In 1995, shortly after moving back to Perris, California, Dan arrived at the Perris Valley Airport in a three-piece suit, looking to find a new job. After a career with the airlines, Dan was quite comfortable with the hustle and bustle of an airport. But, little did he know that what he was about to encounter at Skydive Perris was far different than anything he could have been expecting.

“I didn’t know what I was getting into and I tell you what, it hit me like a freight train right off the bat…I knew there was an airport here, but I didn’t know it was a skydiving operation. So, when I got here, I was kind of shocked to see what was going on. Skydivers jumping out of airplanes. Girls running around in bikinis. It was a lot of fun, and I was hooked from day one.”

Dan wasn’t new to the area. In fact, he attended high school with Melanie and Patrick Conatser, co-owners of Skydive Perris. Despite knowing the family nearly his entire life, Dan really didn’t even know they owned the airport until he began working there!

In 1995 Dan didn’t just start working at the drop zone; he also got bit by the skydiving bug: “I started jumping right away in ‘95, and I jumped till about 2007.”

Despite giving up the sport of skydiving in 2007, Dan Cook still enjoys the dropzone as much as he did back then:

“It’s still fun coming to work, it really is. And I think that’s why I’ve lasted so long. Because people come to the dropzone to have fun. It’s not like going to the DMV. Everybody’s happy and having a good time, and I think, as a place to work, it’s awesome.”

After such an impressive and lengthy career at the dropzone, what is the most interesting, positive experience Dan has while working at Skydive Perris?

“I like when big ways come together. We did the sequential event last week, and that was really solid. When you get some of the best skydivers in the world together and you see what they can do and when you can have a part in that, managing the aircraft and making sure they are on time and keeping them on calls, it’s great to be a part of.”

There are few that know their way around the Manifest position quite the way that Dan Cook does, and he has handled the challenges of a steadily growing safety-focused dropzone with finesse.

“We went from a three aircraft dropzone back then—we had two Otters and a Skyvan. Now, we have three Otters and five Skyvans. We do a lot of military training now. So, I think our activities definitely increased. And we’ve become increasingly safety oriented.  It’s probably been 10 years now since we implemented the no more than a 90-degree turn below 1000 feet, but that was a challenge because, at one point, we had so many canopy teams here. But we made that tough decision based on the incident reports we were seeing. And that was a big hurdle, but I think it saved lives.”

So, how does Dan keep it all together? After all, in the manifest, if you miss something, it can have serious consequences. The advice Dan gives is simple: “The most important thing is to tackle one thing at a time. Multi-tasking is great, but you can only multi-task if you know how to do each thing, one at a time before you try to take on too much.”

Dan isn’t just a major part of the skydiving community at Skydive Perris. Because of his manifest expertise, Dan is invited to travel and work in manifest nationwide. Chances are if you’ve stopped by manifest during one of the United States Parachute Association Nationals, you’ve come face-to-face with Dan.

In a position rife with stress and known to have a high turnover rate, how does Dan do it?

With patience, a good attitude, and a sense of humor.  With a chuckle, Dan says “I’m going on my 25th year at Perris in Manifest, so my sentence is up here in about another year.”

Don’t let that statement fool you, and don’t you worry if you haven’t met Dan just yet. If you make your way to Skydive Perris anytime soon, you’ll definitely have a chance.

When asked what the future with Skydive Perris holds Dan says, “I plan on staying here till the place is shut down, or I’m ready to retire. I don’t plan on going anywhere.”

Good to hear, Dan. Good to hear!

The post Dan the Manifest Man appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Skydiving’s background is decidedly military, and nowhere does this become more obvious than in our (over?)-reliance on acronyms. In skydiving, we become solo skydivers when we graduate from “AFF” (the accelerated freefall training program), we turn on our “AAD” before every jump (automatic activation device), we high-five the “DZO” (dropzone owner), we each have a current membership in the “USPA” (United States Parachute Association), we fly with other parachutes in the “CRW” (canopy relative work) discipline, we grab each other in the sky to make shapes in another discipline called “RW” (relative work)…it’s an alphabet soup, basically! There are many-many, but we’re choosing one very important one to tell you about today: “S&TA,” or “safety and training advisor.” Here’s your intro!

What’s an S&TA?

The Safety & Training Advisor at a dropzone is appointed by a USPA Regional Director in order to keep overwatch at their home facility. These folks are encyclopedically experienced — Our S and TA’s (plural) have easily logged tens of thousands of jumps throughout their decades of combined years in the sport.

Every dropzone’s S&TA provides advice and training for the skydivers on the DZ. They’re also called upon to plan extraordinary jumps (among them, night and demonstration skydives). They also verify rating renewal requirements, proctor skydivers’ licensing tests and generally keep an eye on the hijinks.

There’s a less-fun part of the job, too: In the event that something bad happens on the dropzone, it’s the S&TA who’s called upon to investigate the incident and report and safety problems and violations they may find. Often, they serve as the media contact as well.

What are the S&TA’s Responsibilities?

To sum it all up, the S&TA’s is on the dropzone to make sure that everyone is upholding the practice of safe skydiving. There’s a long list of duties to align with that umbrella responsibility, which are set out on the USPA website in a way that conveys a pretty thorough idea of what’s expected of your friendly neighborhood S&TA on any given day:

• Observes skydiving operations to verify compliance with the Basic Safety Requirements
• Informs the Regional Director of all flagrant and/or recurring safety violations
• In grave cases, takes summary action under Section 1-6 of the USPA Governance Manual
• Provides safety and training advice to skydivers, drop zone operators, and rating holders
• Reviews plans for exhibition jumps
• Verifies that drop zones qualify as “sanctioned” by meeting the minimum drop zone requirements (see the BSRs in the Skydiver’s Information Manual)
• Assists and advises with extraordinary skydive operations (see the BSRs and Advanced Progression section in the Skydiver’s Information Manual)
• Investigates accidents and submits reports (submit online)
• Verifies the requirements on D-License applications and rating renewals
• Promotes USPA policies and programs, for example, USPA Safety Day
• Unless excused by the Regional Director, attends an annual S&TA meeting called by the Regional Director

OK, so: What role does the S&TA play in *my* life?

