Boogie
Who is Skysisters for? Skysisters is for female skydivers of all experience levels ie. tandems and students right through to the most experienced female skydivers. All experience levels will be catered for and challenged. Obviously this event is for the Aussie female skydivers but is not limited to just them, we would love to welcome female skydivers of all nationalities.

Skysisters is not an invite only event. If you are reading this, consider this your personal invite and warm welcome!

Turbine Aircraft: To be confirmed.

Novelty Aircraft: To be confirmed.

Loads: Big ways, little ways, any ways - all day, every day. Two and three plane formation loads available throughout every day if so desired. Early morning CRW and dedicated Canopy Piloting loads are part of the plan.

Load Organisers: The vision is for the leading ladies to cater for ALL disciplines and ALL experience levels. That includes themselves too! The load organisers are of very high calibre - only the best for us!

When the record attempts are happening, there will be load organisers and coaches looking after those girls not on the record attempts.

Coaches: The vision is that males do most of the 1-on-1 coaching, instructing and First Flock Courses etc. Get them working while the leading ladies are jumping with the girls as much as they can.

Jumps: The spirited and enthusiastic crew of organisers bring with them fresh dives and ideas, plus the usual fun and games, novelty jumps etc. that boogies are so popular for. Prepare to have fun and be challenged.

Night Jumps: The full moon is on the rise for the duration of the event, catering for night jumps. Beginner, intermediate and experienced night jumpers catered for with coaches and load organisers. Beginner night jump courses planned for early on in the week. Equipment required for night jumps include a small torch, cyalume sticks and small flashing lights. Beginner night jumpers need at least a ‘B’ Licence with good accuracy skills.

Video & Photos: A dedicated camerapool flyer will be on every load, all shooting video and stills. Hopefully there will be a few male volunteers to help with videoing the smaller groups so that everyone can benefit from video debriefs and also be on the day tape!

New to 2011 Skysisters is Glamour Aerial Photo Shoots by Steve Fitchett. Would you like to have a beautiful photo for your wall flying in a gorgeous dress with high heels, looking fabulously feminine? Steve is your personal paparazzi! Note, your dress might have to get cut to make way for legstraps or sewn onto your harness to make it sit right and you might lose your shoes, so chose carefully or maybe bring a selection in case the DZSO says no to one of them. For more info, email Steve. Coming soon to the Skysisters photo gallery will be photos from the recent NZ Fashion Week aerial photo shoot to give you an idea of what is possible.

Slide Shows and Day Tapes: Photographers will show their slide shows leading up the main event of the day tape every night. Elad’s edited day tapes are guaranteed masterpieces! Day Tapes aired on the HUGE outdoor screen every evening about 8:30pm. We’d love to include our Aussie humour, if you have funny skit ideas please let us know in advance so we can prepare accordingly!

Raffles: Ramblers are renowned for ultimate boogie raffles and prizes, Skysisters3 will be no different! A free raffle ticket per person is included in your rego bag. Any prize donations graciously accepted! If anybody would like to help with sourcing prizes, big or small, please go for it! Click here to check out the list of prizes and sponsors from the 2007 event. As the 2011 prizes are confirmed they will be updated on the web.

Child Minding Facilities New to Skysisters 2011 is full time child minding facilities on the drop zone. So bring your kids! Happy kids = happy mum = happy jumping!

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Seminars & Presentations
Seminars and Presentations are scheduled for most night times after dinner and during any weather holds.

The first couple of nights will be Landings Seminars - all the day’s landings will be videoed, then debriefed as a group. The concept behind this is to work on awareness of and improvement of canopy control, set ups and landings early on in the week.

It is anticipated that a seminar on flying big-ways will be combined with presentations on the World Record 400-ways and the Women's Jump for the Cause 175-way World Record (that is due to be set in Sept 09), by presenter Fiona McEachern.

World renowned video and camera flyer, and all round incredible skydiver, Wendy Smith, will be hosting a seminar on flying video and will combine with a presentation of her recent jumps over Mt Everest that put her into the record books.

