USPA member Deb Penrod brought this to our attention, and we thought it was well worth sharing. Go to www.newyorker.com/captioncontest before June 15 and submit a caption.

"It's the New Yorker's weekly cartoon caption contest - this one is a jumper with a belly-mount standing in the door of a house, canopy out, looking/talking to a woman inside in a bathrobe and hair curlers. (I sent in "My instructor told me to take up bowling". Oh well, no one ever said I have a sense of humor.)

It seems like a great outlet for hilarious skydiving humor, with a guaranteed audience of zillions over the next few weeks on two different hits. The New Yorker publishes three final contenders for the winner and then readers vote for their favorite, which then also gets published.

Seems like it also could be a good publicity/PR exercise for skydiving, with a very affluent readership. Free advertising for the sport.

Deb Penrod
D24532"

Thanks for the heads-up, Deb. We'll keep you posted on the winning caption - maybe it'll be by one of you!

Blue skies,
Lara

Susan and I are here at the USPA SkyFest booth, taking over for Ed and Randy O. who left yesterday. If you are here, come say hello! We are between Sonic (Ulster County Containers and Canopies, aka UC3) and Tony (Tony Suits), right across from the SkyFest tent.

We have ice cold water (and more for after the beer light goes on tonight) to cool you off. See you soon!

-Lara

Thanks to all our great skydiving moms/top friends! You'll forever be in our May Moms friend category, but it's June (already!?!) and time to show off the skydiving dads. So, if you're a proud papa, let us know and we'll put you in our top friends.

To our new friends, welcome! And, welcome to our little Top Friends tradition. Every month we'll pick a new theme and if you fit the theme, let us know and we'll bump you up to a top slot. If you visit our Friends Categories, you can see everyone who was in a past month, plus Drop Zones and College Clubs. If you have a good idea for a theme or friend category, send us a message.

Happy Father's Day, everyone!

Blue skies,
Lara

Check out the latest Honda commercial, filmed live in Lillo, Spain and aired on UK tv. (Google "difficult is worth doing", too) Pretty sweet stuff, and coincidentally, the subject of a feature in the July Parachutist. Be sure to read it for some great behind the scenes stories.

We also have another "Making of" article in the July issue, for the really unique skydiving scene in the movie "Get Smart."

Have a great weekend everyone, and good luck with your own Difficult Is Worth Doing jumps :)

Lara

It's been almost a year since Parachutist went through its redesign, and we want to know what you think.

Do you like any of the new sections (Featured Instructor, Ask a Rigger, Pages From a Logbook, Featured DZ, etc.)? Do you enjoy the newer features in the magazine that have replaced some of the boogie articles (Getting Up There: Jump Planes Through the Years, Legends of the Sport, How Skydiving Changed My Life, Taking Skydiving Photographs)? What about the extras located throughout the magazine (Featured Artwork, Parachutist Around the World, Featured Poetry, crossword puzzles, This Month in History, comic strips)?

The magazine is always a work in progress, so please let us know what you do or don't like about the direction it's headed. E-mail your comments (good and bad) to communications@uspa.org.

With the launch of USPA's redesigned website coming soon, we'll also have an online survey to make it easy for you to rate each month's issue and give us valuable feedback. Thanks for helping us keep your membership magazine something you look forward to each month.

Lambert
Managing Editor, Parachutist

Several months ago, USPA sent out a press release on swooping. It caught the interest of The New York Times, and reporter Matt Higgins was assigned a story on the subject. After weeks of coordinating, the Florida Canopy Pilot's Association League meet in Palatka seemed to fit best into everyone's schedule.

Matt arrived at Skydive DeLand a few days before the meet to try skydiving himself through an AFF jump. It went well except for the landing, which left him with a twisted ankle and a bit of a bruised ego. He shook it off and was eager to learn more about the sport. After meeting up with him and hearing about his experience, I took him and Times videographer, Diana, over to Performance Designs, where he got a tour from PD's sponsorship coordinator Kolla Kolbeinsdottir and was able to speak with PD Vice President John LeBlanc.

From there, we headed to Palatka to settle in and ready ourselves for the meet the next day. Weather certainly wasn't on our side: The practice day was completely rained out, and Saturday was winded out, with gusts over 30 mph most of the day. We weren't off to a good start, but the forecast looked promising for Sunday. The weather improved, but the bad luck remained, with aircraft problems and two injuries during the meet. Anything that could go wrong certainly did, but Diana and Matt had great attitudes and both took the time to get to know the competitors and understand what drives them to compete in the discipline.