If you’re a first-time tandem student, it’ll just be a nice-to-know that the S&TA is there, watching out for your best interests. If you’re a sport skydiver, however, the local S&TA will become an important part of your life in the sport. Most obviously, s/he will be often be watching you exit, fly and land, and will offer advice if it looks like you could use it.

Beyond that: if you have a question about anything related to skydiving, the S&TA at your dropzone is almost certainly the best person to ask first. If s/he doesn’t know the answer, s/he will get you to a person who will. Finally, if you’re looking at a challenge that you think requires USPA intervention, start with your local S&TA. They’ll serve as your direct link to USPA Headquarters in those unusual circumstances when you need to go up the chain of command.

When you visit Skydive Perris, make sure to say hi to one of our S&TA’s! They would love to give you a little more insight into their role. Book your skydive today and don’t be a stranger!

The post The S&TA and Their Mission appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Meet Craig O’Brien, the Man Behind the Blockbusters

To say that Craig O’Brien sits atop the Mount Olympus of camera jumping wouldn’t be any kind of exaggeration: a lofty status well-earned. Twenty-five years into his jumping career, his logbook lists around 24,000 jumps, most of which have been dedicated to committing something to visual posterity.

To be fair, Craig got a running start. Born to a sport skydiving family, Craig grew up on the Taft dropzone. In high school, he cut his teeth as a photographer by shooting his brother’s football games. The plan, naturally, was to start skydiving at age 18. Tragically, fate derailed those plans; a crash, which took 14 skydivers’ lives, closed that dropzone in 1982.

“I couldn’t convince any of my buddies to run off someplace further away to check out skydiving,” Craig remembers. “Then, years later, the Jones family reopened the Taft dropzone. I zoomed out there and got right into it. I just put my two passions together—skydiving and photography—and made a career out of it.”

He was 29 at the time, living in Bakersfield, working as an electrician. He made the 40-minute pilgrimage every weekend for about four years, learning everything he could from Taft’s legendary DZO, Bill Jones, and equally eminent aerial photo-cinematographer Joe Jennings, who shot occasional projects at Taft with Bill.

Craig was happy. He made decent money, and he was also starting to train with his then-girlfriend, Tanya, who is now his wife, as a skysurfing team. The talented pair realized they needed to take it on full-time if they really wanted to be competitive, so they picked up and moved down to Perris in 1997. They never left.

“I came with intentions of staying for two years and then heading back to my full-time job,” he laughs, “but with all of the things that go on at Perris, I’m able to support my family.”

“The Conasters [the dropzone owners at Perris] are great people,” he adds. “They treat me and my family as part of their own. They’ve supported us from the get-go. That enabled us to achieve the goals we’ve met together.” (The incredible flying O’Briens are, by the way, 3-time World Champions and 5-time National Champions, if you’re curious.)

Even with all that gold, the most visible role that Craig has had on the skydiving scene has arguably been the work he’s done in the film industry. Owing to Craig’s eminent experience, top-shelf portfolio and convenient location to a footage-hungry Tinseltown—he’s generally the first call for freefall-involving feature films. On his resume: The first Iron Man, Iron Man 3 (for which he received two Taurus stunt awards), Kingsmen, The Bucket List and Point Break.

Craig explains that his illustrious film career began as a natural outgrowth of his competitive career, as Craig’s footage of his extraordinarily skilled and beautiful wife made regular television and film appearances. (Notably, the pair appeared together in the opening sequence of the year-2000 reboot of Charlie’s Angels, as flying stunt doubles for the actors.)

“Primarily I work as an aerial cinematographer,” he says, “but sometimes you have to step up and coordinate the stunts yourself, which I am totally comfortable doing.”

That triple-threat vibe—filming, consulting/training and stunt coordination—put Craig in the hot seat very recently, as a matter of fact. If you haven’t been in an off-grid bunker, there’s very little chance you’ve missed Craig’s latest moment in the limelight: his work with Tom Cruise for the sixth installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise: “Fallout.” (Perris shared that limelight for a very fun day during Tom’s press tour for that film, when we hosted Tom Cruise throwing funnyman James Corden out of one of our planes for James’ first taste of freefall.)

“Those two guys together were quite funny,” Craig says. “We had a great day out at Perris when we did that James Corden show.  We were laughing all day long. It was a lot of fun for me. It was a lot of fun hanging out with Tom and meeting James. That James Corden is a funny guy. Tom played really well with him, and the two are a great match of wits.”

That may have been the first time Craig had met James Corden, but he was already a very familiar face to Tom, having worked closely with him to prep the jaw-dropping skydiving scenes of Mission: Impossible 6.

“Tom is laser-focused. There is no deviating from the plan,” Craig muses. “The rest of the world gets put on hold when you are shooting with him, and that’s how I like it. I like to be focused and take care of business. But when you’re done shooting, [Tom] is just the easiest guy to be around and was pleasant to everybody on set. I really enjoyed our time together. I’m hoping we get to do it again.”

The prep for Fallout first involved training in a 24-foot outdoor tunnel, which had been built adjacent to the Warner Brothers stages where the movie was being filmed. For some weeks, Craig and the stunt team would swoop in to snag Tom when he became available to take him out for some tunnel time.

“He is a talented guy,” Craig says. “He picked it up like nothing. He did do 40 to 50 skydives back in the early 90s out at DeLand while they were filming Days of Thunder, but he hadn’t jumped since. He picked up everything really quickly and did really great in the tunnel.”

After London, the training relocated to Abu Dhabi. There, Craig and Tom spent six weeks focusing on nothing but skydiving, five days a week, out of both a Twin Otter and a C-17 military cargo airplane.

“Normally, when we shoot a skydiving sequence for a feature film, we’ll go up and shoot little pieces here and there,” Craig explains. “In post-production, they’ll take all of those little pieces and put them together to make a whole. But the Mission: Impossible franchise really is all about one thing, and that is Tom Cruise’s skills as a stuntman. They design the sequences to highlight those skills, and to make sure it is shot in a manner that the audience knows it’s him doing these stunts.”

