it's my island

2008 Skyfest and Rodriguez Boogie, Fantastic Fun

// June 10th, 2008 // Comments Off // Skydiving

While I can’t say last week was perfect; after getting horribly ill and rebounding with the same celerity I flew into action at [Skydive Carolina](http://skydivecarolina.com) on Thursday and enjoyed myself thoroughly in social skydiving activities.

Photography Video Montage

A Heat Wave to Remember

The heat was magnificent in its ability to melt us all. With a high reaching 103’ on Saturday (at least by my altimeters function), how we all lasted day after day is a real wonder. It did slow me down though I wasn’t readily willing to repack as quickly or even don my flight suits (hey I got a new free fly suit too!) since you turn into a human sprinkler if you did. We still managed to enjoy each others company with eager smiles.

A Coordinated Effort

The event coordinators really did amazing keeping everything running so smoothly. We even had an expected visit by the FAA (man those suits walk real upright), but the show went on with only mild delays.

One day we had two Casa’s, one Twin Otter, and a helicopter all in motion. James La Barrie really handled it tactically and no issues means he did a stupendous job.

Funny enough the only thing really squawked on was how Outback really screwed us on our meal plan serving us up some real airplane fare for the price of steaks. If that was the only beef (/sarcasm) then I’d say it was a success.

Do You Know Howie?

A profound shout goes out to our friend Howie. A man who would have rather been left be had his own fan club after him; you can many times hear, ‘Do you know Howie?’ shouted onboard a plane.

During our sunset tracking dive we put ourselves over some tricky terrain and the flank Howie was on was in the deep of it and not going to make it home. After a rough landing Howie sustained a few broken bones (tib/fib/fingers), and a fractured hip. Can you believe he called 911 for himself? What a guy!

The dropzone being what it is with the local family we were quite a buzz over our friend. From the latest intel we understand that he is doing the best he can and we send our well wishes and speedy recovery.

Rodriguez Family Reunion

Thus completes my, Pelargo Rodriguez, first year as a family member. We celebrated in style and brought on board a slew of new family after many jumps with initiates. As always Shaggy manned a deadly liquid cooled tequila machine which caused personal malfunctions everywhere, haha.

Welcome new brothers (and bumpy brothers), may your lives be long, your sombreros be shade casting, and your tequila glass cold.

Good Festival

If I heard right we’ll see these guys again next year under hopefully cooler early June circumstances. We met a lot of new people and got to hang with a lot of those we just don’t see enough of these days.

Always looking for new recruits to come jump with us so if you need the right motivation let me know!

From Sun up to Sun Down, in the Rock Hill Area

// March 1st, 2008 // Comments Off // MoBlog, On the Radar

It’s been a full day for Robin and myself. A bunch of photography friends were heading to Asheville for some lessons, others were following along to take pictures on the town. I wanted to do something more normal. What’s more normal and low-key than visiting friends and skydiving? hah!

We woke early and bolted across the South Carolina border ready to see some good friends we don’t see enough of currently at Cupps Cafe. You can’t beat their cinnamon rolls and scones for a perfect way to start the day.

Hanging out till lunch time we grabbed a couple of “Mother Cluckers” and bolted to the dropzone down the street at Skydive Carolina to get some well needed therapy.

I’ve been grounded because of travel time, reserve repacks, and good ol’Winter Mother Nature. The skies just haven’t been friendly (and during February their not supposed to be) until today. With the temps in the 60s and a wind holding at about 15mph I got aloft and cruised around the skies in torpedo like fashion.

Gene repacked my reserve a few weeks ago and I had him flake my main. He used it to show students what a long term pack job does as mine came out in a pretty good square. It would have deployed, just sniveled a lot. No worries!

Today’s ride was great. Soft opening into a light right turn. I hung around the tandems then found a holding pattern until 1k where upon I entered the landing pattern.

Having a steady wind brought me nearly straight down and a perfect soft landing awaited me. What a purification process for the mind. Like a friend said, ‘You look blissed’, and I felt it.

We ended the day by coming back into Cupps for a dinner round where we drank a fantastic crisp sweet Riesling, ‘Clean Slate’, while working on the text for an upcoming Charlotte Art. Migrating over time into nachos and some delicious white-bean pork soup. Man this place rocks.

Time to head home.

The Time, How it Flies

// April 4th, 2007 // Comments Off // On the Radar

The weeks are peeling by. I seem to step out of focused work later and later. My drive is amped and everyone around me is spinning plates at high velocity.

Nuance Labs has cleared the hurdles of birthing all it’s business, presentation, and pitch materials. We’ve got so much passion for our product it’s unbelievable. Now we’re on the prowl to fund the beast properly. The [Nuance Labs](http://blog.nuancelabs.com) website is on the verge of upgrade completion too. It’s great to fully bring our new brand together. I’m really psyched.

Robin’s working part-time at the [DZ](http://www.skydivecarolina.com). It lets her stay involved and make a quick buck while I’m riding the air (up to 26!). We’ve even decided to pick up a little cabin on site and are going to make it a little home away from home. Can’t help but want to hang out where all the cool people are. ) If you need a change of venue and some spirits that stay pretty high, check out your local DZ.

