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

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

Cutaway Controversy

One night I dreamt that I had been talking with a friend after skydiving, and he said to me “I knew you’d cut away before your 100th.” The next day, it came true…

A couple weeks back, during the Everglades Boogie at Skydive AirAdventures, I experienced my first cut away. It was an enlightening experience in a number of ways…let me explain.

(And yes, for the record, I already purchased my owed case of beer.)

Friday evening we signed up for a high altitude jump first thing the next morning – after which we jumped on the sunset load to finish out the day.

The weather was beautiful – nothing quite like a sunset Skyvan load – though the wind had picked up slightly.

Naturally, this makes me a little nervous about making it back to the DZ, given that I’m under a canopy that’s proving to be too large for my exit weight. And I was right – the skydive was immensely fun, a 4-way horny gorilla – but I didn’t quite make it back to the LZ. I landed just shy of the target…in the camping area. A fellow skydiver who was firing up his grill about 10 feet from my landing spot gave me a ride back. Nice guy!

So I took this frustration and headed straight to the Aerodyne tent to ask them for a smaller, demo canopy to use on the high altitude jump in the morning.

Given the fact that there was a higher probability of my landing off on a high altitude, I didn’t want to increase those odds by flying my canopy in the higher winds that were expected for the morning.

I worked with the rep, Les, to decide on a canopy to fly. We settled on a Pilot since I was familiar with them as a student.

As he was installing the demo I asked who packed it last and if I should repack the canopy. His words: “This is a brand new canopy and I packed it myself so that should be the least of you worries.”

Perfect! So I was good to go for the morning.

That day I was nervous. Mainly because I was doing a high altitude at an unfamiliar DZ in a little bit of wind – I really didn’t want to land in the sugar cane!

But the jump went well – I was a little late out the door, but was able to hold a sit for 60 seconds or so. It was good practice.

And then, I deployed. Almost instantly (read: as soon as the bag was out of the container) I could feel that something was amiss. Looking up I said to myself  (literally, aloud) “I’ve seen videos of this shit before.” There were countless line twists above my head and I was spinning to the left.

Reaching up and attempting to spread the risers I realized the situation was too far out of hand, the lines weren’t budging. At just under 2,000 feet, I didn’t want to waste anymore time so I reached for the cutaway pillow and chopped.

Before I could even grasp onto that silver handle my reserve was above my head. Thank you RSL.

Now safetly under a crisp, white canopy, I gathered myself, stuck my cut away handle in my teeth (I wasn’t about to be the girl who lost her handles) and steered myself back to the DZ.

I thought for sure with this situation I was going to end up in a sugar cane field somewhere, but with the breeze that had picked up even more, I made it back. Though when I got there, I wasn’t penetrating the wind at ALL, so I had to pick from one of three options:

1) land on the packing tend

2) land on top of the skyvan

3) gracefully set myself down on the tarmac between the two

I went for the latter and prepared to PLF like it was my job. The winds helped set me down on my feet and luckily there were plenty of people nearby who rushed over to pluck my canopy out of the air before it touched the concrete.

As expected, Les was there to meet me after the cut away – though not quite with the message I had anticipated. He briefly interrogated me on why I cut away his canopy (to which I responded “because I wanted to live”), then, with clear frustration, he headed off to “find it.”

Lucky for everyone, both the canopy and freebag landed at the edge of the airport and were retrieved unharmed.

I was then approached by two Performance Designs reps who had no idea I was testing out a canopy, but wanted to see if I was alright and inquire about the malfunction. I instantly gained a lot of respect for PD. Throughout the weekend I talked with Karl about accuracy and tips for packing to ensure that things like this don’t happen in the future.

Feeling rather exhilerated, I disregarded the attitude the Aerodyne rep presented, and headed over to meet Rick. The extra adrenaline rush was really starting to hit me. The event seemed so clear (though now it’s rather fuzzy – wish I would have worn the GoPro on that jump after all) and I was feeling like I could do anything. Hell, I just saved my own life!

Thankfully, Thomas was available for a rush repack, so we headed up to the rigging loft. While I was waiting, Les came back to me with my canopy in hand (my personal canopy, not the cutaway). He proceeded to blame me for cutting away a canopy he seemed to believe was landable.

What gets me more than anything is that the thought never crossed my mind to be upset with Aerodyne – and yet that’s exactly how they approached me.

I was completely taken aback by the disrespect and lack of concern for my safety that he displayed, so were other onlookers.

Jokes began to fly that I cut away a perfectly good Aerodyne canopy because I knew I had a better PD reserve to use. Which of course, was not the case. Funny, none the less.

After spending time talking with lots of different folks about the incident, it’s uncertain the exact cause of the malfunction – precisely where a helmet cam would have come in handy. From body position to a bad pack job, it could be any number of things, or a combination of these factors. Regardless, as the pilot of that canopy I had a decision to make, and chopping was the right one for me. Even with some of the doubt I’ve encountered along the way, I look back with confidence and say “I had to cut that canopy away.”

One thing I’ve learned by talking to others is that other skydivers will always question your malfunction and doubt your decision to cut away. But the truth is, I was there and they were not – and in the end I learned that I can do it and it’s nothing to sweat. When you’re in that moment and you have to pull that handle, you just do it. Nothing else exists but that moment as you release your main from the container.

Though some of it is fuzzy, I look back on certain details of the malfunction with great clarity – the feel of the cut away pillow, the sound of the main releasing. I look back on the incident with an odd fondness as I walked away a more confident and knowledgable skydiver.

Blue Skies!

Ashley