In this case, the sequence was designed to be intentionally long and unbroken, following Tom from the safety of the cargo plane directly out into freefall, with lighting inside the star’s helmet to guarantee the audience sees his face from start to finish. The whole thing clocks in at about three minutes, and in those three minutes there are only two cuts.

That, dear reader, is a tall order.

To pull it off, the team started out by practicing those three sections, over and over again, during daylight hours. Because the sequence is based on a very low-light scenario (A thunder-and-lightning storm, remember?), they started jumping just after sunset after a couple of weeks’ worth of daily training. Once they’d dialed in the details, the pressure was on: Because of the tight constraints on time, the team had only one take per day to get each one-minute shot.

“We repeated that take every evening until we were done before we moved on to the next section of the three,” Craig says. “The first section—the most complicated, actually—we accomplished relatively quickly. When we did that, we thought we were going to wrap this thing up pretty quickly, but section two took us eight tries; in other words, eight days to get a one-minute sequence that was perfect from start to finish.”

“We got close numerous times early on,” he adds, “but [the producers] were very adamant about wanting it to be perfect. I appreciated that. It was a big challenge for me, but it was fun in the end to deliver exactly what they were looking for.”

The “fallout” from Fallout, for Craig, was a hoot.

“On my end,” he laughs, “I had multiple people almost upset that I wasn’t getting enough credit for what I did. I was, like, hey, it’s not about me! It is about him, period. My thanks is a fun time and a paycheck. Then, after the film’s release, [the studio] started releasing more behind-the-scenes stuff of me shooting Tom, and a lot of comments from Tom and the director praising me for what I did. It was quite pleasing for me to hear those guys on the back end, singing my praises.”

It’s hardly surprising that new-to-the-game stunt performers often seek Craig’s advice and mentorship.

“It’s always funny when you get to work with people who are new to production,” Craig grins, “regardless if they’re a young skydiver or an experienced skydiver. Everybody who jumps watches this stuff on TV and in the films. Most people end up being a Monday morning quarterback, but they don’t realize the challenge that’s waiting for us when we go into these things.”

The reality, as it turns out, often catches new stunt performers decidedly off-guard.

“When we’re getting ready to jump, I always tell my jumpers—no matter how quote-unquote-easy the jump looks—it’s never easy when you start filming production. It is never easy. The minute you start thinking it’s easy is the minute you’re going to screw it up, without question. It happens every time. They always start out by saying, ‘Awesome! This is going to be easy.’ I say, wait a minute. They say, ‘No, I got this!’ Then they do the jump and land…and what happened to ‘I got this?’”

“It’s really about attention to detail,” he adds. “The bottom line is, as skydivers when we’re being hired for a production, it is not our job to be the director. It is our job to deliver the director’s vision, which is where, I think, a lot of people fall short. Productions will show up, and they might have the cheesiest script in the world, but they’re paying us to deliver that cheesy script. It’s not our job to direct their production. So many people get in trouble—and earn a bad name for skydivers—because they try to step up and be the director on set, which is not our job. Our job is to deliver, period.”

These days, Craig spends his days between jobs hanging out with Tanya and their two daughters: Delaney, 16, and Leah, 12.

“I feel super blessed to be able to do what I do,” Craig smiles. “I’m not getting rich doing it; the big jobs are few and far between, but I’m still the sole provider for my family, doing what I love to: Keep a smile on my face and enjoy the ride.”

The post The Falling Star Behind the Falling Stars appeared first on Skydive Perris.

A Woman of Scope

All About Our Hometown Hero Angie Aragon

If you’ve been paying attention to the skydiving scene for the last couple of years, you have at least a passing familiarity with the work of Angie Aragon. Angie, after all, is one of the instrumental skydivers at the forefront of the Women’s Skydiving Leadership Network, an organization which is quite literally changing the face of skydiving instruction. We’ll get to that in a moment, though. We have a little more ground to cover first.

Perris stands out among skydiving dropzones. It stands out not only for the quality and scope of its facilities — which are gold-standard — but for the quality of people it attracts. Angie, suffice it to say, stands as an excellent example of that high bar. Everywhere you look at Perris, you’ll find professionals who are striving; instructors/athletes who revel in being surrounded and supported by a community not only chock-full of mentors — legends in the sport, to be sure — but other aspirational athletes on a mission to motivate each other. Angie’s presence in Perris covers both those angles: she’s an immensely talented sister skydiver, a top-shelf instructor and a heaping helping of inspo, all in one.

“Perris has such a great atmosphere,” Angie smiles. “I think that that’s part of what has always pushed me to be better.”

Angie is no stranger to striving. When she first started skydiving, she gave up a secure job (“where I knew where my money was coming from,” she laughs) and started living on the dropzone, making 50 bucks a day, packing and “doing whatever to make ends meet.” Angie first arrived at Perris in early 2013. By the time she arrived here, she was already a tandem and AFF instructor, as well as a freefall videographer. That’s nothing to sniff at, but the Perris emphasis on expansion encouraged her to push even farther.

“Everybody here was a rigger,” Angie explains, “so I was, like, okay. I’ve got to get my rigger’s ticket. Then, everybody in the [Perris skydiving] school was working on military contracts, so I was driven to figure out how to be good at that, too. Then there was the tunnel right there on campus, of course, and so I wanted to learn how to teach in the tunnel. There are so many different things that the drop zone offers that you can pretty much pick whatever it is that you are passionate about and push hard to develop that strength within the dropzone. It is such a unique dropzone and truly an animal of an operation.”

“The support system at Perris is just so great,” Angie enthuses. “The motivation to improve yourself is there. From the very, very beginning — as soon as I got there — I really strived to be on par with the quality of people that are there within the Perris community.”

She certainly has. Not only that, but she takes the Perris zeitgeist far beyond our borders (and back again). This year, Angie has been traveling to several different destination dropzones all over the country: Perris, of course; Skydive Chicago, in Illinois; Skydive DeLand, in Florida; Paraclete XP, in North Carolina; Sky’s the Limit in Pennsylvania, holding instructional courses. As Angie tells it, the process has been quite a journey.