The day’s are getting longer and I’m using all the time it provides. I’ve yet to discuss the [Grateful Growers](http://www.ggfarm.com) farm dinner [project](http://www.ggfarm.com/?page_id=9). Great food plus awareness makes for a fine evening in September. We’ll be doing a silent auction and I’m providing some photography and a book photo journaling the making of it all. That means I have a lot of field work to do and Spring has sprung into action. Time to get out to the farms which are providing the dinner elements.

Myriad of things in between but every time I editorialize this simple rant the more time I’m spending not progressing elsewhere.

-a

Skydive 13 & 14

// February 26th, 2007 // 2 Comments » // Skydiving

[YouTube Video](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hN37SynENJw):

It was a great day out this weekend. Spring is definitely in the air and I was too. Soon after reaching the [Skydive Carolina](http://skydivecarolina.com) dropzone I was on a load to the heavens. As I quickly got my gear, inspected it, and sat on the plane ride in anticipation I reflected on how far I’ve come since last October. My nervous energy is gone, but I still get the last moments anticipation rush of less oxygen and adrenaline. A red light glows by the exit door, and we all grin, it flashes green, the door slides open, the spot is checked, and the teams and low openers jump out with glee. I generally float near the front of the plane (one of the last out), there are no tandems on my loads today just wingsuits and a few other AFF graduates pulling between 4k & 5k. I exited for my 13th jump and worked on many skill-sets Pete my AFF instructor, now coach, has asked me to work on. Cupping air, tracking, more granular leg control. 59 seconds goes by quick and yet slow. Yes, there is dualism present. For the last 3k feet I watched the ground and saw the beginnings of ground rush, when everything pops into realism like popcorn. Pulling at 4,000 ft my trusty student 260 opened on heading and I crabbed along the end of one of the runways till about 1k when I went into final.

For number 14 I got to downsize to a 230 canopy. Exiting the plane I tried to mimic some of our free/sit fliers in a sitting position. It lasted all of 2 seconds before I turned it into a flip and went back to belly down. I think I’ll stick with relative work for now, then work on other disciplines—but it’s fun to try. This jump turned a little sour when a loose strap from my helmet began to beat me in the cheek and neck. You don’t recognize the cold in the air usually, but as my strap beat on me it hurt, and that hurt led me to think of how cold it was because the pain was biting. That distraction really blew my ability to stay focused. Every time I’d capture the zone to do another exercise I’d inevitably be drawn back into this minor but highly annoying issue. I ended up at about 7k just waiting for pull time (5k) and working on slowing my descent due to frustration. Our new packer on the ground and AFF friend Allen packed my 230 and it opened like it should and on heading. I’ll tell you what though, jumping something new makes time slow down even further during that opening process. I would have ran my landing off had it not been for a hole I stepped into as I left the green short grass for thicker bramble. My down-scope angle was a bit off so I misjudged where the final spot would be of my landing. I think it’s to be expected when you change canopy sizes. Don’t let my sourness fool you, I had a good jump, it taught me about distraction and there are some great lessons there I might share on [Nuance Labs](http://blog.nuancelabs.com) soon.

After much hounding for a would be [deal](http://www.dropzone.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=2684404 “DropZone.com Forum Postings”) I decided it was time to lock down my rig. I worked with Gus of [Rigging Solutions](http://www.riggingsolutions.us), our local Master Rigger & shop owner. Between his expertise and Pete we finalized my order of a Performance Designs [Saber2](http://www.performancedesigns.com/sabre2.asp), a PD Reserve 218, and a [Wings](http://www.skydivewings.com/) container with a number of healthy, safe, and comfort options.

All in all a wonderful day. I’ve committed to the sport for a while by my purchase and Robin is getting into the swing by signing up to work at the DZ in manifest over the summer. Can’t beat that kind of support! If your in the area come on down and just watch. Just being in a spot where so many people are having such high-energy fun is exhilarating.

Fun statistic, I’ve currently fallen about 20 miles in about 9 minutes.

-a

Great Sky

// January 21st, 2007 // 5 Comments » // On the Radar, Skydiving

It might have been cold but we rose midmorning to head down to [Skydive Carolina](http://www.skydivecarolina.com). The winds were calm and I was psyched to get a few jumps in.

I had packed my day-bag with care that it might be windy I would have everything I needed to work. Of course with that much consideration it was should not have been surprising that I would need none of it. Many of my original AFF class turned out and we were all glad to get at least one spin in the sky.
I took my air time to get back to basics. Four weeks out of the air makes one washy so it was good to stretch, spin, and flip your way back into comfort. My second jump I was getting a bit cold and just enjoyed some smooth tracking. Unfortunately I pulled early and had a lot of hang-time in the cold. I used the time to pull on my front risers for turning and to see the angles change. Finished it off parking my canopy near the flags for a running landing.

Robin ended up taking 48 pics which we paired down to 28 for keeping, then only posting 18 to [flickr](http://www.flickr.com/photos/ciordia/archives/date-taken/2007/01/20/). Prioritization sucks, heheheh! Robin’s getting good at finding the action. Now it’s time to get back to the books and planning board. I’ve had my fun; my heart and head swim again giving me the momentum to run more.

Oh yea, if anyone spots a 230 rig, the more complete the better, I’m on the market for one.

-a