The PD Blog

New York Times article on skydiving!

Those skydivers that subscribe to the New York Times woke up to a pleasant surprise on the front page of the Sports section this morning - an article on skydiving!!
We at PD have known it was coming for a little while, but didn't want to spoil the surprise.   

A few weeks ago Matt Higgins, a NY Times reporter, started working with Shonda Smith (Communications Director at USPA), writing a story about skydiving.  As a part of his research, Matt even did an AFF jump at Skydive DeLand, visited PD to learn more about building parachutes and finally came to watch a swoop competition at Skydive Palatka.   Matt said he really enjoyed the jump even if his landing was a little bit less than graceful - but hey, we've all had those right....   

We here at PD are quite impressed with the enthusiasm and dedication Matt and Diane put into this project.  It is great example of professional journalism when compared to many other times skydiving shows up in the media.  We must also send some props to Shonda and the gang at USPA for help making this happen - we may not always see it, but USPA Headquarters staff is hard at work behind the scenes, serving the members and promoting our sport.  Go Team!

Since I'm not sure that too many skydivers subscribe to the NY Times (even if it's a stellar publication), without further ado - I present you the very fabulous NY Times article.  It also features an awesome video put together by Diana Olivia Cave, who followed Matt on his journey armed with a giant high def camera (except suspiciously she didn't seem to catch Matt's landing...  hmmm!!).  You can either check it out as a part of the article or go straight to it here. There are many familiar faces to be seen in that video, cool interviews and some fun stuff as well.   Enjoy!

PD visits Iowa

Well I just got off the plane he in Iowa.  For those of you that may not know, Iowa is my home state.  Skydive Iowa throws a spring boogie every year in the small town of Brooklyn.  Rook Nelson, from Team Mandrin, flies one of his otters over for the weekend.  This weekend is the first NPSL meet of the season. 

This year Skydive Iowa has a few guests from the Deland area.  Ward, with Mirage systems, Greg with UPT Vector and free fall coach, Chromy all made the trip for the event. 

It's great to be able to come back and work an event at my old DZ. 

Hope you guys like the picture of me and my mom.  Check back later for pictures from the event.

 

World meet HENRIK, the OTHER Rockstar!

I'm sure you have by now heard all about our Test jumper rockstar, Eric Heger.
But, you might remember that the 2nd prize in the Rockstar Sweepstakes was an Optimum reserve - and the lucky winner of that one was Henrik Csuri, from Woodridge, IL.

When Henrik was notified by Morten, his first response was as follows:

Mr. Pedersen!

Is this real, or a spam?

 

Sincerely

Henrik Csuri

- we got a good chuckle out of that one :)
Henrik started jumping in 2005 when he got bored one Sunday afternoon (we have heard of worse reasons to go jumping...).  His friend (busy working towards his A-license) invited Henrik to come along to the DZ to check it out, and the rest is history.
In Henrik's own words:

Everybody seemed to have fun, and I decided: "what the heck, I'm already here, might as well" As with many of us, I was hooked after the very first jump. Not only on skydiving, but also the community itself!
I'm currently a C license holder with 200+ jumps. I prefer freeflying, but mainly just want to be in the air having fun. When others ask me about skydiving I tell them to look at the sky, and tell me what do You see?! What I see is a playground, where I can meet with my friends!

I've decided to buy a PD Sabre II as my first canopy to the recommendation of Doug Smith (CSC DZO), and I love the canopy, although in down the road (with more jumps) I would like to test the Katana.
I'm one of the "fortunate" to have already tried my own PD Reserve (once), and I was very satisfied with it. Looking forward to become the owner of a new Optimum Reserve, and hopefully not having to use it!
PD, thanks again! What a way to start the season!

Enjoy the groovy pictures, but remember not to try this at home (unless you are at Henrik's house and can be supervised by him).  He also noted that the canopy was removed from the box before the candle stunt, phewww :)
Henrik, enjoy your new Optimum and thanks for playing in the Sweepstakes!

Home from Brazil

We arrived back to Deland yesterday from our visit to Boituva.  Big thanks to our old and new friends in South America.  We're looking forward to our next visit.  We've noted a couple things for our blog readers to keep in mind if your heading to Brazil....