Late last year, Angie’s desire to expand her already formidable skillset pushed her to accept the challenge of an internship working for United Parachute Technologies. To wit, she and her fiancé, Josh Colby, relocated to a neighborhood near UPT’s DeLand, Florida rigging loft, which Angie rightly describes as “the heart of skydiving gear manufacturing.”

“[That internship] allowed us to meet a lot of really amazing people in DeLand, not only while working at the rigging loft at UPT,” she says. “Two of my sponsors are in DeLand, so I was additionally able to develop my relationship with Icarus World and UPT. I enjoy being able to walk through their office or factory, talk to the owners/managers, hear about how the company started and what their goals are, and just to really get to know and understand their core values. It builds the relationships, and helps me to represent them better.”

The connections kept coming. It was there, too, that Angie and Josh met and began mentoring under Rob Laidlaw, founder of Skydive University, Master Examiner, and “granddaddy” of the Instructional Ratings Manual (IRM). While in DeLand, Angie was also introduced to the manager of Skydive Chicago. He invited Angie to come to the dropzone and offer two coach courses there over the summer. As Angie started publicizing these two courses, the Women’s Skydiving Leadership Network — which had already been making waves in the sport skydiving community with its retreat-based mentorship programs — noticed. They reached out to her.

“They wanted to buy all the slots available for those two courses,” Angie remembers. “I was, like, oh! Wow! Okay. That’s great.”

Angie continued conversations with the WSLN. Together, they came up with the WSLN scholarship program, the goal of which is to facilitate women to engage the sport on a professional level. They collaborated to structure an application process for eight full USPA Coach Course scholarships and seven full UPT/USPA Tandem Instructor scholarships along with partial scholarships for all in attendance. Ultimately, the program granted more than 50 scholarships for eager female skydiving athletes. The program has gained ground with each successive event, meaningfully progressing its goal to grow the community of female skydivers past its current numbers, which currently represents just 13% of the sport.

“I’m really grateful to the dropzones that have shown support so far: Perris, Skydive Chicago, DeLand, Paraclete XP, Sky’s the Limit,” she says. “What the WSLN wants is for people to know that we can come to their drop zones; that we would love the support. We are so appreciative.”

Angie’s instructional style, as she describes it, is a uniquely holistic one. She describes, for example, her Coach Course as “a great opportunity to bring skydivers into a classroom for three long days, look at all the things they know already and ask questions about what they don’t know.”

“As an instructor,” she explains, “You, of course, have to have strong skills to start with. And then you have to break those skills down in your own head to understand why things are the way they are. I think that’s where the true learning happens. It’s less about learning a bunch of new things, and more about slowing down what you’re doing — which is skydiving, and taking care of yourself — because now you have to do that for someone else. I do a lot of interactive exercises because there’s a lot of information being laid out.  I do it in a way where we’re having conversations; brainstorming; moving around; engaging.”

“I think that’s why it has been so much fun teaching people,” she continues, laughing, “because my students are learning without me Powerpointing them to death.”

These days, Angie and Josh travel between Skydive Chicago, where Josh is the Lead AFP Instructor (Advanced Freefall Program), and Skydive Perris. Their skydiving rating school, USPACOURSES.COM, is a traveling outfit that allows them to hold courses at any dropzone in the world. At the same time, Angie is looking forward to participating in the Female Mexican Record at Skydive Vallarta in December 2018. Oh— and she and Josh are also planning their wedding. It’s a busy moment, for sure.

“If I had to be remembered for one thing,” she says, “It would be for challenging my students; for helping them raise their skill sets to the next level; for pushing myself, going above and beyond to be able to then, in turn, deliver that high-quality instruction to my students.”

Sponsors: Icarus World, United Parachute Technologies, Larsen & Brusgaard

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To find out how to work with Angie, you have several options. You can reach out to her at USPACOURSES.COM, seek her out through the WSLN or look for her on the Skydive Perris Experienced Skydiver Events Calendar. She’d love to hear from you!

The post Angie Aragon: Our Hometown Hero appeared first on Skydive Perris.

One Of Our Very Own Badass Female Skydiving Instructors Tells Her Story

Deb Brown has always been a gravity fan. She started out by using a combination of gravity and snow to make magic — competing in snowboarding in her native Oregon. She loved it for many years, but in time the pursuit started to lose its luster.

“After my snowboarding career had ended,” Deb muses, “I was on the hunt for something else.”

And hunt she did. She went all-in for change. Indeed, she decided to switch it all the way up from snow pants to grass skirts, and moved out to Hawaii. When she got there, she was in the mood to explore some new adventures and turn up all the dials on her life. Sure enough, skydiving was at the top of that list.

“Then, of course, it went how it always goes,” she laughs. “At first, it was a group of six girls, and it whittled down to two.”

As you might imagine, the jump went very well. “Halfway through my tandem skydive,” Deb remembers, “I knew I couldn’t not do this.” She showed up for her first day of solo skydiving training within two days of that first tandem. Deb earned her license in record time and spent the next couple of years honing her skills and earning her ratings in the singularly intense conditions of that beautiful North Shore dropzone.

Deb came to our gorgeous Southern California home soon after that. Her goal: to pursue and grow her full-time skydiving career, which had been decidedly aligned towards teaching skydiving to military personnel. This year, Deb became one of the elite professional female skydivers to hold a Tandem Instructor rating from the United States Parachute Association.

We’re incredibly lucky to have Deb on our team–which is a pretty unusual team, if we do say so ourselves. Skydive Perris is pretty unique in the world for the unusually high number of fantastic female instructors we employ on our dropzone. That’s by design; we love to inspire the people who come through our gates with the proof that professional skydiving is by no means gender-exclusive.

“There are four awesome female Tandem Instructors at Perris, which is so, so cool,” Deb enthuses. “When I started skydiving, my understanding was that females did not instruct tandems. The implication was that it just isn’t a job women could do. We’d just be told, Don’t even try. You’re not strong enough.”

“It wasn’t until I got into the military work,” she continues, “and I started seeing some really badass females that my mind started to change. It had to change. There were several female tandem instructors, too, who I saw doing great work, and they weren’t the tall, built women that I had previously seen in the job. Those women really made me start looking seriously into it. I was meeting these female smoke jumpers, too. I thought, ‘Y’know what? If she can jump into a fire with a chainsaw, I think I can skydive with another human being.’ And I did it! I can truly say I love my job. It is so freaking cool.”

