News

Coming up...

Coming up this Saturday, July 19th are the 3 Way Scrambles at Skydive Chicago organized by the SDC Furies. Come on out and join us, it'll be a great learning event with loads of fun!

New 2008 pictures in the Gallery. Check it out!

2008 Season Start

The Skydive Chicago Furies season started on June 20th with a 3 day tunnel camp at Eloy, AZ, with awesome coaching from Murel Addison, 2006 Gold in Advanced class with Arizona Divewerkz, and Gary Beyer, Arizona member 1995 - 2002. The girls had a great time, learned lots and can't wait to try it in the air.

The following weekend the girls attempted their first skydives together for the season at the MWSL competition at Skydive Chicago. The meet was well attended with 7 teams participating. These were also the first skydives this season for Sarah and Karyn. Nice job ladies! Not a single funnel!

For the July 11th weekend, the girls had a Coaching Weekend with Murel Addison from Arizona. It was a great learning opportunity for the girls on not only the skydiving, but also the training process and how to make it more efficient due to the limitations caused by the great variety in midwest weather. Thanks to Mandrin and the other VRW teams for helping the planes keep turning to minimize the downtime. And thanks to manifest and pilots for getting all the teams on the right planes. And a big thanks to the packers for getting everyone packed and on the loads.

2008 Line-up Adjustment

The Skydive Chicago Furies will be back for the 2008 season, and with the return of Shannon Sweet in the Tail position, the team is happy to announce an all-female roster once again!  Karyn Rees, formerly of the CSC Sirens, will return as Point, and Gosia Cienkosz and Sarah Lawrence will continue flying Outside Center and Inside Center, respectively.  Charles Lane will return as the Furies videographer.

Weather inevitably shortens the season for all Midwest teams, but this year the Furies will face additional challenges as the ladies travel from all points of the Globe for training.  Michigan natives Shannon and Charles will resume their epic weekly road trips from Grand Rapids, Sarah will return from escaping the winter in Atlanta, Karyn reenters the U.S. from an assignment in London, and Gosia is praying her job doesn’t require as much travel as it did last year!  Although coordinating schedules can seem like the most difficult part of four-way, the girls’ dedication to the team makes the sacrifices worthwhile.  Sarah summed up their approach saying, “even if we only make 200 training jumps a year, but we make those jumps really count, we can probably progress farther in the long run than if we switched teams every year out of convenience.” 

Last fall the Furies finished their first season of AAA competition with a strong 11-point average at the USPA Nationals at Skydive Chicago, their home dropzone.  After a year of study and training on the full dive pool, the girls look forward to building on that foundation to move up the ranks against the increasing level of competition in the Advanced class this year.

Tunnel Camp - Eloy - April 27 - 29

The SDC Furies just got back from their tunnel and jump camp in Eloy , Arizona. The team was coached by the 2006 Nationals Advanced Class champions, Arizona Divewerkz. Murel and Blane were just great to work with. The team started with a little individual tunnel time to refresh the skydiving muscles. The coaches worked with the team on randoms, better techniques for Intermediate blocks and introduction to the six new advanced blocks. What a packed weekend! Yet with all that learning, the team, the coaches and even the camera guy had smiles on their faces on Day 3 (check out the gallery). Thanks to Skydive Arizona, Max the awesome camera guy, the packers, and of course Arizona Divewerkz for being so patient and welcoming.

Team Line-up Change

Okay, now that the dust has settled and we’ve got our plans in place, we are really excited about this year. 

Every year of the Furies short history has presented unexpected challenges, and this year is no different.  Two wonderful new faces have joined the team, adding fresh perspectives and incredible experience while fitting in perfectly with the rest of the team’s personalities. One thing that will never change is the Furies spirit, remaining focused yet friendly, determined yet approachable, enjoying every step along their road to success.

