Skysisters 2, 2007

 

SS2 Information Materials

Skysisters Handbook & Program

 

About Skysisters 2

Susie Mc, Organiser:

The first Skysisters Convention in 2005 was to be a one-off event. Words don’t describe how awesome and spirited and wonderful that week was - it surpassed my every expectation. I’ve had males and females alike tell me it was the greatest skydiving meet they’d ever been to… ever! That’s a big call, but it definitely went down in the history books.

So, with only a little encouragement needed but a lot received, I was convinced to go again. My biggest worry… how could I possibly top the last one? The answer(s) were quite clear – a stronger canopy piloting focus, a website and more education, more media attention, more sponsors and more help!

A Skysisters photo making the finals of a major Qld Government photographic competition certainly got the ball rolling – it gained us a lot of exposure and opened up new doors.

A $25,000 boost from the Queensland Events Regional Development Program was a terrific windfall. A large portion of this grant was to be spent on promoting the event and gaining media exposure. Thanks to Claire Barry, Sonja Bruss and Kelly Graham, together we had the event listed on all sorts of calendars and websites, had articles published in a collection of newspapers and magazines and enjoyed a number of live radio interviews, all that before the event started! During the event we had a couple of major national and regional radio stations covering the event with a number of live interviews. River 94.9 brought out their big truck and dish and broadcast live from the drop zone on the first day! Newspapers and news stations were waiting for our calls about the records and quickly beamed the girls up worldwide. Channel 10’s Morning Show sent lucky reporter Howie to cover the event. He promptly found himself strapped to Issy, flying in tandem and blowing kisses to the 8 Skysisters docking on him. Needless to say he did a glowing 14 minute report, viewed by an estimated 130,000 people. Totally Wild filmed an awesome segment which recently aired and RalphTV will be featuring many of our “hot chicks” on their new show, stay tuned.

The APF helped fund airfares of our fabulous international coaches and most State Parachute Councils encouraged participation by refunding ladies registrations, some even jump tickets! The diversity of skydiving industry and mainstream sponsors and the level of their support blew us all away, from impressive and FULL rego bags to over $20,000 worth of raffle prizes and encouragement awards.

Thanks to one of our newest Skysisters, Sam Wardle, the website was up-and-running 4 months before and was packed with information about the Symposium, female national & world records and profiles on our leading ladies. The website is very much a work in progress and the aim is to build it up to be a fantastic reference source of information and educational articles, plus showcasing our gorgeous girls in action. Sam’s been quite ill; so the post event stories and photos are not yet up, stay tuned. Get well soon Sam.

There are MANY people I’d like to thank and I could go on and on about all of them and the event, but I’ll spare you! In short, we had an incredible line up of coaches, organisers, video pool, photographers, day tape production, packers, pilots, manifesters, entertainers, juicers and barmen etc etc, who individually and collectively helped make Skysisters2 legendary. Sonja Bruss and Claire Barry rocked my world with their enthusiasm and help. It was so wonderful to share the load and share in the successes. The 150 page Handbook a true testament to Sonja’s spirit.

The men can’t go unmentioned – they were outstanding. Mad Cow called it – he wanted Slave shirts instead of Staff shirts. The t-shirt sponsors, Cypres2, may have been unimpressed at first, but quickly adjusted to the Aussie humour - representative Rob proclaimed Skysisters to be the best boogie he’d ever been to and that his shirt “was going straight to the pool room” too!

It was a condition of attendance of men that they declared their support of the girls or the event in some way. You can imagine a) the backlash from those who thought that was discriminative and would never attend and b) the antics and awesome vibe from those who did attend and were willing to support hard. Belgium Steve went straight to the top as Super Slave - his mission was to take on 3 new girls from 0 to 25 jumps in 8 days, including AFF course and B-Rels, for $0 payment. Charlotte Vandenburg, Mel Chryss and Leonie Wald accepted his mission and the team went hard, with the collective love and support of 100 onlookers. Super trooper Leonie had a small fracture in her leg from her Stage 8 landing, nothing that a few Nurofen and G&Ts didn’t fix that night, and went up for Stage 9 the next day!  Mel and Charlotte continued on their mission and on the second last day of the boogie, their 22^nd jump, which was their last 4-way Brel, was pirated by 4 Skysisters, making an 8-way roundie – their facial expressions in freefall were priceless! Thanks Belgie and his team of AFF slaves - 3 new female jumpers is exactly what the sport needs.