As a female tandem instructor, one of Deb’s favorite parts of the job is getting to relate to her female passengers.

“As a woman,” she explains, “It is easier to be more in tune with all types of tandem passengers, but especially females. At first, most of my female students had made requests for a female tandem instructor due to religious beliefs. These days, it’s a little different. I am getting a lot more requests from females who are just more comfortable jumping with females. It is really cool. I feel like I can relate even more.”

When Deb isn’t working, she sometimes takes off for the beach to surf — after all, she’s lucky enough to work at a dropzone where she can see the ocean from the door of the plane — but she’s almost always still on the dropzone on her off days, tirelessly dialing in her skills.

“I’ll tell you one thing about the team of female Tandem Instructors at Perris,” she smiles. “We don’t just want to be the best female TIs. We want to be the best TIs. Right now, I’m focusing on making each and every tandem skydive I do perfectly seamless for my student. Aside from that, I’m working quite a bit on my canopy work; on perfecting that part of my flying.”

“As a TI, I feel like my biggest role is a safety officer,” she explains. “I need and want to escort this person on a truly great experience, but overall my biggest goal is to keep them and myself safe. I’m really serious about it, and I really seriously love what I do.”

The post Meet Deb Brown appeared first on Skydive Perris.

The Queen Of Fun!

Meet Katie Piele, A Tandem Instructor Who’ll Put a Smile on Your Face

Denver, Colorado native Katie Piele wasn’t always a professional freefall navigator–but she was uncommonly prepared to take on the task, to say the least. (She earned a degree in Physics, and let’s be honest, skydiving is just applied physics with a generous side helping of woo-hoo.) When she graduated, she launched straight into working offshore on an oil rig for a little bit, in the Gulf near Houston, Texas.  

“That’s when I started skydiving,” Katie laughs, “because I really didn’t like my job. I did a skydive and thought, dude, this is, like, the coolest thing. So then I wanted to learn to get my license.”

She earned that license at Skydive Spaceland Houston. She actually moved out of her apartment and lived right there on the dropzone as she worked through the levels.

“It completely engulfed my life,” she smiles, “as it does with most people. I was super obsessed with it.”

Katie wanted to leave that oil-rig job to pursue skydiving full-time. To that end, her plan was to save up enough money until she could afford 300 fun jumps, and then she was going to quit and be at the drop zone for the whole summer. Then a wrench fell into the plan: an oil industry crash. Everyone’s pay, including hers, took a hit. Undeterred, Katie bought Spaceland’s unlimited jump package and turned in her notice.

“There went my life,” she giggles.

Katie moved onto the dropzone and, as many jumpers do, became a parachute packer full-time to support her hobby. She logged six hundred jumps that year.

“It was awesome. I had so much fun,” she enthuses. “When I first started jumping, I didn’t care about progressing. I was just incredibly pumped. I got really, really good at having fun on skydives.”

Coming off that super-strong summer, Katie decided that she really wanted to earn her tandem rating.

“I’ve always wanted to be a traveler and go on really cool adventures all the time,” she explains, “But I was always realistic about it. I can’t be poor all the time. I need to earn a wage. Tandem Instructors can have that flexibility, and I saw skydiving as a way to that goal.”

As you may or may not know, in order to enter a course to become a Tandem Instructor, a skydiver needs to prove that s/he has spent at least three years in the sport. Katie only had one. To continue to press forward in the meantime, Katie earned her Accelerated Freefall (“AFF”) instructional rating and started doing aerial videography, capturing the dropzone’s tandem jumps on camera. She started to travel to skydiving events at other dropzones, moving outside the comparatively small orbit of southern Texas. Before she knew it, the three years were up. She was ready to become a TI.

“That year was awesome,” she gushes. “I did so many tandems and I had so much fun.”

Finally, adventure travel became part of her everyday reality. She went down to work in Mexico, at Skydive Baja, then in Puerto Rico. She started expanding her parachuting and flying skills, pursuing swooping, BASE jumping and speedflying. Finally, she came to join our team at Perris. For Katie, even though she’s dead set on expanding her knowledge of the sport even farther in a more focused kind of way, at the heart of it, it’s still all about fun.

“The cool thing about being down here [at Perris],” she muses, “is there are a lot of people making this lifestyle work in unique, creative ways. It’s inspiring being around people that are trying to progress the sport in different ways and uniquely making this type of lifestyle into more of a career taking it beyond just being an instructor… The crew here is a good crew. Everybody is super-positive and inclusive.”

“I try to make sure every student is having fun,” she continues, “No matter how freaked out they are when they come to me. You can totally see it on their face. I just give them a big, silly grin and remind them to have fun. You can see their whole body relax. I’m a big proponent of having fun. If I’m having fun, I’m shredding, and if they’re having fun, so is my student!”

The post Meet Katie Piele – The Queen Of Fun appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Photo credit (above): Lori Eyler

At Skydive Perris, we’re lucky to have a pretty darned amazing community. You probably already know that lots of household-names-in-skydiving call Perris home. Today, though, we want to introduce you to one of our favorite local sport jumpers: Michael Thomas, a gentlesir with a simply amazing life story who rejoined the sport after a forty-year absence. The best part: if you’re thinking about making a skydive for the first time, he has an invitation for you!

…But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. Here’s Michael’s story, in his own words. (Get ready to be amazed!)

——

I did my first jump in November of 1973. I was a student back then, going to what was called Southwest Texas State University at the time. (It’s Texas State University now.) There was a dropzone nearby in the town of San Marcos. Some buddies of mine and I decided that we wanted to go check it out. I did a static line jump. I really took to it.

When my dad found out that I was skydiving, he wasn’t too thrilled about it, since he was paying for my education. He told me, “Son, if you’re going to be doing that, then you’re on your own.”

I told the dropzone owner, an active-duty First Sergeant who had retired from the Golden Knights, what was going on. To solve my problem, I told him I was going to enlist in the Air Force. He thought I was out of my mind, but he told me about this Dental Laboratory Prosthetic Technician school that he knew about at Fort Sam. The Army was going to be discontinuing the program, but they had two slots left, and he wanted me to have one.