By the end of the weekend, Diana, who had sworn off jumping from the beginning, decided to give it a try by making a tandem. She loved it and is already making plans to take her husband on a jump!

After a couple months of the story getting bumped for bigger news items, it finally ran in today's issue of The New York Times. The video even made page one of the newspaper's online version, with Matt's story on page one of the sports section.

Despite the weather and other obstacles, Matt and Diana both put a positive spin on the story and really promoted the sport. It's a great day for skydiving!

Shonda Smith
Director of Communications

It's May, and that means a new theme for our Top Friends. Thanks Rosanna, for choosing this great theme - moms who skydive, in honor of Mother's Day. So, if you're a jumping mama (or know someone who is) let us know and we'll put them in our Top Friends.

If you're a new jumper or friend, check out our categories of friends. Got a question about what it's like to be both a mom and a skydiver? Maybe some of our May Top Friends will have some advice for you. Or, maybe you want to find out about freeflying - April's "head-down" friends probably could help you out. And of course, all the drop zones on myspace (that we know about - let us know if your dz should be included but isn't) are in our Drop Zones friend category.

Hopefully May is bringing great springtime jumping weather where you are - now get out and enjoy it!

Blue skies,
Lara

We see that MySpace has made it even easier for you to check out all our 2,208 (and growing) awesome Friends, a.k.a. your fellow USPA members, skydivers, and supporters. When you look at our complete friends list, you can now also see Categories. Right now we have Drop Zones and April’s Head-Down Top Friends.

Each month when we change our Top Friends theme, you’ll be able to go back and see who was in month’s past. And feel free to send us suggestions for future months - Gav gave us our April theme, head-down, and Rosanna came up with the great idea of skydiving moms for May (Mother’s Day) and dads for June (Father’s Day).

Are there other categories you think we should have? Maybe a category of Mentors - people willing to be contacted by new or beginning skydivers about their experiences? How about Teams? Or Regions? College Clubs? Let us know what you’d use, and don’t forget that this USPA MySpace page can be used to attract people to our awesome sport, which we’ll start to focus on more this year.

So friends, thanks for being part of our world!

PS - If you’re a drop zone or club and we’ve left you out of our DZ Category, please shoot us a quick note so we can include you.

Shonda and I are at the PIA Symposium in Barcelona! Booths opened yesterday and today we are at it again, meeting people from all over the world.

Our booth features a "You on the Cover of Parachutist" (the picture to the right features BirdMan founder/guru/leader Jari Kuosma - click for full size!) and a map of all American drop zones.

Most of the people here are from Europe, so we have packets of information for them - what they need to know when they come jump in the States, plus a cool USPA luggage tag and temporary tattoo. (Which we just might bring home if we don't run out!) Be sure to give them a warm American welcome if you see a foreign jumper at your drop zone!

We are next to American companies PD, SunPath, UPT, and European friends Viplo, JoJo Wings, MarS and BirdMan. Be sure to check out PD's blog with PIA updates, and the BirdMan website for more from Espana, too.

Better get back to the booth - and hopefully some yummy tapas and sangria later tonight...

Cielos azul!
Lara

Over the past couple of months we've heard a few complaints (and some compliments) about the delivery times of Parachutist. We switched mailing processes when we redesigned the magazine (July 2007) for two reasons: We're now able to track delivery times, and the new way is cheaper. We want to make sure it's working for our members, so fill out our survey and let us know.

Magazines within the continental U.S. should arrive by the 10th of the month (January issue arrives by January 10). Let us know if yours is not arriving by then. We can double-check that we have your address current on file and that it was sent to the printer. We can also check to make sure that it was delivered to the bulk mailing unit in your area by a reasonable date. If both come out on track, we may ask you to contact your local post office. They can make a note of the delayed delivery and further research why it's taking so long to get to you after they receive the issue. Either way, we can work with you to get your magazine to you on time and in good condition.  

Note: If you recently changed your address it could take up to 45 days to receive the first Parachutist at your new address.

