Arizona Arsenal has been a competitive 4-way Vertical Formation Skydiving Team since the first test USPA Nationals in 2006. At this time VFS was called VRW, Vertical Relative Work. Since then Arsenal has maintained its status as a top tier medalling competitor winning gold and silver medals each year at both the National and World levels.
Check out some of the awesome photos Brandon Atwood took during out last training camp at Skydive Arizona with his Go Pro 3.
Congratulations Todd! It was an honor to meet you and jump with you. Keep up the good work. Looking forward to next time 🙂
Todd Love is a USMC veteran who lost both of his legs and his left hand to an IED in Afghanistan, who’s determined to not let that get in the way of ANYTHING (Watch Todd’s story: http://vimeo.com/23424390). He has been surfing, skiing, scuba diving, wrestling alligators, and now learning to skydive. After completing his first tandem skydive with Mike Elliott into the start of the XTERRA Trail Run World Championship in Hawaii he was hooked! And since “impossible” and “can’t” are not part of Todd’s vocabulary, his teammates at Operation Enduring Warrior turned to AXIS Flight School to make his dream of solo skydiving come true.
Todd’s Tunnel Training just two months earlier.
Here are some of my selects from Todd’s AFF progression:
Here are some additional photos courtesy of Mike McGowan:
“Here are some nuggets from the Vertical Challenge at Skydive Arizona. The song is Colours by Grouplove. Oh yeah, and The Final Countdown by Europe :)” – Video edited by Brandon Atwood
The Az Vertical Challenge, ran along side the celebrated belly version, the Arizona Challenge, was held this year May 24- 27, 2013. The event was hosted by Skydive Arizona and organized by Arizona Arsenal. The purpose was to bring participants together to perform unique vertical formations with multiple points.
All 14 jumps went to 16,500 feet and were between 23 to 32 ways, 12 formation jumps, and 2 full skyvan loads. Registered participants paid the Memorial Day Boogie price of $21.00 per jump plus $5.50 for extra altitude w/ oxygen.
The goal was multiple point head down big ways, with some upright bonus points. An awesome mixed group of flyers showed up including experienced locals such as former Arsenal member Jason Peters, PD Flight-1 Coach Travis Mills, and Kim Winslow and Friday Friedman of Arizona Drive. The group also included accomplished visitors like tunnel instructors Aaron Necessary and Antonio Arias, and Paul Cooper and Dafi Filipowski coming all the way from the UK and Eastern Europe. Enthusiastic new talent like locals Paige Milligan and Melissa Zender got in there on some tough slots and rocked it. Fun was had by all!
There was also an impromptu smaller “skills camp” group of between 4 and 8 people working on VFS core fundamentals such as launching bases, diving, floating, stinging and break-offs.
Some of the cool jumps were the “fountain” with several concentric rings breaking off from the center, and the “three eyed monkey” where the 28 way built then became 7 different pieces with translation, rotation and vertical movement in relation to the base.
There were two Huck Jams at the tunnel, 1 hour each night organized by Ty Losey, Brandon Atwood, Steve Curtis, Sara Curtis and Jason Peters. Participants worked on vfs, dynamic, and multi-dimensional flying.
At the dz, early start times allowed for getting the jumps in before temperatures got too hot and turbulent. Any summertime visitor to Skydive Az knows that the key to making the most of your day in the summer desert is to get going early, and finish up early.
Many people travelled from as far away as Europe to jump with the Arizona crew. Thanks to you all for making this event such a great time. We hope to get things even bigger next year, as we’ve got the aircraft on hand to make it happen! So bring your friends and join us for dodging dust devils in the desert.
Challenge Participants: Craig Amrine, Antonio Arias, Vince Arnone, Brandon Atwood, Becky Baird, Wade Baird, Amy Benton, John Blackburn, Chazi Blacksher, Paul Cooper, Luke Cotton, Sara Curtis, Steve Curtis, Niklas Daniel, Dafi Filipowski, Danielle Ford, Mike “Friday” Freidman, Dave Hawley, Jeff Johnson, Nancy Koreen, Eric Leggiere, Ty Losey, Lisa Mazzetta, Paige Milligan, Travis Mills, Aaron Necessary, Jason Peters, James Schroeppel, Mark Stoddart, Kim Winslow, Melissa Zender, Dave Rhea (video and stills)
Skills Camp Participants: Derek Wallen, Nick Blacksher, Gary Schmit, Whitney Reighly, Ed Varley, Brianne Thompson
A special thanks to Mike Coffey, local freefly organizer who helped fill those morning early high altitude loads with his groups of fun jumpers!
Turbine Madness
Skydive Arizona hosted the annual Turbine Madness Boogie from May 24th to the 27th. The event featured $21 jump tickets, tons of load organizers, boogie beer, and a DJ. In addition Arizona Sponsored teams AZ Arsenal and AZ Airspeed hosted their annual Challenge events for their respective disciplines.
Arizona Arsenal Vertical Challenge
Planned Dives for the event included complex multiple point formation jumps that required two planes. Some of these formations resembled shapes such as a yin yang, windmills, animals, and many more.
Here are some of my selects from the Vertical Challenge:
Congratulations to Brianne Thompson!
Brianne of AXIS Flight School had the amazing opportunity of attending both the Vertical and Airspeed Challenge! To the left you will see the plan for the most difficult formation of the belly event. The photo below shows the completed jump and was taken by Willy Boeykens.