He gave me some inside information. He told me that the recruiters there would try to get me to go to combat arms or fill some other slot, and that when they did, I needed to say, ‘No, thank you very much,’ to which they’d reply, ‘Well, we can’t help you then.’ He told me not to get upset — just to bide my time. He told me that, a couple days later, they’d call me back to tell me that a slot had suddenly opened. And that’s exactly what happened. I made a pretty decent career out of it.

I put on my wishlist where I wanted to get transferred after I got out of school. I put down California solely because of the skydiving. I’d been watching what they were doing in Perris even back then — pouring over Parachutist magazine — and I wanted to be part of it. I knew about Perris from day one. Perris had a reputation. It was a mecca back in the ’70s when I first started jumping. The military is notorious for not honoring your wish list, but somehow, I got lucky. I got my first pick on the list: California.

Then I got married. My girlfriend then — now my wife; we’re still married — was supportive. When we were dating, she would go to dropzones with me. She even saw my first malfunction — in an airshow, no less. But life got in the way. Skydiving was an expensive hobby. My priorities changed and I kinda drifted away from the sport.

Skydivers tend to have a higher stimulation level, I think. We need to be in the mix — doing something. My professional life suited that part of my personality. First, I was a Vocational Training Instructor at the Federal Penitentiary in Lompoc. I’ve got a book’s worth of stories from when I was there. I was on the Special Operations Response Team. We had a lot of high profile inmates there. I got to meet Manuel Noriega.

I was in the National Guard, too. I was deployed to Iraq in 2003. We got ambushed on November 2nd of that year, outside of Baghdad. We got blown up pretty good. I was slammed against a truck and cracked a vertebra in my neck. I wound up getting my spine fused all the way from C2 to C7. It sounds bad, but I’m okay. I have close to full mobility and I don’t have any pain. After that injury, I was awarded 100% disability.

At any rate, I was out of the sport of skydiving for about 40 years. I always wanted to get back in it, but I could never really find the time or the money.

I’d lived close to Perris for so many years. I missed jumping every time we went down the 215 to San Diego, which was a lot. I’d be driving along and see canopies, which would instantly make me start daydreaming, which would mean my wife would have to yell, ‘Get your eyes on the road!’ to wake me up. Every single time, I’d get excited and want to go to the DZ.

Fast forward to two years ago, when I fully retired from the Fed. I started to get bored. I garden; I have a woodshop in my garage, where I make reproduction antique furniture — I’m busy. But one day, I was sitting at the table reading the paper, and on the front page, they were talking about a 202-point formation that they were going to be doing out at Perris. I couldn’t resist. I decided I was finally going to go out there and take a look.

So I went down to Perris on the day they were scheduled to attempt the record. The dropzone was closed for sport jumping, but the energy — the electricity in the air from all those people — I was really getting excited, you know.

And then — as I’m standing there, basking in it — Melanie Conatser gets on the PA system. She says, “Listen, we’re going to need some help here. I see that we have some local people here with pickup trucks. I’d appreciate it if you’d come to the manifest and make yourselves known so we can pick up all these jumpers.” They had designated landing areas all over the dropzone because of the number of jumpers that would be landing all at once. I volunteered. I’ve been a fixture on the Perris DZ ever since.

Not long afterward, my wife mentioned that she wanted to go to Nebraska to visit our daughter and grandchildren and son-in-law. I saw an opportunity. I figured it would be easier to ask for forgiveness instead of asking for permission. So while she was gone, I went and did the AFF course at Perris. Before I did my AFF at Perris, I’d never jumped a square before, but it went fine. And, as it turns out, my wife was cool with it. She was a little bit concerned about my neck — a legitimate concern, considering all those fused vertebrae. But it hasn’t slowed me down. I even stress-tested my neck on a downwind landing. No problem.

I feel like it was fate that we had the 40-year anniversary of Perris the year I came back to the sport. Right when I returned to skydiving, I got to meet a lot of the legends I’d been starstruck by even when I started in the 70’s.

People are sometimes a little surprised when I talk about the fact that skydiving is a therapeutic activity. There’s a mode that you get into: when you start to gear up, you dirt dive, and then after that, once that process starts, there is nothing else going on in your life except that moment. From the time you get on the plane until the time you land, that’s all you can feel. That’s your universe. I’d have to say that’s one of the biggest reasons why I jump.

It’s an unnatural activity to be purposely, deliberately jumping out of an airplane. You don’t know what’s going to happen with complete certainty. That’s what causes most of the fear, I think.  But once you’ve made a resolution that you’re going to face this, and that you can do this, the reward at the end is incredible.

It’s not just me, either. When I see tandem jumpers who are walking back from their very first parachute landing, I make a deliberate effort to go over and ask them how they liked it. Every one of them gives the same answer: ”It was the most fantastic, exhilarating experience of my life. I can’t believe I did that, and I don’t know what I was afraid of.” And they’re all just glowing, with this euphoric look on their faces. And a lot of them come back to do it again — and to get their solo skydiving license. Which, really, is phenomenal.

It doesn’t hurt that, safety-wise, Perris has the best tandem masters, the best equipment, the best pilots, the best of everything. And, being that Perris is a world-class drop zone, the odds are definitely in your favor that, if you jump there, you’re going to survive. So enjoy it!

There’s another thing that’s cool about Perris: They preach that old-school philosophy that establishes the sport of skydiving as a brotherhood. We look after each other, here. We treat each other with respect and kindness. We make everybody feel welcome out here, no matter who you are. Speaking of which, here’s an invitation: When you graduate with your license, come and find me! I’ll be happy to jump with you.

The post Back to the Sky In Style: Michael Thomas’ Story appeared first on Skydive Perris.

The Inspiring Backstory of One of Our Favorite Perris Wingsuit Coach/Organizers

Imagine this for a Sunday:

You wake up, stretch, and wander over to meet your friends at 8 a.m. Everyone pops on their skydiving rigs, zips into their wingsuits and marches up to the nearest plane. You spend the day doing complicated, six-way sequential wingsuit jumps, focusing on nailing the details of a few different dive flows, rinsing and repeating on a forty-minute cycle all day long. When the shadows start to get long, you and your friends celebrate with a sunset jump, zipping through the golden glow under the power of your own wings.