• Keep right, yellow man, no stop(ask Nick if you see him)
• Cachaca, its good for the body and your car
• You must push the clutch in to start the car
• Just because the car is off does not mean the radio is
• Brazil toll booth do not take dollars, nor do they speak English
• Obrigado
• Brazilians are very very nice people
• Interstates double as side walks
• Boituva, more skydiving schools than a dozen eggs.
• Just because the police have their flashy lights on and they're following you doesn't mean you have to pull over
• Motorcycles don't stop for red lights
• Brazilians love their coffee
• James Dean has quit acting, moved to Brazil and now runs a Hotel.
• Eat more MEAT!

Rockstar at the DZ

The next installment in the Rockstar saga is ready - this one features Eric having a good time at Skydive DeLand, getting to experience what it is like to be a PD TESTJUMPER (the coolest of the cool... yeahh....).
Check it out.

Tempest Skills Camp in Sebastian

Last weekend Sebastian Tempest held a 4 way skills camp at Skydive Sebastian. 10 participants attended and did mostly 2-on-2 skydives with members of the team.  The weather was perfect and allowed the skills camp to proceed as planned and all jumps were completed on schedule.
Saturday night there was a group dinner followed by the traditional Sebastian Tempest ice cream cake for dessert (part of the teams very strict training diet). 
Everyone had a great time and improved their 4 way and relative work skills. The weekend was a success for both the participants and team Sebastian Tempest, as they got to try out their new PD sponsored canopies.  The Sebastian skies were filled with orange, silver, and white.
Ari, Crash, and Pat even shared the PD fun with the cute Red Bull girls wandering the landing area (very altruistic of them, trying to get some exposure for PD.  The PD Blog doesn't think for one second that they were just trying to chat up the Red Bull chicks...  or... maybe... hey... wait a minute.....!!).

Tempest is planning on more skills camps in the future and will announce those through the Skydive Sebastian website.  Get in on the next one for some 4-way fun!

PD goes Golfing!

A few of PD's finest joined together to form a team to participate in the Defending Freedom Golf Tournament, a four-person-scramble (not to be confuse with the Z-Hills scrambles event in a totally different four-person event).   This was a part of the 2nd annual Defending Freedom weekend, put on by CPS, to show appreciation for troops wounded in service to their nation and country. 


Reported by Lou - PD's Marketing Manager
(and closet Golf Pro)

I met the rest of the PD team (Joe, Lou, Kevin and Gilles) at the driving range. Our manly salmon-colored shirts were the talk of the day (but girls loved it).  My practice swings were half decent - I don’t know about you, but I can usually predict my level of misery in the course based on my performance at the driving range.
Ian, Jason, and Shannon from the PD Factory Team swooped in the driving range right before the start of the event. They performed their signature synchronized landing and looked great. Although no one said it, I am sure that we were all thinking the same thing: …humm… It would be cool to whack a couple of balls at them when they fly by.
We didn’t have one of those nice GPS units that tell you the distance to the pin from any location on the course, but we did have music! We rigged an ipod with speakers – it looked like something out of the movie Caddy Shack. Classic rock and 80’s music topped our list. By the way, I think our best holes were played with Dire Straits.
The course was frigging difficult! EVERY hole was flanked by water, but the beer girl made it all better… She looked like a goddess – even better – a beer goddess. With that said, having her around didn’t really improve our game. She kept us distracted (drooling) and – due to the abundance of beer – we had to make multiple trips to the bushes.
In the end we didn’t win. But the most important thing is that we didn’t receive the “most honest team” award (read: worst score). Shannon and Ian took that one… They scored 81.

Spanish Nationals - Final Results

Well the competition is finally over and what a competition it was. Conditions were tough, mostly downwind, and many took a tumble or worse. A few made the brave decision to stand down on the odd round and there were also a couple of casualties with some broken bones, but we're assured that they'll recover. As previously mentioned Bruno set a new record on his Velocity 111 although it will remain unofficial. The video can be seen here. The final results were:

1. Wutzi Wagner
2. Pablo Hernandez
3. Michael Vaughan

The prize giving and party were really great. The atmosphere was fantastic and everyone was super friendly. If you haven't been to this meet then definitely put it in your diary for next year.