If you're interested in the process of getting Parachutist from Headquarters in Virginia to your doorstep, read on:

Around the 10th of the month, the Parachutist staff sends an electronic version of the magazine to our printer, located in Minnesota. From there, a hard-copy proof is processed and sent back to us the next day. Once we sign off on the proof, it's put in the production queue at the printing facility. The printing and binding process takes about a week.

From there, it's sent to a co-mailing facility in Illinois where they print the addresses and separate the magazines into zip codes. This process takes about two days. The issues are then co-mailed (sent in bulk with other similarly sized publications) to USPS Bulk Mail Centers (BMC's) or Sectional Center Facilities (SCF's) around the country (around the 22nd of the month). This co-mailing process saves us approximately 10 percent of the total shipping costs. When delivered to the units, they are sorted and given to the local postal carriers to be delivered to your doorstep.

Hopefully we're doing a good job, both at saving USPA members' money and getting the best possible Parachutist to you as quick as possible. Let us know how we're doing - good or bad!

What a year 2007 was! It started off tragically, with several fatal canopy collisions before the end of March. We were bracing for what might be a bad year for skydiving accidents. But USPA took proactive steps and asked all members to exercise more discipline under canopy and all S&TAs and drop zones to separate jumpers using a high performance landing approach from those who choose to fly a standard landing pattern.

After the dust settled at the end of the year, there were no additional collisions and 2007 ended with only 18 fatalities, the lowest number since 1961 finished with 14. With the membership now nearly 10 times larger than it was in 1961, and certainly making more skydives than ever before, this is a monumental achievement!

Every member of USPA played a part in reducing the number of fatalities. With some hard work and a little luck, the 2008 number can drop even lower. Start your spring off on the right foot by attending or assisting with Safety Day at your drop zone!

Blue Skies,
Safety and Training

1. Blog more.
2. Re-design our page to feature USPA Group Member drop zones & college groups who also have MySpace pages.
3. Bring back the "theme of the month" for our Top Friends slots.
4. Take advantage of the amazing MySpace community for feedback, advice, help - and fun!
5. Add more pics and video to our profile (with your help of course).
6. Use the MySpace page to educate future skydivers on our awesome sport.
7. Check out more of your cool pages, pics and videos.

Any more we should add to our list?

Happy New Year and blue skies, everyone!
USPA

It's like a big skydiving boogie—only different, and better! Nearly 1,000 jumpers registered this year. Jump planes fire up every morning and run all day, but the coolest thing is being able to see every skydiving discipline there is, with the best skydivers doing it. It's USPA's National Skydiving Championships at Skydive Chicago, and it's going on this week.

Of course you have your serious teams and competitors that have made hundreds of training jumps all year long in preparation for their event, but you also have a bunch of pick-up teams and jumpers who just want to take part while they watch and learn from the very best. Catch all the action, look up your local DZ's teams or competitors, or follow any discipline at Omniskore. There will also be a full write-up in the November issue of Parachutist.

Want to see your face in the magazine and help spread the word about your organization's monthly publication? We're now featuring pictures of our members reading Parachutist in front of an identifiable foreign or exotic place in the newly redesigned magazine. So, get someone to snap a quality picture of you (or any other current USPA member) reading Parachutist in front of something recognizable as a well-known world landmark. Please make sure it's something people would recognize, as it wouldn't do us much good to run a pic of you in front of a building that could be in any U.S. city. For example, it could be in front of the Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, the Great Wall of China, the Washington Monument, etc.

Ideally, the picture should have three simple things:

• Your (or another current member's) face
• You (or the person in the picture) reading a copy of Parachutist
• Some identifiable or noteworthy landmark in the background

Send your exclusive submission, along with caption information and your membership number, to communications@uspa.org. We're already looking for submissions for our next issue, so we'll take them as soon as you have them.

Lambert
Managing Editor, Parachutist

What do you think of the new PARACHUTIST? We hope you like the new look, but we're up for hearing what you have to say whether it's good or bad. Feel free to let us know specifically what you think works and what doesn't. The magazine is still a work in progress, so we're always looking for your input.

Do you have a rigging-related question for our new column, "Ask a Rigger"? If so, please submit it to communications@uspa.org for publication consideration. It should be a middle-of-the-road question, meaning not something so simple (like "What's that shiny handle on my left lift web for?"), but not anything that would take more than 200-250 words to answer (nothing like "Explain the molecular composition of a steering line."). Maybe something along the lines of "How do I know when my steering lines should be replaced?" or "How do I know if my closing loop is too tight?"). Please include your full name and license number with your submission.