That may seem like superhero stuff, but it’s a pretty normal Sunday for Regina Elwell.

“When I was a kid,” she remembers, “I would constantly ask my dad to take me skydiving. His way of playing it off was to reply that he would–as soon as I had my own health insurance. So the first thing I did when I had my first big kid job lined up after undergrad–and had my own health insurance, naturally–was to do a tandem with one of my cousins.”

After that experience hooked her, she completed her AFF at Virginia’s legendary Skydive Orange. She did her first 50 jumps very quickly, then took 4 years to do the next 20.

“I didn’t even really know what wingsuiting was until spring of 2012, when I came back to skydiving,” she says, “but I was instantly intrigued as soon as I did.”

USPA regulations required that she have 200 jumps before she’d be allowed to try the discipline, so she set about the following 130 very quickly to get up to the jump numbers she needed.

“Jump 200 was my first wingsuit jump, and I pretty much haven’t taken it off since then,” Regina grins. “I have made maybe fifty total jumps that aren’t wingsuit jumps since I started wingsuiting.”

For a long time, Regina’s dedication to wingsuiting revolved around the pursuit of the world’s statistically-most-lethal pastime: wingsuit BASE.

“I knew that every [wingsuit skydive] I was doing was training for that goal; for something with the potential of grave consequences, but also the potential for immense personal reward,” she explains. “I fell in love with wingsuiting during my first flight and it was only with that passion that I was able to dedicate my entire being to accomplishing the personal goal of wingsuit BASE jumping.”

“Wingsuiting never gets boring to me. There is always something to learn. I especially love where wingsuiting is going more recently,” she adds, “I’m very intrigued by incorporating more dynamic movements and performing sequential dive flows with wingsuits. It is crazy how rapidly wingsuit technology has evolved over the past several years and how drastically the talent of wingsuiters has improved. I have recently started training in the wind tunnel to refine precise dynamic movements. It has been fun to then apply those skills to wingsuiting in the sky.”

If that sounds like a rather scientifically inspired approach to the discipline of human flight, that’s not surprising. Regina herself is a scientist–a scientist of several flavors, as a matter of fact. After earning a BS in Biology and a minor in Chemistry, she worked in a cancer research lab. Eventually, she went back to grad school to get her Master’s of Science in High Technology Crime Investigation.

“I have been all over the place with my interests over the years,” she laughs.

It’s work facilitated by the latter degree that takes up Regina’s current weekdays. She specializes in digital forensics and network intrusion investigation.

“I’ve been in this career field for eight years now,” she explains. “When a company gets hacked, they hire the company that I work for and people like me figure out what happened. It’s a complicated puzzle that is constantly changing.”

As you might imagine, that takes a lot of time. Regina is, therefore, a weekend warrior skydiver–albeit an incredibly dedicated one. She drives 90 miles each way to spend her time off load organizing, coaching and progressing within the Perris skydiving community.

“Coaching and load organizing to me is all about teaching others how to do what they love to do, only better,” she says. “I love to share with other people the tips and tricks I have learned along the way.

It becomes quickly evident that the other thing she loves is her home dropzone: Our beloved Perris.

“We are pretty spoiled here,” she laughs. “The weather is pretty much fantastic. I got sunburnt this weekend, because it was in the mid 80s at the beginning of February. And the talent that comes through there is phenomenal. We’re always challenged.”

“The atmosphere is my favorite thing about Perris,” she continues. “It’s a very well-run business, but it is still fun. They strike that balance really well. When you’re here, you know that there will always be multiple planes running; that there will always be people you can learn from; that the weather will be good; that the facilities will be nice. You know you can get a shower right after sunset if you want, or grab a meal at the restaurant. Everything right there. It’s pretty much perfect.”

If you want to grab a slice of that perfection for yourself, Regina has some excellent advice for you.

“Never stop learning,” she insists. “I’m happiest when I’m either in a state of learning or a state of laughing, so if I had to say anything to anyone else, it would be to constantly learn and laugh, whether that’s laughing at yourself for making a mistake or simply enjoying the moment. Always strive for both.”

The post Regina Elwell Owns the Weekend appeared first on Skydive Perris.

When, where, why and how did you make your first skydive? 

I made my 1st skydive in 2000 in Latina Italy, it was a static line course and i didn’t like it much so i waited many months after to find an AFF course near to my house in Nettuno.

A friend of mine took me there for the 1st time after i hear him talking about skydiving, but before when i was very young in a disco club i saw a video of a guy that became my friend after and he was base jumping from the mountain in Italy and i thought it was so cool to be able to fly. I always wanted to fly since i was little.

How did that first jump change your life?

It changed everything i was going to the school and i stopped i had a boyfriend and i broke up because he didn’t like me to jump, later i moved in another country to learn how to freefly and freestyle. and i stopped my modeling job and just do it on and off sometime.

As a professional extreme athlete, what does a typical day in your life look like and what do you enjoy most about this lifestyle?

Most of my days are at the drop zone training. In the summer i’ve been base jumping mostly, last year i was flying in the tunnel a bit more. What i enjoy the most is everything i do also the underwater pictures and adventures with animals.

We’ve seen you training a lot recently in wing suit flying, what is it about this discipline that you love? 

Yes i love to fly wingsuit because it is so new on what we can do and learn new things. We can freefly and move around. It is more flying than falling.

What is it about Skydive Perris that makes you want to jump here?

I have been in this drop zone many years ago since 2002 and i have lots of memories here of my 1st bigway freefly or my 1st training camp of freestyle, also all the good coaches some of them unfortunately not here anymore. I like to work here because we have one of the best weather and the plane is going always up :)

You’ve skydived and BASE jumped all over the world, is there a location that stands out as being most memorable (aside from Perris of course!) ;-)?

The dolomites are the most beautiful mountains to me. I like also to jump over the Ocean like in Hawaii.

You’ve worked on numerous TV shows, commercials, movies etc. Which was most fun, and why?