More repeat seminars may include Female Tandem Masters; the Concept of Atmonauti by Gi Borgnis; Females Freeflying including presentations on the recent Women’s World Record big-ways with Amy Chmelecki.

More seminars and presentations are being confirmed. Watch this space! If you have topics that you would like to know more about, please contact us.

A seminar handbook is being prepared by Sonja Bruss. Various female skydiving related articles, plus seminar and presentation notes, and will include profiles and an assortment of other information. If you have some useful info or articles that you would like to see in the handbook please contact Sonja.

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Records
1. Big FS Record for the Flatties Fiona McEachern is record organiser. The plan is to break the existing 47-way record by building a 50-way and then hopefully a 60-way. We will have the aircraft, the organiser, the plane captains and the talent (female skydivers of Oz). The plan is to build 2 plane formation loads throughout the week and go for the records on Wednesday 28th April. Please contact Fiona to register your interest and keep an eye out for the registration form.

Note: Ladies who don’t have the required experience now have a year to gain it. So it is very possible that ladies who don’t have their B-Rels or Star Crests now, can and will be on this record in April 2011. If this is you, please introduce yourself to Fiona so she can plan for you and maybe help in your progression.

2. POPS The female POPS (Parachutists Over Phorty Society) easily built a 16-way at the first Skysisters in 2005 and went for a 25-way at SS2 in 2007. We are unsure of how many POPS ladies there are out there and what size record attempt can be built, so if you are keen, please let Fiona know. This record attempt will be made after the 60-way attempts, probably Thursday 29th April.

3. Freefly Headdown We'd like to think we can break the existing 6-way freefly record set at the first SS in 2005, but the reality is that we don't have very many female freeflyers in Australia. If you have the ability and are keen, please register your interest with . Even if you don’t have the ability now, but you are keen to work towards it leading up to and during the event, please also let Jill know. It is very likely that the girls of Qld, NSW and Vic will be meeting up regularly in 2011 to train for this record, stay tuned for more info about that. It is anticipated that this record attempt will happen Thursday or Friday when freeflyers are super current and skilled up.

4. Wingsuit Flock During SS2 in 2007 the girls set a World Record 8-way wingsuit formation! This made for exceptional TV coverage worldwide. Elaine Cox is bringing a range of suits for all shapes and sizes, and for beginners, First Flight Courses will be conducted throughout the event. Even if you don’t have the required 200 jumps now or have never tried a wingsuit jump, you could very well be on the record at SS3. Note: 3 ladies on the 2007 World Record had never done a wingsuit jump prior! Please register your interest to be on the record with Elaine. Stay tuned pictures of the possible record formation attempts.

5. Canopy Formation The girls set a National record at the 2007 SS with a 5-stack. Jules McConnel is definitely keen to grow that formation and maybe build a diamond formation as well. Please register your interest in CRW and the record with Jules. Note: specific gear is required for these jumps which will be available at the event, but to make sure there is enough, you need to let her know you are coming! CRW jumps will mostly be happening in the mornings and afternoons, which the record attempts anticipated to take place in the mornings of Thursday and Friday.

6. Atmonauti A 5-way Atmonauti line was built at the 2005 Skysisters and claimed to be a World Record by Gigliola Borgnis, but it was a bit rough and not held for very long. She'd love to build a bigger, better line and set a new World Record, plus build some large no contact formations too. There is no set time allocated for a specific attempt, it is predicted that informal attempts for this record will be happening throughout the week. For more information about Atmonauti, go to the Education page of this website (under Freefly) and check out www.atmonauti.com

7. Novelty Records Amy Chmelecki wants to build a big sit roundie and some 3D hybrids. There's talk of night formation skydiving records and night canopy stacks.

International female skydivers are welcome on our Aussie Records! Officially, up to 25% of the ladies on the records can be non-Australian.

To register your interest in the records, please contact the organisers direct. Contact details are also on the Contacts page.

