Anyone who has been in the sport for more than ten minutes knows or recognizes the name Rickster Powell. Rickster is a professional test jumper for Performance Designs and has logged more than 20,000 jumps! In addition to being an amazing canopy pilot, he is also a highly accomplished photographer with many national and international competitions under his belt. During a visit to Skydive Arizona back in July 2011, I had the chance to make a jump with him and chase him under an experimental wing (now known as the PEREGRINE) that was still undergoing some R&D. Here are some of my selects from the jump:
Some of his more recent work includes the Versizon FiOS Quantum Speed Flight Commercial, which is a must see!
Check out the behind the scenes footage to see how the commercial was made.
AXIS Flight School would like to thank Barry for his great instruction and time. Looking forward to flying with you again soon
A week later I borrowed a suit from a local jumper and expand on some of my skills with flocking dives. So here it is, my first couple attempts of taking photos back home while flying a wing-suit (this time a Phoenix-fly Phantom2):
I would like to thank Scott Jontes from Performance Designs for creating the advertisement below. It features an image he took of me flying a Sabre 2 during a photo shoot in Palatka Florida back in April of 2010.
“The U.S. Team has a long, proud tradition of representing the United States in international parachuting competitions dating back to the 1950s. This year is especially exciting, as the team will compete in the 2012 FAI Mondial (all events) Championships at the magnificent skydiving venue in Dubai, United Arab Emirates.
While making the U.S. Team is a great honor, did you know that most of our competitors pay all their training expenses and the cost of traveling to the World Championships on their own? Often costing thousands of dollars per competitor, these meets are only partially subsidized by the U.S. Parachute Team Trust Fund.
We invite you to explore this site, get to know the athletes on your 2012 U.S. Team, and lend them your support. Go to the donation page and find the sponsorship level that fits your budget or customize your giving. Because USPT, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, your donations are tax deductible! Any way you give, you’ll have the satisfaction of being a part of the most competitive skydiving team in United States history. Thanks for your support!” For more updates from the US Parachute Team, please visit their Facebook page.
Even though the shot was my idea, I have to give credit to Brianne Thompson of AXIS Flight School for making it happen Recorded by two back-to-back GoPro‘s (see right), the individual footage was put together and then slomo’d to get the desired effect.
To view the segment, please click here => SKYDIVE FACEPLANT – A skydiver crashes into a parking lot at 40 mph and survives.
“This has to be one of the longest parachute malfunctions I’ve ever seen. In fact, I made a sandwich halfway through it. Long story short, Niklas Daniel of AXIS Flight School intended to do a high altitude hop and pop to work on some canopy flocking, but got an interesting malfunction instead. Sure, a hook knife might have done the trick, but Nick opted to ride it out until 4,000 feet before chopping so that his canopy wouldn’t drift too far away from the DZ. And of all the days for this to happen… it was April Fool’s Day.” – iLoveSkydiving.org
