Tuesday, August 7, 2012

The Great Summer of Skydiving

Not since the early X Games or Point Break has skydiving been so prominently featured in the public eye. Skydiving has been front and center this season and for those of us in the industry - it’s been awesome!!

Let’s start with the viral video and news piece that went viral around the world! If you haven’t seen it yet - then check it out below.



The jumper’s name is Gary Connery and he accomplished the absolute unthinkable. He jumped out of a helicopter in a wingsuit and never deployed his parachute. He landed in a huge pile of boxes and walked away completely unscathed. He wasn’t limping...he wasn’t faking that he wasn’t limping...it was as if he just walked in from the field with his parachute over his back having just enjoyed a great skydive....but his parachute was still packed!!! For those of  us in the industry, we were certain he was as good as dead. He certainly proved us wrong!! At the end of the jump, the media swarmed him in total disbelief. One of the BBC reporters asked him what was next. He said (and I’m paraphrasing) “lots of big things!” The reporters wanted to know more, but Gary wouldn’t say a word. Turns out it was big alright. Gary has now made the most famous skydive in the world - on primetime in front of a global audience of a billion people! Gary was the man who pretended to be Queen Elizabeth jumping out of a helicopter with James Bond into the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympic Games. If you were one of those billion humans who watched the opening ceremony then here it is:



To say Gary has had an incredible summer would be an understatement. This Englishman, from a country where skydiving is not a huge pastime due to the weather, has brought more attention to the sport than many have done over decades. We’re thankful that nothing went wrong! Thanks Gary! We’ll comp a jump for you if you come and jump with us! ;-)

World Record - 138-Way
Last week was a big week as well with the setting of a new world record. 138 skydivers, linked together flying on their heads. The technical difficult of this is astounding and is why it took more than a dozen attempts to get it done. What occurred last week received media attention around the world and is truly amazing. Have a look:


 
 
 
 
 
 
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Red Bull Stratos. If you haven’t heard of this then you will. Right now test jumps are in progress for Felix Baumgartner who is the ‘lucky’ guy who gets to make the highest jump ever made. So far he’s jumped from 96,000 feet. When the time comes for the actual jump from 120,000 feet, Red Bull’s marketing team will have full smiles as every piece of news coverage in the world will report on this and say the magic words ‘RED BULL.’ Of course, it’s brilliant marketing and one heck of an adventure!  Here’s a video to the build up!



So skydiving is in the limelight and we’re loving it. Lastly, we’d love to share a great video that recently came out called ‘Why We Skydive.’ The feeling of skydiving is very difficult to explain and the general public typically thinks of all of us as crazy....throwing ourselves out of planes and all. But I think this video explains it pretty well.

Why We Jump from EnglishJon.com on Vimeo.


If you’ve never jumped with us and you’re checking out our website for the first time, we look forward to sharing in the jumping experience with you!

Blue skies,

James

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