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Accelerated Freefall Courses(AFF)
At the 2007 Skysisters the "AFF to 4-way Mission" was a huge success and such a wonderful addition to the event. The Mission was: 3 girls started at the beginning of the week with zero jumps and did their full AFF course followed by the coached jumps of the B-Rel Tabl, and ended their week by doing a 4-way on their 25th jump (actually the 4-way got pirated and became an 8-way, very cool!) And we are definitely going to offer that again at SS3!

Skydive Ramblers' senior instructor, Belgium Steve, has again given himself the big mission for the SS week - this time he wants to take 6 girls! His ultimate aim again is to do a 4-way with them (ie. him and 3 girls) on the last Saturday! WOW! That's a big ask - but totally achievable if the girls are dedicated and the weather is good.

So, there are 6 slots available to the first 6 girls who pay a deposit and commit to this once-in-a-lifetime, awesome experience. It is anticipated that this can come under the Free Boogie concept, contact Sonja for more info.

As this is a special situation, there will be a special price, to be advised, but will include the following:

• 25 jumps total (the 9 Stages of the AFF course, all with video, plus an extra 16 jumps, most with a coach and most with video) Note: all jumps except Stage 9 AFF are from 14,000ft
• Videos of all jumps edited to music and burnt to a DVD
• Gear hire for all 25 jumps
• One year membership to the Ramblers Gear Hire Scheme (discounted gear hire on student gear and advanced gear)
• At least 2 photo shoots (a whole bunch of digital photos taken on at least two jumps, burnt to a CD)
• Student membership to the Australian Parachute Federation (3 months)
• 300 jump Log Book
• Quality pair of Goggles
• Skysisters Symposium Registration
• Skysisters T-shirt & Ramblers T-shirt
• Skysisters event DVD
• Ticket to the Skysisters Ball
• Accommodation (bring sleeping bag etc.)

Note, 2 of the 3 girls who completed this AFF to 4-way mission at the 2007 Skysisters event, Charlotte and Leonie, both have their own gear, have done well over 100 jumps each and are totally loving jumping. You could say that they are addicts! The third girl, Mel, nearly has 100 jumps too, yahoo!

Go to the 2007 event page to read what the 3 AFF girls had to say about their experience.

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Tandems
One of the main aims of Skysisters is to get more females in the air, so ladies wanting go for a tandem jump during Skysisters are more than welcome! Also, FREE TANDEM jumps will be available at SS3, email Sonja to ask how.

The opportunity exists, during the SS Symposium, that female tandem jumpers can go with female tandem instructors - wow! This is awesome as there are only a couple of active female tandem instructors in Australia and some will all be at SS. Because of this there are only a limited number of tandem slots available with them each day, so if you are keen, book in early.

If ladies would prefer to go for a tandem jump with a male tandem instructor, that's ok, there are a number of good-looking male tandem instructors too!

Videos and photos of tandem jumps are also available.

Click here to book a tandem jump.

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Social Nights

Party nights are planned for the first Saturday night 23rd, Friday night 29th and Saturday night the 30th. Live bands are booked for these 3 nights and there’ll be plenty of free girly drinks including cocktails and wine. Every night there will be cheese & fruit platters after dinner.

Friday night 29th will be a themed dress party because it worked so well last SS and was too much fun not to do it again! The theme in 2007 was "Get Frocked" which was hilarious and brought out the best of the cross-dressing males! What theme would you like for 2011? Let us know your ideas please.

All girl punk rock band "Legless" are coming up from Adelaide to perform for us and they are quite the entertainers who will certainly fit right into any themed dress party scene. Check them out at www.leglesstheband.com

The last Saturday night is the Gala Event - Skysisters Ball - and is the time for everyone to look their best. Ladies - we're after the drop-dead sexy dress, complete with high heels and makeup! Blokes, this is when you impress the ladies with your suit and tie. The Ball will be quite the social soiree, incorporating fabulous food and bev, a terrific jazz band, presentations, achievement awards and more prizes. Numbers are limited, pre-purchasing of tickets will be essential. Everybody welcome.

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Prices and Rego
Prices The Prices are not yet set and depend on a lot of things that are still not yet confirmed. So stay tuned and please be patient.

