The Lodi Sequentials continues it’s reputation as a skydiving event that pushes the limits of freefly skydiving.
For the last 5 years I have been very lucky to be part of this event, and this year was again a big hit. The weather did not cooperate for most of the event. Friday and Saturday got winded out. The winds were too high and too unpredictable to be able to hold a safe event and Bill Dause, owner of the Parachute Center in Lodi, together with organizers Mike Knight and TJ Landgren made the call not to jump that day.
The group went out and did some other activities in the area, and gathered back at the dropzone on Sunday morning with hopes to turn that day into a big one. Which the team did!
4 rounds of 8 way VRW competition were flown, with 5 teams competing against each other, then a quick break for lunch and on to 4 formation loads to fly 40 way sequential freefly skydives.
A long day, but a satisfying one for sure.
The photos from the event can be found in my SmugMug galleries
With the beginning of the season kicking off, and people coming back out to the dropzone loaded up with new toys they got for Christmas (GoPro’s, Digital SLRs, etc) I was asked to hold a short seminar on flying the camera.
Please join us on Saturday April 23rd, after sunset (be there around 5pm or so) at Bay Area Skydiving for a seminar on flying the camera.
I had the amazing pleasure to be one of the first witnesses of the brand new 2010 California State Freefly Record! A three plane formation of 58 people + 3 skydiving camera men made this event into the skydiving history books!
No less than 58 people jumped from 16.500ft and linked up in freefall within 60 seconds and flew the formation for about 4 seconds until the safe breakoff altitude was reached. In reality the formation flew for about 15 seconds until the last person arrived in his slot. The skydiving footage will follow shortly, and I’ll share that here on my blog with all of you. The person was appropriately honored the name “Captain Carve-Around”, as you will be able to see in the linked photo gallery.
The event went over very well, everybody was very safe and stuck to the strict safety rules of Skydive Perris and the event organizers, SoCal Converge (Andy Malchiodi / Travis Fienhage / Matt Lewis) and David Gershfeld.
After the record was broken on Friday the team continued to jump together and did some beautiful sequential freeflying on Saturday.
Photo number 25 in the gallery below shows the brand new skydiving record for the State of California.
Photos of the 2010 CA State Record
I attended the “Beerlight Byron Boogie” last weekend at Bay Area Skydiving
Even though I was only there for 1 day, I made some amazing jumps, and I wanted to share three of them with all of you.
My favorite was the helicopter, and I got a chance to jump it twice, first with Todd Davis of Epic Spaces jumping his wingsuit off the helicopter! A special thanks to Sierra Air Helicopters for coming out to our event!
Copyright Iwan van der Schoor
After that I did another helicopter jump with Nigel:
Copyright 2010 Iwan van der Schoor
And to close off the day, I got to jump with brothers Brett and Nathan Niebergall of Southern Sandwich Company, a “rolling restaurant” that provided the food for the 3 day event! Thanks for bringing me along guys! This was by far one of my most amazing sunset skydives ever. It was a bit nerve wrecking on the plane seeing the light literally disappear and adjusting settings all the way up.
In the end I knew my flash would freeze the action, and I went with very slow shutterspeed settings, the result is below:
(camera settings: 1/100th F5.6 @ ISO 800, and the pop up flash)
Copyright Iwan van der Schoor
Copyright Iwan van der Schoor
On Sunday September 12, 2010 we released the ashes of our friend and fellow skydiver Robert Whitsitt at Bay Area Skydiving in Byron, CA.
I had the honor of photographing and videoing this skydive, and I wanted to share Robert’s last skydive with all of you.
Skydivers on this jump:
Clay Bonavito
David Bick
John “MadJohn” Dobleman
Ken Casey
Blue skies Robert!
Robert Whitsitt's last skydive, the release of his ashes
This camp was the third and final camp to prepare and qualify for the California State Record. The camp was organized by the current world champion freefly team SoCal Converge, consisting of Andy Malchiodi, Travis Fienhage, and Matt Lewis and as an additional organizer David Gershfeld.
