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!

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!

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.

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.

Rockstar checking out PD

Here is a quick video from Eric's visit to PD - where you can watch him getting the grand tour of PD :)
More to come!

Eric Heger, PD Rockstar, 2008!!

World, please meet Eric Heger, our very own PD Rockstar!!!

Eric took part in the Rockstar Sweepstakes last October, by purchasing and registering his brand new Sabre2 150.  His home DZ is Skydive Pepperell, Massachusetts, so he was pretty happy to be the lucky winner of a trip to sunny  Florida.  During this trip, Eric gets to know PD a bit better and then spend a day with PD's Research & Development Department - by being a test jumper for a day.
We asked Eric what he thought of being randomly selected to be a Rockstar, and he answered (in true rockstar fashion):  F***ing awesome.

Eric has 127 jumps and like many young jumpers just loves everything about skydiving. He says he hasn't really picked a favorite discipline yet, done some RW and some freeflying but enjoys spending time in the air, both in freefall and under canopy. 
We asked Eric if he had any specific goals he was working towards, and he replied that there were enough goals and ambitions in normal life.  Skydiving, Eric said, is time spent having fun, staying safe and keeping on learning.   Wise words there, from a young jumping-jedi.

Eric's buddy Hjalti joined him for the trip - and you can imagine our surprise when we found out that Hjalti is from Iceland (just like the writer of this blog entry).  They met at a Scott Miller canopy course, where Hjalti sat snacking on some pickled fish (in true Icelandic fashion) and have been buddies ever since.
Stay tuned for more to come!

Rockstar?? Really?? Where???

Remember this one???   Well, our Rockstar search has now been going on for a good while, and I have a feeling that we will soon - very soon - know more about the identity of the lucky winner. 
You will be able to read more about here on the PD Blog when the time comes, so check back for updates - soon!

La Isla de Encanto

PD Factory Team members JC Colclasure and Jonathan Tagle recently held a Canopy control course at the XtremeDivers dropzone during the Puerto Rico Freefall Festival. Those who participated in the course all had good things to say about the experience and felt they had improved their canopy skills. Event organizers Jason Gonzalez and Viviana De Jesus put on a first class event that drew 247 registered skydivers over the week. With the beautiful scenery and great weather the boogie is a natural draw for skydivers, especially wingsuiters. With over 25 wingsuiters in attendance many large and small flocks were flown and  reps from Birdman, Fly Your Body and Tony suits made sure demo suits were available for everyone. Just because the jumping day was over didn't mean the fun was. Jason and Viviana made sure the night time activities were well taken care of by hosting a dinner as well as having a weekend DZ party that provided a live DJ and some of Puerto Rico's fine  adult beverages all night for free. If you didn't make it this year put it on next years list of boogies to attend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jonathan Tagle: Extreme Athlete

Jonathan Tagle of the PD Factory Team has been nominated as a potential recipient of the American Latino Awards, in the "Extreme Athlete" category.

Other categories included underground fasion, indie music/film, and more, but we agree - JT fits best in the extreme one (just look at that picture!).   The awards are set up to recognize accomplishments of American Latinos and this is our chance to help one of our favorite swoopers out - and at the same time, bring positive attention to our sport and high performance canopy flight.

So put your clicky finger to work - go  Vote for Pedro Jonathan!

To learn more about the awards, click here.

Danish Design, Part II. The Plot Thickens.

Ughhh oh...  looks like there may still be some kinks to be worked out in the Danish Design quest to waterproof a VISO.   Click here to see installment #2 in this ongoing dramatic series.   Those guys are clearly pregnant with ideas (see picture to the left), and also very brave and very dedicated.  The PD Blog can't wait to see what comes next!