Also, please note that the price of things might not be so important as the big plan is for all ladies (and males too if they want to participate) to have a FREE BOOGIE and at the same time raise money for the McGrath Foundation. (For more info, register your interest by emailing Sonja or Susie.)

Registration Because there is still a lot to confirm and because we are working on the free boogie plan, the prices are not yet set and therefore, neither is the Registration Form. But it would help organisers immensely if you could register your interest or intention to attend by emailing Sonja. You will then be sent back a package of documents including a letter to your employer asking for your time off work and to support your cause, plus a sponsorship proposal pack customised with your name and contact details.

For your info... The rego fee goes towards all sorts of things including the load organiser's and coach's expenses of airfares, food, accommodation, jumps and packs; manifest and office staff; judges for the records; the day tape production including 2 editors, 2 ground cameramen and 4 aerial cameramen; hire of projector, big screen, audiovisual equipment, pa's and lighting etc; the fruit for the daily fruit juices; lots of cases of wine every night; all the ingredients for the arvo cocktails; delicious wine and cheese platters for the evenings; musicians for daily live music; 3 band performances; and less exciting stuff like electricity and gas, excess water and cleaners twice a day.

Registration also includes a fabulous rego bag full of all sorts of goodies. There are too many things to mention and more sponsors are coming on line every day with goodies and freebie products. If you are able to get goodies for the rego bag, please do! Imagine if each girl attending got one thing for the rego bags!

Also included with registration is a free raffle ticket. Prizes up for grabs so far include an Airsuit jumpsuit and Gatorz sunnies, check back regularly for more prizes. Check out the Sponsors & Supporters page to check out the 2007 prizes.

Package Deal There will be a Skysisters Package deal, details are not yet finalised but will include the event registration for 8 days, probably 25 jump tickets plus 5 x 1-on-1 coach tickets, deluxe 3 DVD package, at least one t-shirt and a Skysisters Ball ticket.

Note: The 1-on-1 coach tickets can be used for any discipline, ie. freefly, canopy handling jumps, first wingsuit flights, or drill dives with 4-way coach etc. They don't necessarily have to be used for just 1-on-1s either, they can be used to have a 4-way coach jump with your 3-way to make it a 4-way, or you can pool your coach ticket with your friends coach ticket and take 2 coaches for a 4way and have a ripper jump.

And new to 2011, it is anticipated that the SS Package will also include a 100 page colour photo book (hard cover coffee table style) of the event; an A4 photograph of the record(s) you were on and wait for it... for those who take up the Free Boogie mission, the package will also include an Airsuits Jumpsuit colour coordinated for the record attempt(s), plus matching Cookie helmet and a Dytter.

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Males at the Female Symposium
Last Skysisters in 2007 there was a little bit of controversy over the idea of limiting the number of males at the Symposium and that those males who did want to come were required to apply. As it turned out, it was a FANTASTIC idea and was very well received by the males and the females! The wonderful male support included free coaching and videos, instructors took the 3 AFF girls through their course and beyond, tandem masters took the band members for jumps, plus the males who didn't have skydiving services to offer came up with own wonderful ideas and as a result we had freshly squeezed juices in the morning, a variety of yummy cocktails in the afternoon from the iced slushie machine, never ending wine service at the bar, cheese & fruit platters served at the bar, terrific service at the bar, personal training sessions, the seminars recorded, manifest helpers, even packers. The "Slaves" were absolute stars, were proud to wear their limited edition Slave shirts and the whole concept made for an incredible vibe, which we plan to repeat!

So, for 2011, male are welcome to apply to be Eye Candy Slaves! Husbands, boyfriends and supportive friends are very welcome to attend the whole event, though the catch is that males wanting to come need to apply, preferably in writing or on email, stating how they plan to support the ladies for the week. Males who have applied and approved will be listed on the right.