My favorite commercial was probably the HTC Phone, why? Because who get to jump in the same job in the same skydive with Norman Kent, Joe Jennings, Craig OBrien and Greg Gasson all together? That was the one life time job and a dream team. It was also a challenge and not easy jumps.

Who are your skydiving mentors?

Jon Devore, Mike Swanson and Ippo Fabbi, Noah Bahnson, Stefania Martinengo.

What canopies do you jump and why?

Spectre 107, Horizon 120, i like to have good opening and both are good for wingsuit.

What’s been your favorite skydive and BASE jump so far?

Skydive i think when i flew over the Volcano in Chile. Base jump the jumps from the building in Dubai.

Do you have a ‘dream jump’ you have yet to do?

Yes i do and i can t talk about ;) but i have many dreams on different locations in the world.

What are your future goals in skydiving?

Training freefly wingsuit as much as i can.

When you’re not jumping, what other activities do you like to do?

I go to the Gym i love the ocean so in the summer i like to go surfing.

Tell us something that is little known about your yourself?

I love to cook and i cook everyday after jumping.

What’s in store for you in 2018?

I will be working for GoPro again so lots of adventures to film underwater and in the air. I m going to South America with my boyfriend to fly together organizing boogies. in the summer we gonna be in Europe again flying and at the tunnel in Milan Aerogravity.

Sum up Roberta Mancino in 5 words or less.

Determinate, generous, caring, passionate.

The post People of Perris: Roberta Mancino appeared first on Skydive Perris.

When, where, why and how did you make your first skydive? 

I did my first tandem skydive on August 26^th, 2006 in Queenstown, New Zealand while on a backpacking trip. The jump was over a mountain range called The Incredibles (where parts of the Lord of the Rings was filmed).

How did that first jump change your life?

A group of us were picked up from the city center and driven to the dropzone in a shuttle van by two young ladies. Their energy and zest for life was gravitating. When we arrived at the DZ those same ladies put rigs and camera gear on to film tandem videos.  When I realized that this was their normal day-to-day job I was so impressed, I wanted to be just like them.  Then, I went on the jump.  That sealed the deal!

You are a tandem and AFF instructor, how did you get into instructing and what do you enjoy most about jumping with students?

I became an instructor because as a fun jumper I would get super depressed every time I had to leave the DZ. I wanted nothing but to be at the dropzone 24/7. I saw how the life as a skydiving instructor was fun, rewarding, and most importantly sustainable so I went for it!  

As one of the few female tandem instructors working in the sport, what challenges have you had to overcome to get to where you are now?

Doing tandems is physically exhausting and especially challenging for someone of a smaller build and even more so for a female. Women are not built the same as men when it comes to natural strength. Having to work smart, not hard and find techniques to compensate for strength is something that I had to learn by myself. The only female mentor I had for many years was my Instructor Examiner, Jen Sharp, but she lived in a different state. Another big challenge was getting to a point where I was confident enough to not let criticism bother me. I think women are more sensitive to this. I had to grow a layer of thicker skin to hang with the boys and their banter.

You’re also a coach examiner and tandem examiner, what’s your favorite part about making new instructors?

I enjoy seeing the change in confidence. When experienced jumpers are given a higher understanding as to the importance of their new role as a Coach/Instructor they walk with a little more pride.

What advice do you have for skydivers who are thinking about becoming instructors?

I say, “Live what you love” and go for it!  The Cycle of Life in skydiving is to have those few experienced jumpers come up the ranks and be added to the instructor pool. Even if a person is not intending on becoming a full-time instructor, the knowledge obtained by taking a ratings course is very beneficial to any skydiver. Visit www.uspacourses.com for more details on courses offered by Angie Aragon.

What is it about Skydive Perris that makes you want to jump here?

Skydive Perris is a world-renowned dropzone with some of the best in the industry.  I like being surrounded by the likes of Dan BC, Scott Smith, Craig O’Brien, Hanna Betts, Taya Weiss (just to name a few, the list goes on and on). They are impressive individuals and they keep the standards high. In addition, my family lives only an hour away.  I get to do what I love, at a great dropzone, with good weather and can still spend holidays and birthdays with my loved ones.  

Who are your skydiving mentors?

This one is hard because there are so many.  The ones that stand out are those that mentored and influenced me during the early stages of my skydiving career, Jen Sharp, Tom Noonan and Lauren “Lob” Lobjoit.  More recently, as an Examiner, my mentors are those that have proven to be a phone or text away, JC Coldren, Scott Smith and Paul Piccalo.

What canopies do you jump and why?

I am an Icarus Canopies sponsored instructor.  I fly a Crossfire2 because it is the most reliable work canopy on the market, yet is still fun enough for me to swoop conservatively.  I am waiting for the new Xfire to be released.  I spent some time flying the latest prototype and can’t wait to get my hands on the finished product!

When you’re not instructing what other types of jumping do you like to do?  

I like freeflying, however, I do not spend a whole lot of time fun jumping.  Mostly because on my days off I am away from the DZ doing something that helps bring me balance.

What’s your most memorable jump to date?

My most memorable jump was a big way memorial jump for Jonathan Tagle at Skydive Elsinore.  JT was a really good friend of mine and although he wasn’t physically there on that jump, his energy was surely present.

Do you have a ‘dream jump’ you have yet to do?

I would love to take my mom on a tandem.  She is terrified of heights and would never actually do a jump but I think it would be really cool!!

What are your future goals in skydiving?

I want to travel internationally as an Instructor Examiner while maintaining a home base at Skydive Perris.  I enjoy taking USPA Standards to foreign dropzones that are in need of the guidance and safety procedures.

When you’re not at the DZ, how do you like to spend your time? 

My first passion is to travel.  The world is so big; the difference in cultures vast, and the sights unfathomable.

Tell us something that is little known about yourself?

My retirement plan involves a beach in a foreign country and a taco shop. 

Sum up Angie Aragon in 5 words or less.

Always taking on new challenges.

Sponsors: Icarus Canopies, Mirage Containers, Larsen & Brusgaard

The post People of Perris: Angie Aragon appeared first on Skydive Perris.