Lambert
Managing Editor, Parachutist

USPA wants to hear your skydiving stories. We are looking for testimonials on a variety of topics from people who have made one jump, to experienced skydivers with 10,000 jumps. If you've ever jumped out of a perfectly good airplane, we want to hear about it!

Send us your written stories (around 200 words for each piece, please, but feel free to send in more than one!), videos (or links to YouTube, MySpace or other hosted videos), pictures, podcasts, blogs, anything! Be sure to include your full first and last name, USPA number and license (if applicable), e-mail address and phone number.

We will be using these in a variety of mediums, including possibly print, online and others. We'll be sure to let you know if/when we do use your submission.

Topics:

Your First Skydive—Tell us about any one of the following—at the DZ, in the plane, exit, freefall, under canopy, landing and after the jump—or your jump as a whole. Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing ...

1. At the drop zone—Describe the place—what kind of building is the DZ in; is it far from your town in the middle of nowhere, or surprisingly close to your house? What was the atmosphere like? Were people jumping when you got there? What was your instructor like; how were you introduced to him or her and what did they tell you?
2. In the plane—How did you feel in a skydiving aircraft for the first time? Did the plane look like you had imagined it would? Did you sit on the floor? Were your friends in the same plane with you? What did people say or talk about in the plane? Was it a fast climb to altitude, or did it take a long time? Did the other jumpers give you a pre-exit handshake? What were you thinking when people started getting out?
3. Exit—What went through your mind as you approached the door? Was it especially loud, cold, windy, peaceful or scary?
4. Freefall—What was your first thought in freefall? What did you expect, and what was it actually like? What did you see or notice during freefall? How do you feel now, remembering your first freefall?
5. Canopy flight—What did your tandem instructor talk to you about under canopy or, what was it like being alone under a parachute for the first time? Did you notice the scenery? Was it quiet and peaceful, or wild and thrilling?
6. Landing—How did it feel to be back on the ground? What kind of landing did you have? Who was the first person you hugged after you landed?
7. After the jump—What was the rest of the day like? Did you remember more about your jump as time went on, or did you have a clear memory immediately? What was the first day back at work like? How do you look at the sky now? Did your friends get tired of watching your video and hearing about your jump after a while? Have you made more jumps?

Getting Your A-License—Why did you decide to keep skydiving after the first jump? What did it take to get your license? Have you learned anything about yourself or your world from skydiving?

The "Typical" Skydiver—That's you, by the way :-) What do you do for a living? Where are you from? How did you start skydiving? Why do you keep doing it? How does skydiving fit into the rest of your life? What does your family think of your sport? What other activities do you do? Would you have been voted "Most Likely" or "Least Likely" to take up skydiving in high school?

Answers to the Ultimate Question—Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane?

Send submissions to communications@uspa.org. Again, be sure to include your full first and last name, e-mail address, phone number and USPA license/membership numbers if you have them.

Thanks and blue skies!
The communications department - Shonda, Lambert, Travis & Lara

In the past ten months there have been nine fatalities associated with canopy collisions or low maneuvers to avoid a canopy collision. They are definitely on the rise. The accidents have primarily been the result of a jumper flying a high-performance approach through groups of lower canopies flying at lower speeds. The time for action is now; our membership is asking for safer skies, and it is up to each of us to make the necessary changes! The Safety Check in the March issue of Parachutist offers some suggestions on how to help make our landing patterns safer. We all need to develop a plan and stick to the rules which are designed to help keep us safe. If your drop zone does not have a plan to promote a smoother flow of canopy traffic, ask your local S&TA or drop zone owner to read through the Safety Check, and implement a workable plan for separating the high performance landings from the skydivers flying a standard landing pattern.

Section 6-10 of the Skydiver's Information Manual contains additional information regarding canopy traffic management.

The answer: A LOT!!

Here's a quick explanation for all you new jumpers … The Parachute Industry Assocation (PIA) hosts a biennial Symposium; it's the time for everyone in the industry to get together and learn new stuff in areas like rigging, instruction, marketing, engineering, production, sales and anything else related to skydiving. There are seminars and exhibits, meetings and lots of socializing (read: lots and lots of talk at the bar).