As with every boogie there are always a couple of stand-outs, at Skysisters these were Jenny Gordon, Rhonda Bostock, Janine Whitten (back jumping after 10 years and 2 kids), Sam Hill and ??, but without a doubt, the Belle of the Boogie title was crowned to Jill Grantham for her great humour & champion attitude plus for knocking out 7 disciplines in 7 days!

Most importantly – all you ladies, chicks, women, girls and nana skydivers who attended – it was always all about you and I am so thrilled that you made the most of everything on offer – you had fun, were safe, learnt heaps, got out of your comfort zone, were challenged, motivated and simply inspirational… and totally fabulous doing it!

 

7 Disciplines in 7 Days by Jill Grantham

“Belle of the Boogie”

The last week of April Ramblers DZ was the place to be, there the air was filled with rainbow tie-dye and oestrogen. There was a smorgasbord of world class coaches, slaves, cool chicks and more pink jumpsuits than I’ve ever seen before. There was conjecture surrounding timing and attendance of boys, but everyone who attended was there wholeheartedly and being so close after Nats was great because there was NO temptation to train.

With all the coaches and support available in every discipline you could think of, it wasn’t a matter of whether you could do it, but rather when to fit it all in. Faced with this dilemma what was a girl to do? The answer - EVERYTHING!

Each day we started off with an early morning yoga session, followed by Shano’s awesome juices, then faced the tough decision of what to do... so many jumps, so little time.

Flatflying with Fiona and Elise, with whom you could frequently hear “toughen up princess” and who have taken it to a new level and developed a clothing line in honour of the phrase said to so many rel babes that week.

CRW dawgs Jules and Higgo started a club of girls who could find their pilot chutes and reassured us of CRW by saying “if you get to terminal punch out your reserve or your canopy will explode”. Got no idea why anyone took them up.

Freeflyers continued a club of girls who were still looking for their pilot chutes and banged out some mad VRW jumps. American coaches Amy and Melissa shared their knowledge and skills, introducing us to Tunnel Envy, there is now a little tunnel crack hoe in each of us.

The Flockers were welcoming new chicks in the family, with first flight courses running every day and big-ways going off. Greg and Elaine even let some dodos give flying a burl.

Naoms and Dingo limbered up some ladies for Freestyle, with some stand out candidates. Naoms was also very generous with her clothing that week and it was seen on some unlikely skydivers, usually once the bar had opened.

Cecilia masterfully multi tasked, as only a woman can do, between massaging and skysurfing, providing footage for the after portion of a before and after shot of skysurfing and not laughing too hard when her pupils provided the before shot.

Noone escaped unscathed that week with almost everyone seen saying the F-word at the bar as they handed over the carton cash and I was no exception with my not-so-subtle attempts to make the day tapes.

Skysisters07 was more than skydives and beers. There was a resounding vibe that really made the boogie what it was, everyone who was there added something whether is was coaching and jumping support or cocktails, skin care and music at the end of the day.

When I first saw the colours of Skysisters I thought the hippies in QLD had gone crazy. But now I will wear my shirt with pride, because to me it now means new friendships, conquering fears, sisterhood, rockin' skydives and a boogie with an awesome vibe.

Bring on SS3.

 

Skysisters by Fiona McEachern & Elise Hill

Some one said the end of your life should be reached with a body worn out from good food, wine and living yelling “woohoo  what a ride”. Well Skysisters was just that and more. Not that it represented the end of life, more like a total body battery recharge and the rekindling of enthusiasm on a grand scale!

It wasn’t as busy as the last one, partly because there were more organisers and that also meant we organisers got to take some time out and go on each other’s jumps, learning different techniques and ways of teaching and doing some new fun jumps.

As the attendees got further into the week and became current, they became more daring and the cross-pollination of flat, free, birdman and canopy stuff bore astonishing fruit with girls and guys trying new things and becoming confident in lots of different areas.