The California State Record attempts are going to be held November 10-14, 2010 at Perris Valley Skydiving in Perris, CA.
Enjoy the photos in the galleries over at SmugMug, and hopefully we’ll see you at the record attempts in November!
American Boogie 2010
I attended the American Boogie again this year, after taking a year off last year, and it was VERY good to be back.
Many fun jumps were made, and I had the chance to work with Collin Bruce and Roger Ponce de Leon when they did their color coordinated skydives, which always makes for great visuals.
Please enjoy the visuals from the event on my SmugMug galleries: American Boogie 2010
Many thanks to Ray Ferrel and all the other staff at Skydance Skydiving for making it another memorable and fun event!
One photo courtesy of Brian Genereux, of me at work:
Copyright Brian Genereux
Copyright Iwan van der Schoor
Enjoy the amazing visuals from Skydive Elsinore during CA State Record Camp 2 organized by Socal Converge.
The event was happening at the same time as the 4th Annual Echelon Freefly Film Festival, organized by Andy Malchiodi of Elsinore Echelon.
A total of 37 participants attended the camp and it started off hard on Friday! With multiple no contact formations flown first to get used to flying in your allocated slot in the formation without holding on to the formation. After those skydives went very well, the groups went on to flying 13-16 way linked formations on Friday.
Saturday 3 more smaller formations were flown, and because the team was doing so well in showing discipline and safety on all the jumps, the groups were put together and 2 more formation loads were flown with formations building up to 30+ freeflyers.
The record camp team got back together on Sunday morning, bright and early for 5 more training jumps of 30+ people doing formation load skydives.
A very good weekend overall where the whole team performed very well and I’m sure several people earned themselves slots for the record planned in November 2010!
Thanks and see you all again in August (and hopefully before then)
Link to the event photos on Smugmug
Copyright Iwan van der Schoor
Another year, another Lodi Sequentials event at the Parachute Center in Lodi, CA.
The dates: April 30 and May 1st, two days of highly technical freefly formations were planned, but unfortunately the weather decided for us that it was going to be April 30th only.
The last jump of the day was the traditional skydive into Johnny B’s birthday party.
Six very nice looking and challenging skydives were done, organized by MX Bill Halsey and Mike Knight.
Some of the participants: Jeffro Provenzano, Mike Swanson, David Gershfeld, Stephanie Soria, Ty Losey, TJ Landgren, Matt Lewis, Travis Fienhage, Kirby Hughes, Javier Muniz, Karlee Ayers.
Photographs of the skydives can be found on my smugmug site
I just returned from Georgia after participating in the Georgia State Record Attempts at the 7th Annual St. Patrick’s Day Celebration in Fitzgerald, GA organized by Chris Spence of RoamingDZ.com.
Another great event put together by Chris and all his volunteers, with support from Skydive the Farm and Skydive Spaceland who provided the airplanes for the event.
A total of 12 jumps were done, first a couple for base practice and then after that the whole group of 66 (+3 camera flyers)
Photos are available through my Smugmug site
California State Record Camp I
The first out of a series of camps to train up to break the standing California State Freefly Record later in 2010.
The event is organized by SoCal Converge (Andy Malchiodi, Travis Fienhage, Matt Lewis) and David Gershfeld. This first camp took place at Skydive Perris
Click on the image to view the photos from the event.
Another incredible freefly event organized by MX Bill Halsey and Mike Knight. Some of the best freeflyers were brought together to complete several large sequential freefly skydives.
The most memorable jump of the event was a skydive where the teams built the initials “RB” in freefall in memory of Robby Bigley the original organizer of the Lodi Sequentials.
Lodi Sequentials November 2009 Photographs.
Copyright Iwan van der Schoor
One of the best invitational freefly events ever, organized by Robby Bigley, MX Bill Halsey, and Mike Knight. Some of the best freeflyers were brought together to complete several large sequential freefly skydives.
This time the team really “went BIG” with formations up to 35 people. The first day the team started off with two smaller groups turning multiple points. After that the groups were brought together (on several jumps, this was done in freefall) for larger formation jumps.
Lodi Sequentials April 2009 Photographs.