This is the event where manufacturers unveil all their new products, so it's very exciting! It's also a who's who of skydiving, and you can talk to them all. Stop by Strong's booth and ask Ted Strong about his new products. Chat with Bill Booth about how he came up with the 3-ring system, or ask the engineer who designed your canopy his thoughts about steering lines.

USPA will have a booth in the exhibit hall – you can stop by and vote for the next Parachutist cover, learn what USPA does for you, get your picture up on our wall and chat with USPA reps about whatever's on your mind. We're at booths 628 & 630, so stop by and say hello!

What: PIA Symposium
When: February 2nd through 9th
Where: Silver Legacy Resort; Reno, Nevada
For More Info: www.pia.com/Symposium2007/index.htm

Safety Day idea sharing...

Safety Day is coming up - March 10 for most drop zones – so let's share what we're all doing at our home DZs.

Post a comment here with things like:

• Your DZ plans & dates if not March 10.
• Ideas for new programs you'd like to try out.
• What's worked well for you in the past?
• What hasn't worked so well?
• Pointers you can give to new Safety Day coordinators and/or participants.

Full participation can be found on our website. If you are hosting Safety Day and are not listed on our website, e-mail safety@uspa.org.

Let's all do our part to make 2007 the safest, most fun year of skydiving yet!

Jumpers – go to our last blog and tell us if you're attending Safety Day, what you'd like to get out of it, and any experiences from past Safety Days.

~USPA

USPA Safety Day will be here before you know it! On Saturday, March 10, drop zones around the country, as well as the rest of the world, will be hosting Safety Day. Now in its 10th year, members look forward to the annual event, which covers a variety of skydiving topics that will help keep you safe. If you are not sure if your local DZ is hosting Safety Day, check with the drop zone's USPA Safety and Training Advisor. USPA will also list participating drop zones on our Safety Day page to make it easier for members to find a nearby host. The page contains more information about Safety Day and includes handouts attendees can download and print.

Are you going to Safety Day this year? What topics/seminars, etc. would you like to see or hear?

-Jim Crouch

With only 21 U.S. fatalities at the end of 2006, this matches 2004 for the lowest number of skydiving fatalities in more than four decades. During that time, USPA has grown from 2,000 members to more than 31,000 recreational skydivers, who, along with 300,000 first-time jumpers, make an estimated 3 million jumps each year. Thanks to improvements in skydiving equipment and training methods, better communication among jumpers, and the careful watch of drop zone owners and Safety & Training advisors around the country, the number of fatal accidents continues to drop—even though participation in skydiving has dramatically increased beyond those early years. Now we need to take it even lower in 2007.

-Jim Crouch

Hello!

We're so excited to have you all as friends. Thanks for adding us.

Since this is the first blog from Communications, we'd like to introduce ourselves!

Shonda is the Director and, as you can tell from her title, she directs communications and manages workflow in the department. Shonda started skydiving at Mile-Hi Skydiving Center in Longmont, Colorado, and sometimes works as a videographer at our local DZ.

Lambert is the Editor of Parachutist, and gets all your article and picture submissions. He can never get enough, though - so send him more of your great pictures and story ideas! Lambert is an S&TA, AFFI, TI and all around skydiver. He's been jumping for years at Skydive Orange here in Virginia.

Travis is our Graphics guru. You might have noticed some subtle changes in Parachutist and other USPA publications recently, and that's all Travis' talent. Expect a lot more, especially in the upcoming Parachutist re-design! Although he is another Coloradan, he started jumping here at Skydive Orange.

Finally, I'm Lara, the newest member of the group. I handle Parachutist ads, the website and this MySpace page in general - although as you can see, it's a group effort from the entire USPA staff. I started jumping at Mile-Hi in Colorado, and Shonda actually shot my very first videoed jump almost five years ago!

So that's us - now it's your turn. We expect plenty of future skydivers to check out our profile, so let's show them what we've got! Post comments with your best pictures, send us videos - show off a little!

'til next time,
~ Lara and the rest of the Communications department

Hello myspace, USPA is here!

USPA has added itself to Myspace as yet another way for skydivers to communicate among themselves and with USPA directors and staff. We look for some fun, informative, lively and constructive postings. Become a friend today. Let's tell the world about our great community.

Happy new Year!
~ Chris Needels