There is sheer delight at being in the air with someone who makes a life altering discovery about fall rate or where to stop so you can dock easily and even moreso when you have been part of teaching that discovery.

In the flat flying area, the first part of the week was taken up with getting current and getting Star Crests for those from smaller drop zones who had not previously had the opportunity. It is wonderful that so many experienced jumpers took the time to come on these jumps and help the new Star Cresters along the way. I’ve always held the belief that you can’t sit back and wait for new jumpers to come up to standard, you have to help them and many people did that over the week.

We also did some seriously challenging jumps at the top end of the spectrum, with formation loads, advanced centres, movement of large pieces or just nice 8-ways. One of the highlights was beating Cookie in the Donut 540 turns at the start of a day following a rather large night! I’m still not sure how that happened…

We also built a new female POP’s 17-way on the last day, beating the previous record by one. Michelle Dodds, as one of the newest POPs, was part of the record and celebrated her 40th birthday on the day.

Thanks go to Steve Fitchett, Archie, Ange and Wayne for some wonderful video and stills and also to James Stevenson for some excellent stills and the nightly slideshow, Elad and his team for the energetic day tapes, and to Susie for putting on the whole show and inviting us in the first place. We are definitely looking forward to the next one.

 

Lesley Gale, UK (Editor of Skydive The Mag):

“The theme of Skysisters 2007 was ‘get out of the box’, ie. try something new. Every conceivable type of new skydiving experience was on offer, from canopy formations to birdwoman to freeflying with the world’s best. Each day you saw people flushed and glowing with the excitement of new achievements. By offering top level female coaches for traditionally male-dominated activities such as canopy piloting, Ramblers drop zone coaxed Skysisters participants to give everything a try – the reward was that almost everyone went home with the added confidence of new accomplishments.

I could not believe how much was on offer. Every Skysister received a bag stuffed full with goodies including five coaching tickets, so each could choose their desired area for personal tuition. The superb line-up of international skydiving superstars offered coaching and organising in the day, and ran seminars in the evening. These were complemented by a professionally edited daily video, a nightly raffle with a plethora of prizes and various organised entertainment, ranging from the ‘Get Frocked’ party of fashion misfits, to the grand Ball and awards ceremony sealing the event.

An original aim had been to break the existing Skysisters and Australian female national record 47-way with a 50-way or even 60-way. It was a great shame there simply were not enough chicks there, as everything else was in place including top class organisers (she says modestly!), line-up of three Caravans and another one if we needed it, with first rate pilots and a drop zone set up with all the facilities.

It actually worked out well for those who were there because they received more personal coaching than we’d have been able to give if we’d been going for a biggie. For me, it was very rewarding as a little tuition goes a long way where chicks are concerned. Females are fabulous to work with, you tell them what to do and they do it (unlike guys who often think they have a better idea!)  I found that, as Australia has many drop zones with just one small Cessna, knowledge of getting to formations was limited but all most chicks needed was a little information and practice. Each jump was better than the last so the improvement they were making in a single day was amazing!

One girl said to me that she’d been thinking of giving up jumping as she wasn’t very confident but Skysisters had completely changed that!  Every day more happy chicks made great progress. Towards the end of the week we built a POPS female Aussie record 17-way. It was great to include Wendy Smith in the formation rather than on camera, I didn’t even know she owned a sausage-grabbing suit! 

Ramblers is a wonderful drop zone, with a fantastic chilled vibe, great facilities, lovely layout, professional staff and very safely run. Guys as well as girls were welcome, it was female-friendly rather than exclusive and the mix was perfect. This was an event run for the good of the sisters (and brothers). All the firsts, triumphant faces and beaming smiles spoke for themselves. Roll on the next Skysisters! This time we want to build that female record - there’s a slot there with your name on it - come on down!” 

 

Female Flockers Fly a First at Skysisters! by Elaine Cox, BMI, PFI

On the second day of Skysisters, I jumped with Lorraine “Quiche” Duff on her first wingsuit flight. She had just over 200 skydives - the minimum number of jumps recommended to attend a First Flight Course & make a jump under instruction. The next day she was on all female 8-way Wing Suit formation… a world first! This was the essence of Skysisters 2. Everything was on offer and anything was possible! The “have a go” attitude, the willingness to learn and the application to be the best you can be was inspirational! The girls not only flocked, they rocked! 

