The PD Blog

The Cats Meow

This weekend we ran into one of our sponsored teams out at the dropzone.  Sebastian Tempest, made up of Chris Ash, Kristina Peterson, Thiago Gomez, Gilles Dutrisac and Patrick Walker, on video cranked out some serious 4 way training on Saturday and Sunday.  They're looking forward to a strong 2008 with many more jumps and plenty of time in the tunnel.  Kris and Gilles(their newest team member) are part of the engineering team here at PD.  They diligently work on creating new canopies, improving existing designs, and testing out crazy ideas during the week; and then rip it up doing 4 way on the weekend(those guys must really love parachutes!). 

Good luck with the upcoming season Tempest!

New Sponsorship Colors

Every few years we like to change things up in PD's Sponsorship program, and now it is time for a little update.  We will be keeping our beloved Orange (or Tangerine/TGR as it's called on our order forms to distinguish it from the regular reserve orange), but adding a black cell.
PD supported Instructors will see the same change, but will be using Lemon as the main color.
Our athletes and instructors have both been very happy using the bright colors and comment that they are easy to spot both in the sky and on the ground - being visible is a good thing!

Thanks to everyone that helped us decide on the new pattern.  As you might know, picking colors is no easy task, but thankfully we had CanoPix to help us with the process.
The first couple of canopies in the new pattern will be delivered in January and we can't wait to start getting pictures from our athletes sporting the new colors!

Perris Fury "Back" Training

Perris Fury recently hosted a tunnel camp in North Carolina's tunnel ParacleteXP.  The first of its kind, a tunnel camp geared towards 8-way.  The camp included participants, from the very successful Perris Fury8 project, and others.

Also, after 4 months of not training due to Chris Farina being out from a back injury, Perris Fury is back in the air!  In May, on landing, Chris Farina fractured 5 vertebrae.  Perris Fury will be training hard throughout September to prepare for the U.S. Nationals in October.

Please enjoy the following videos, one of Fury's recent training in NC and some footage from the 8-way tunnel camp.

Download Fury.wmv

Download Fury8.wmv

Fastrax Blue T-shirts - help support the ladies

Multi-tasker Nik Daniel (cameraman for Perris Fury, Fastrax Blue, Swooper, Aerial Stuntman and all around general jumping bean) just sent out his July/August newsletter.
In there we saw that the US Women's 4-way team, Fastrax Blue, is doing some last minute fundraising for World Meet by selling Fastrax Blue t-shirts for $20.00 each.  Help support the chicks!
Those of you in or around Perris Valley can look up teammember Brianne Thompson to get your shirt or if you would like to get your shirt mailed, place your order via e-mail (include additional $5 for shipping+handling).

Ladies - best of luck at the World Meet, we know you will do great and can't wait to watch you in competition!   
Fans of Fastrax Blue (and all the other PD teams), remember that you can leave comments here on the blog for the team and we will make sure they get passed along - bring on the support!

Mandrin launches a Trident...

Defending National champions Team Mandrin launch a Trident during their June 2008 training camp at Skydive Chicago.  Mandrin's videographer Brian Buckland captures the exit shot.

Team Fastrax Blue Trains for the World Meet 2008

The US Women's 4-Way Team is currently training in Perris for the upcoming World Meet in Maubeuge, France.  This is Fastrax Blue's final training camp before the big event.  The 18th FAI World Formation Skydiving Championships begin August 9 and the US women are going to be a very stong contender.  Here are a couple pictures of their training.  Good luck ladies!

 

PD welcomes team Ranch Fallout!

Hello to everyone from Ranch Fallout! 
We are an advanced-class 4-way team that trains out of the Blue Sky Ranch in Gardiner, NY - where else!   The team consists of David Bauer, David Grabowski, Kimberly Schuyler and Bob Schuyler.  Our 4-way experience varies but we are all eager to learn and continue to improve as a team.
2008 will be Fallout’s second year as a team.  With a lot of jumping and a little bit of luck, we’re hoping to make our mark at this year’s USPA Nationals in Eloy, AZ.  When we’re not training or flying our PD canopies, we also try to make a point of helping out the local rookies and less experienced belly fliers, especially our friends at the Blue Sky Ranch and Mohawk Valley Skydiving.
We’re all about sharing our knowledge and love jumping with new friends so, if you’re ever in the area, be sure to stop by and make a jump with us or stop over for a chat (and with any luck, they won't throw a pie in your face).   This picture is taken when Dave Bauer got pied for his 1000th, and around the same time Kim was served a pie for her 2000th and Bob for his 4000th!
The team would also like to thank PD for welcoming us aboard.  It’s our privilege to be chosen to represent the best that is out there and we look forward to sharing an exciting season with the rest of the PD family.  Now, if only Kolla would get us a wind tunnel for canopies…

Laszlo Andacs - 6000 jumps!

Many of you might know Laszlo's work pretty well as he is an accomplished skydiving photographer, both in the air and on the ground.    His pictures have been published many times in skydiving publications, making their way around the world.   If you are new to the sport or just new to Laszlo, check out his  to see samples of his work or learn more about him.
Laszlo has also written several articles for Parachutist with tips and tricks for interested skydiving photographers and is well known for being incredibly approachable and helpful. If you haven't seen his articles but are hungry for some good advice, check them out in the online Parachutist (issues are November '07, January '08 and March '08)
Anyway - a couple of weeks ago Laszlo jumped out of a perfectly good airplane for the 6000th time, and this time he turned the lens on himself (and his pretty PD canopy) under camera. 
Congratulations Laszlo - we hope the next 6000 will be just as good!

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.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Roberta Mancino featured in Men's Fitness Mag

Italian born skydiver Roberta Mancino (Italian Freestyle Champion and world class freeflyer) was selected the sexiest woman in sports, in an online poll by Men's Fitness Magazine. 
The magazine did a fairly detailed interview with her about skydiving where Roberta does a great job as an ambassador of the sport.

This lady is a lot more than just a pretty face though, make no mistake.  She's a bad-ass flyer both in the air and under canopy and I am certain we will be seeing more of that lady in years to come :)