For those males wanting to come but not sure what they can do to support the girls or the event... think out of the box as we are open to your new ideas, plus here's a couple of ideas:

• We're after coaches and video flyers for 1on1s and small group who would like to pay their own slot.
• We’re after a volunteer to video each of the seminars and make a master DVD.
• The Video Production team is after volunteers to a) video the night time entertainment and frivolities, b) film and edit daily comedy skits for the day tape, c) gofers to collect footage from video flyers.
• Manifest is after volunteers to help with lunch breaks each day.
• We're after a bunch of people to volunteer to pack for the lady load organisers each day.
• We're after a volunteer to do off-dz pick ups.
• The media team is after volunteers to help with media liaisons, press releases and driving tapes into Brisbane each day.
• We’re after sponsors plus raffle prizes and goodies for the rego bags, perhaps you can help contact potential sponsors, big and small.
• We're after helpers with the Child Minding, maybe you can dress up as a clown and give out balloons each day or dress up as kids favourite cartoon characters. Or maybe you have friends who own a jumping castle, or pony rides etc etc!

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Fundraising for the McGrath Foundation
The plan is to use Skysisters as a platform to support the McGrath Foundation which funds breast cancer nurses. Breast care nurses are specially trained nurses who act as patient advocates coordinating care for women with breast cancer, their families and carers.

Wouldn't it be nice if there were 100 ladies attending Skysisters3 and each lady raised $1,000 for this charity? That would make a $100,000 from Skysisters! Wow!

Watch this space... info will be included soon about the whole concept, fundraising plans.

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Media
The Skysisters Symposium (and particularly when new National and World records are set) are wonderful opportunities to gain positive media exposure for the sport and the girls and the McGrath Foundation. Gaining media exposure is a big job, so is liaising with the media during the event, and given the number of opportunities available for exposure - WE NEED HELP! Sonja and Susie are working on producing a media kit for the event, which can be customised to include your name and contact details. Email Sonja for more info.

Please help us by:

• Contacting your local and regional magazines, newspapers, suitable TV shows and nightly news programs and let them know of the SS and the record attempts and if you will be on them. We'd like to get you exposure in your home town. Email Sonja all their contact details, whether they seem interested in your story or not.
• Let Sonja know if you have any contacts in the media - radio, magazines, newspapers, TV stations etc. - who might be able to help with getting air time, interviews, stories published, TV crews at the dz or segments on TV shows.
• Let Sonja know if you have any friends who are known female celebrities or sports stars who might like to go for a free tandem during the event and help to receive publicity for themselves and us.
• Be a volunteer now - we need people to help with contacting the media now. There are heaps of opportunities available but we are struggling with time and man power.
• Be a volunteer during the Symposium - we need someone to drive to Brisbane each day with footage for the TV stations, someone to write press releases and stories and email photos, someone to coordinate and liase with media during the event, and lastly someone to keep a note of all the exposure gained.

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Accommodation
The on-site drop zone caravan, cabin and motel accommodation is booked out.

There are a few slots left in the bunkhouse. The price is $11 per night. BYO pillow, sheets and doona. Bookings essential.

There are plenty of big camping areas and camping is free.

Powered camp sites are available, they are suitable for camper vans, camper trailers, buses and Winnebagos. The powered camp sites are $55 for the duration of the event. There are a limited number of 40 though, so be sure to book early. This is an option on the registration form.

Mobile camper buses and Winnebago style buses are the popular choice for boogie transport and accommodation these days. A company called Wicked Campers has cheap campervans available plus they give a discount. Check out their website www.wickedcampers.com.au or phone 1800 2468 69 if within Australia or +61 7 3257 2170 if you are calling internationally.

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Transport
The drop zone is an hour and a half drive from Brisbane Airport. No airport transfers are organised at this stage from Brisbane Airport to the Drop Zone.

At this stage, please make your own arrangements to get to the drop zone. Options for getting to the drop zone are:

• Hire a car or camper. There are rental cars and campers available for around $50 a day. This gives you wheels during the event too.
• If there are a few of you, grab a taxi. The fare is about $200.
• Take the Airtrain to the city and then a citytrain to Ipswich station. Plan to arrive in Ipswich by 5.00pm as the Workers Bus to Toogoolawah leaves Ipswich at 5.20pm on midweek days only. It arrives in Toogoolawah at 6.55pm. We can pick you up from Toogoolawah town, just let us know you are arriving.

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