Our stock of Birdman Firebird demo suits and Phoenix Fly Prodigy suits were rarely on the ground as 15 Skysisters made their first flight intros with Greg and myself during the course of the week. Most of whom went on to make multiple 2, 3 & 4-way flocks and some even attempted 9 & 10-way flocks! All the First Flight Course girls were impressive but special mention must go to Quiche, Lilo Winter, Celeste Hill, Helen Bigland and Cecilia Morton for their outstanding performances.

It was a great response! The percentage of active female wingsuit flyers world-wide is small. Here were another potential 15 excited, enthused and raring to join our flock!

With Skysisters being synonymous with records it was my goal to encourage the girls, active and new, to try to achieve the largest all female flock formation to date and put female flockers on the map!  Whilst there are “accepted” types of WS flocks there is as yet, no formalised regulation as to what constitutes a formation and therefore the claim of any record is arbitrary. That being said my research disclosed that the yardstick for the largest existing female WS formation was a 7-way made in the UK 2 years previously, although it is unclear whether it was slot specific or just random flight. My goal was to improve upon this and attempt an all female, slot specific 8-way. The “record” was achieved on our first attempt which was meant to be a practice jump. The formation was designed to depict the Skysisters logo and as such was aptly named “The Skysisters” formation, resembling a stretched out arrow.

The diamond base consisted of myself, Tanya Cale (40 WS jumps), Lorraine Duff (3 WS jumps) and Cath Comyns (15 WS jumps) with Linn Mikkelborg (17 WS jumps) and Cecilia Morton (4 WS jumps) on the wings and Susie McEvoy (5 WS jumps) and Conny Van Setten (15 WS jumps) as the tail. After an extensive brief we made the jump, the base flew really tight, the overall formation a little looser but the formation was visible, each girl was in her slot and they turned it on for the first attempt which coincidentally happened to be on the day of my 18 year anniversary in the sport – they couldn’t have given me a better gift!

The media jumped all over it and for a short time 8 of us were shot to fame as far away as Norway, Romania and Beijing! Male WS forum posters on dropzone.com had their say, initially damning, until video, courtesy of SkyNews was posted. Responses included"definitely swallowing my previous words. That was some mighty fine flying and definitely worth an International mention! There aren't many formations flown with everyone in their slot and the formation clearly visible and recognisable... and getting this done with a team who probably didn't jump together that much before this event".  Another posted "It is special because there were actually 8 women in one place flying wingsuits in the same flock. Even at F&D or Stupino, I do not think there were that many women who were flying wingsuits, let alone on the same load. I think it's great!"

Well we thought it was great too! The standard and consistency all week was impressive. Formations also included diamonds and wedges. On our 9 & 10-way attempts we consistently equalled the 8-way but were unable to increase it! Something to aim for next time! Just to put this in context - the largest all gender Australian WS record to date is an 11-way but hopefully with the flock of WS flyers growing this won’t be for long!

A very special thank you to Jari Kuosma and Birdman for supporting the event with very cool birdbabe T shirts which were very sought after and awarded to each girl on the 8-way flock and each girl making her first flight. Also for the sponsored prize draw for a 50% off a Birdman Wingsuit drawn by budding flockette Emma Cox at the Skysisters Ball and won by an ecstatic Lilo Winter from Austria. Thanks also to Phoenix-Fly for supplying us with two Prodigy demo suits which offered the more cautious jumper a chance to fly (see Scatty’s review next issue).

A very big thank you to Susie for inviting me to coach at Skysisters, for being on the 8-way and flying like a bird with camera and with only 4 WS jumps (and in tandem too!). Also to Greg for his constant support and tuition throughout the week and to all you girls for the positive vibes, the laughs, the fun and the awesome wingsuit flying.

Birdbabes – Tanya Cale, Susie McEvoy, Connie Van Setten, Linn Mikkelborg, Jenny Gordon, Elise Vale, Quiche, Cecilia Morton, Cassie Dale, Helen Bigland, Celeste Hill, Lilo Winter, Zyra McCauliffe, Cherie Bullen, Jane Mattingly, Pixie, Sonja Bruss, Sam Hill, Lea Rickard, Val Trajanovska & the ”7 disciplines in 7 days girl” Jill Grantham!