Event Video and Photos by Trunk
“Really quick / short edit of fun jumps from this weekend. We got a tube exit, horny gorilla, cannonball, geek the camera jump, few VRW, and watching the az vertical challenge leave.. Thx Niklas Daniel, Amy Chmelecki, Nancy Koreen, Dave Funpoleez Rhea, Ed Varley, Nick Blacksher, John Blackburn, Alaska Sean Anderson, Sara Curtis, Renae Pearson, ASet Ag, and others to be listed in the comments… hopefully…” – Mark ‘Trunk’ Kirschenbaum
Playing with Crayons and the Arizona Sun
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 VALKYRIE) that was still undergoing some R&D. Here are some of my selects from the jump:
This morning Ernie Torres set a new World Record for the number of pine boards broken in freefall! The previous record was 7, set by Jason David Frank, best known for his role as the Green Power Ranger Tommy Oliver. Ernie shattered the old record by breaking 12 boards. He was supported by Skydive Arizona, Arizona Airspeed, Arizona Arsenal, AXIS Flight School, instructors from Adventures in Skydiving and SkyVenture Arizona, and other local talent.
(World Record Board Breaking Crew)
The event is a fundraiser for the Wounded Warrior Project, a nonprofit organization whose stated mission is to “honor and empower wounded warriors.”
Here is a quick look from my view of the jump:
More Images by Terry Schumacher:
“Todd Love – you might not know the name…yet, but you’ve probably seen some pictures or videos of him. You’d remember because those were the images that immediately made you stop whining about how hard your day was and how you just couldn’t do something because it was too difficult. He often has that effect on people – a USMC veteran who lost both of his legs and his left hand to an IED in Afghanistan, who’s determined to not let that get in the way of ANYTHING. He’s been surfing, skiing, scuba diving, wrestling alligators, and now learning to skydive. The other day I asked him to tell me why he wants to skydive and about his journey so far, and this is what Todd wrote:
“Well I did some jumping (static line) in the Marine Corps and I did a few training jumps in Afghanistan too. After I was hurt I of course didn’t know anything about what I would be able to do or how my life would turn out. I remember watching one of Jeb Corliss’s videos and I thought how awesome and was inspired. Then a few months later I met these guys who called themselves Team XTREME. They would tandem Skydive wounded service members into events and they took me to Hawaii and not only put me on a surf board for the first time, they took me scuba diving for the first time, and right their where they filmed part of Jurassic Park I experienced my first free fall. It was beautiful. It was at The XTERRA World Championship and I waited as the guys ran the whole thing as a Team with Gas Mask. I knew I belonged with a group like this and wanted to be a part of it. They gave me the privilege of being on board and I’m not sure how it all happened but we started doing Spartan Races and Xterra events but they would carry me through the race on their backs. Sometimes they would let me tackle some obstacles by myself but hey were always their when I needed them.”
I actually first learned of Team X-T.R.E.M.E. at one of those races – the Bataan Memorial Death March – last spring. It’s a 26.2 mile ruck trough the New Mexico desert, that the team, which included a double amputee, Noah Galloway, completed while wearing gas masks. I had no idea what that was all about, so I asked them afterwards. What I learned was that this is an organization focused on raising awareness and honoring wounded veterans. The name actually stands for “train, rehabilitate, empower, motivate, endure,” and the organization has now evolved into Operation Enduring Warrior. So of course the next logical step was to see how I could help them implement the best therapy tool I know – skydiving. Its something the team has already been using with the help of Mike Elliott and the All Veterans Parachute Team performing tandems, but we were now going to take it a step further.
“Then they started operation X wing and I was introduced to a wind tunnel for the first time at the Paraclete. Pun was my first instructor. It took me awhile at first to get stable enough to where I wasn’t spinning out of control in the tunnel. It was frustrating. I knew if I had more time I could get better though and after watching all the regulars showing all their tricks I wanted to be able to do it too. Then JOIN Skydive Apparel jumped on board and they sent a pretty girl to take some measurements for a custom suit just for me. A few weeks later they showed up and I was starting to look like a pro with some fancy gear. Then UPT joined in too and built me a rig that I could wear. It all just started falling together. I guess that’s what they skydive community does haha.”
Todd’s got that right for sure – this is how our community does it! UPT, PD, Paraclete XP, JOIN, Axis Flight School, Skyventure Arizona, Green Light, Skydive Arizona, as well as all the instructors and staff offered their help without hesitation and we are extremely grateful to them.
“Then I was told Skyventure Arizona donated a lot of time for me and that Axis Flight School was going to coach me. I flew out and I met Nik and Brianne from Axis and they were super fun to work with. I flew with my rig for the first time and by the end of the week I had made tons of improvement. Nik introduced me to the story of Alistair Hodgson who is a skydiver who is a double amputee above the knee. I knew I could fly but I wasn’t confident how I would land but Al reassured me that I would be good. I would be landing the same way he does. I knew if he could do it then I could do it too. The guys from Axis then edited a video from my time in the tunnel, then next thing you know Jeb Corliss was sharing my video on his page. Soon I will be doing my AFF and I’ve never been more excited in my whole life.”
Yup, Todd rocked that tunnel training, so we’re on to AFF at Skydive Arizona. To be continued… – Original Article and Interview by Muravyeva “MURV” Iveta for Blue Skies Magazine
The Drop 