got Otters, Skyvans, a DC3 and a balloon. They’ll have some kick ass load organizers too…one of my favorite chicks will be there (enjoy your trip Mel).
• “One Dirty Halloween” on the Farm – Skydive the Farm (Georgia): 10/29-10/31. 2 Otters, costume contest, charity raffle, load organizers and more!
• Skydive KY grand opening: 10/30. Skydive KY was asked by the airport to start the skydiving business again. Awesomeness!

Happy Halloween everyone!

Blue ones!

Ashley

I’d rather be skydiving: Segway Edition

For my regular readers, y’all are aware of the fact that I recently made a rather hefty life change and moved back to the Midwest (as I grew up a Michigander), to the city of Chicago. Though we’ve only been here two weeks, I can already tell you that I’m loving it!

This past weekend Rick and I decided to be tourists in our new town and go on a segway tour of the city. I know it’s sounds insanely cheesy coming from the mouth (er, uh, I suppose it would be fingers in this instance) of a skydiver, but this was incredibly fun!

This is what a segway looks like, for those who might not be familiar. And yes, we wore the ridiculous looking helmets.

Our reservations were on Saturday, which ended up being the perfect fall day, and we spent three hours on these machines touring the city without breaking a sweat.

We were able to cover somewhere between 8 and 10 miles and catch the Chicago sights, including:

Soldier Field

Grant Park and Buckingham Fountain

Shedd Aquarium and Museum Campus

Alder Planetarium - which boasts the best view of the Chicago skyline

Millennium Park and the most photographed piece of art in Chicago - Bonus points for those who actually know the name of "the bean"

And they even stopped just outside of museum campus to let us chow down on a Chicago Dog:

If you've never had one, they're a must try!

Of course, the weekend wasn’t complete without a trip to the dropzone where, as I mentioned earlier this week, I got my new canopy all hooked up, flew it for and packed it. Maybe in the near future I’ll do a post on tips for packing new canopies…though in the meantime if you know of any, please send them my way, that thing is a bitch to pack!

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley

It’s all custom!

Well it’s official, my brand new custom rig is complete thanks to the recent addition of my Sabre2 120. It came last week and I’ve been so excited to see it – even more so to fly it!

Custom teal with black ribs, one white and one black cell. LOVE!

Thankfully, CSC has plenty of riggers on staff that don’t mind helping a girl out. Though I’ve seen slinks put together a couple handful of times, I’m still not confident to do it myself. What can I say, I like to have someone who really knows what they’re doing make sure I’m squared away.

Between Doug (the dzo) and two rigger friends it was hooked up in no time. The hard part, was that first pack job. Ugh! Even though I was packing a 120 into a bag and container sized for a 135, it was still a bitch to get in there. It took me 2 attempts to get the slippery ass canopy into the bag, and another three attempts to get my container closed. But let me tell you what, it was worth the struggle.

That first jump was a three way freefly fun jump with Rick and Stephanie. We did a knee lock exit, of sorts, and broke off into a campfire sit. I have to admit my head wasn’t totally in the freefall as I was anticipating deployment.

I was going to pull a bit high, but by the time we broke off and I felt I’d sufficiently tracked away, I was at 3 grand.

The opening was a bit squirrely, with a long, long snivel but sloppy pack job could have lots to do with the weirdness. Once I got situated under canopy I was in heaven. Once again I had a canopy that responded to my direction and I managed to get to the ground in a decent amount of time. The flare was nice and strong…light winds and the landing was tip toe.

I couldn’t be more excited about this canopy. Thanks PD!

It’s too bad that the end of the season is so near. I just might have to plan a warm weather trip for the near future…any suggestions?

Blue skies!

Ashley

I’d rather be skydiving — moving edition

I wish I had something skydiving related to share…truly I do. Unfortunately, in the last week  I’ve only been able to get in one skydive (and it was a solo head down / stand practice — still need much more head down work, that’s for sure), what with the move from Cleveland to Chicago and all.

But I must say, it’s been instant happiness coming here. I love our new place out in the burbs, I love my office and finally being in the same location with people on my team, and I honestly kind of enjoy my commute — it gives me a chance to wind up and wind down from work and I get to do a little walking every day from Union Station to my office (well, I will once our office moves…lots of transitions going on at the moment).

I also love the fact that our new home dropzone (can you believe it, I’m actually calling a dropzone home for once! *gasp*) — Chicagoland Skydiving Center — is less than an hour away. No more 1:45 commute to skyjump. Yay!

The one piece of exciting news is that my new system is almost complete, with the upcoming delivery of my customer Sabre2. It’s going to be so pretty when it’s all done. I’ll be sure to post pics for you!!

Until then, it’s back to work and getting settled.

Blue Skies!

Ashley

Chicks Rock 2010

Five days in Southern California, delayed flights coming home, early morning for catching up at the office….needless to say I’m a little drained today.

But, that won’t stop me from giving a recap of the Chicks Rock boogie! Though I ask you to give me a little compassion on my writing skills as they aren’t up to par with only half a sleepy brain at work.

Anyhow, the 5 days we spent in LA were a blast! We showed up to the boogie on day 1 (Thursday) with high hopes to get in a handful of jumps while my aunt, uncle and cousins (the reason we were in  LA to begin with) were all at work. Well, though we could see the blue skies, this nasty system sat over Skydive Elsinore and kept us on the ground.

So, we tried again on Friday. One jump and weather rolled in…so we headed out a little early.

Saturday the weather played much nicer and we were able to do some more skydiving. I was even able to get onto the sunset all-girls tracking dive with Melanie Curtis (aka, Melsinore). Which, can I just stop for a moment and say, what a cool freakin’ chick! Not just because she’s a totally badass skydiver and swooper, but because she has every reason to be arrogant and full of herself and she’s about as far from that as you can get! She did her best to include so many different girls on the all-chick jumps throughout the weekend (must say, I felt pretty great having her ask me to join the sunset tracking dive) and I’m amazed at how many names she was able to learn in such a short event. On top of that, when we ran into her randomly at the Carl’s Jr. by LAX, she didn’t hesitate to stop and bullshit with us for 10 minutes or so. And that girl knows how to throw a pretty great event!

Throughout the weekend we ran into people we’d met elsewhere, lots of badass skydiving chicks, mingled with the ladies at Blue Skies Mag and some of my favorites (read: Kelly and Gail) over at Infinity. The vibe was very chill and everyone was so friendly. I even heard a story on the packing mats that if you’re going to have a cutaway, Elsinore is the place to do it — apparently they’re quick to retrieve your main, freebag, and even you if you land off. That’s always comforting to hear! Definitely a place I’d like to visit again soon.

Needless to say we had a great weekend (aside from the intense heat that I wasn’t used to, but that’s an entirely different story altogether). Wish I had more than the one video to share, but my pictures from the nigh swoops didn’t come out, so you’ll have to live with that.

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Love and Blue Skies!

Ashley