 

Canopy Fun @ SKYSISTERS by Jules McConnel

Chicks under canopy rocked at Skysisters! Everyone flew really safely and learnt a lot about their canopy control during the week. It was so great to see that CRW and canopy piloting were so popular, in fact we couldn’t fit in all the requests for one-on-ones in (sorry to all you girls who missed out). We’ll just have to get more coaches next time!

Eight girls did their first CRW jump ever, some got hooked and did multiple jumps and 2 of these women were on the Aussie record! It only took 3 attempts to get the 5 girls together into a plane-stack formation (for 2 of them it was their 5th CRW jump ever!). We had more women capable of making a bigger formation, but the clouds rolled in. We’ll just have to go bigger at next Skysisters!

Aussie Women’s CRW Record participants:

Jules McConnel

Jill Grantham

Jenny Gordon

Shani Darling

Kim Hedley

There were also over 20 one-on-one canopy piloting jumps, where girls flew their own parachute alongside their tutor, learning how all their controls work and getting a better understanding of their wing. The reactions from girls coming down from a canopy jump was so awesome - like coming down from their first jump again - it really opened up their eyes to a whole new side of skydiving. Funny thing is, we do it on every jump, ie. fly our parachutes every jump! I recommend for every jumper to give it a go - get on a canopy course, make one happen at your DZ - it’s so much fun and a necessity to the safety of every skydive.

Nightly debriefs of the day’s landings were really helpful for all to watch and learn from themselves and others landing in different conditions throughout the day. Thanks to the awesome slaves for footage (Shano, JD, Robbie and Harvey) and to Issy for helping me with debriefing. Also, special thanks to other CRW and CP slaves - Higgo, Robbie, Doyley and Sarge - for help with coaching and organising, and to Archie and his ugly stepsister for his/her camera work.” 

 

Amy Chmelecki:

“OK, Skysisters in two paragraphs...In a sport dominated by men, Skysisters was a breath of fresh air. It was a surreal experience where the normal 5 to 1 ratio of men to women was turned upside down. Now, I am not complaining. As a full time skydiver living, working and playing at a drop zone, it is nice always being surrounded by studly men. However, waking up to a packing mat of women doing yoga, then drinking fresh juice and conversation about how having children has effected their skydiving, was a welcomed change to my every day routine. There was also the midday break to get a Brazilian waxing.  You don't see that everyday at the local DZ!

The women at Skysisters were so eager to learn as much as they possibly could.  They were so attentive to all the info I had to offer. There was a serious vibe and thirst for knowledge surrounding the boogie. OK, it was not all serious.  Coming from an American woman, Aussies are off the hook when it comes to cutting lose and having a good time. Shameless I tell you! Do you guys party like that all the time? Let me just say that it would be impossible to get American men frocked up like that. I really look forward to watching this boogie grow. It is a great idea and a great time.” 

 

Issy Dore:

“The best thing about SkySistas for me is the tremendous vibe that happens at a womens event where the focus is heavily on teaching, nurturing and learning! It’s just a brilliant place to be surrounded by chicks who are unafraid to step out and try something new and maybe jump over boundaries that they would normally be to uncomfortable to hurdle. The seminars were great, the jumping was great and it was a pleasure to attend such a well organised and slick event where everything, even fresh fruit juices and yoga classes, was just part of the everyday program.” 

 

Melissa Harvie:

“Skysisters provided a fantastic opportunity for G Force to offer two-on-two coaching to 4-way enthusiasts. As a “team for a day” new team mates adopted our training approach, communication and flying disciplines as they completed a series of jumps. Each jump was designed to give insight into the broad range of personal and team flying skills required for successful 4-way. Each jump built on the one before, evolving our control and communication to the point where tricky blocks and competition sequences could be carried out smoothly.    

 
In particular, congratulations to Suzanne Bourke, Tracey Blackmur, Maybritt Prahl and Tracey Sgroi, not only for the considerable skills that they displayed but also for extending their dedication to the morning stretching session! Special thanks also to Mad Cow for his generosity and excellent camera work.”