Although she just joined the team, Karyn is no stranger to the SDC Furies or to the Midwest Skydiving League.  Upon graduating Skydive Chicago’s Advanced Freefall Program in 2003, Karyn formed a Rookie all-girls’ team with 3 classmates, and has been one of the Furie s’ closest competitors ever since.  After enjoying this tough but friendly rivalry, the Furies are elated to finally call Karyn a teammate, and her eternally positive, outgoing attitude is a perfect reflection ofthe Furies mission.

The Furies first met Greg at the USPA Nationals in 2005, when his team shared an airplane with the girls, and helped keep the attitude light and collegial on the rides to altitude.  Despite the Furies beating his team by xx points that year, Greg didn’t hold a grudge, and in 2007 he will put his extensive 4-way knowledge to use as he and the girls advance together.  

2006

October, 2006, USPA Nationals Competition, Skydive Arizona, Eloy

The SDC Furies entered their 2nd National Competition and competed over two days. The first day consisted of waivering in, getting to know the dz a bit and doing a couple of team fun jumps. The girls had a great first few dives and after self scoring, they were doing their season best. That evening they received their team number and the draw for the next day. The next day turned out chilly in the morning, but by the afternoon the temps were quite high, as were the girls' competition scores. By the end of the first day, the girls were in place to possibly get first, second or third place. The team was excited. Their supporters were excited. The girls received many supportive text messages and phone calls from family and friends back home and around the country. The second day proved a little more challenging with the draw. The girls stood up to the challenge and ended with bronze medals in Intermediate. Congratulations!

June 3, 2006, MWSL Meet #1, Skydive Chicago

The SDC Furies’ finally kicked off the 2006 competition season with the MWSL’s first meet at Skydive Chicago on June 3.  Blessed with perfect weather for the day, Six teams showed up for the competition, including fellow SDC teams “Cohesion,” “Chasing Amy,” and familiar colleagues from Chicagoland Skydiving and SkyKnights Parachute Club.  The team “Vida Loca,” many of whose members participated in the Furies’ Introduction to 4-way Weekend in May, made its competition debut in the Rookie class.

For the Furies in AA Class, the day’s competition draw was a challenging one, with several two-block rounds and no all-random rounds, adding fuel to any season-opener jitters the girls may have had.  However, the Furies had studied the night before and gotten a good night’s rest as always (?), and thus started out the meet impressively, posting solid double-digit scores for all of the first four rounds.  The last two rounds saw a few hiccups in the team’s technique, but they still finished with a respectable 9.5 average, earning first place in the Midwest’s AA class.  Check out the meet results on the NSL website!

Thanks to meet director Alan Butt and the Skydive Chicago staff, the competition went smoothly and finished early, leaving plenty of daylight left.  After the mentally demanding six rounds of competition, all the Furies were clearly exhausted, but they decided to make the most of the good weather with two more training jumps.  Not coincidentally, the last of these was Gosia’s 900th;  to celebrate, the Furies turned 87 points in 35 seconds! . .  but it’s not on video. . . anyway, Congratulations Gosia

June 17-18 & June 23-25

June 17-18 the Furies will be back in training mode, and the following weekend, June 23-25 will be the Sugar Mafia Festival at Skydive Chicago, for which the girls will be organizing some cool all-female skydives.

June 10-11, New Wave Boogie, Skydive Chicago

The weekend after the first meet was a break from training for the Furies, as the girls were slated to coach for the New Wave Boogie, Skydive Chicago’s weekend dedicated to those with less than 300 skydives.  Together with Guest Organizer Tom Falzone, the Furies spent the weekend discussing skydiving with newer jumpers while watching a low, dense cloud layer hover over the dropzone for two days straight.  Although no freefall jumps were made, the participants asked a lot of good questions, and covered some important topics including exit techniques, tracking, basic body position, and how to evaluate tricky weather conditions.  The Furies also learned a lot about coaching as well as about 4-way, and they are looking forward to working more with Tom in the future!

Introduction to 4 Way

May 20 - 21 was the SDC Furies Introduction to 4 Way - a weekend of coaching, organizing, friendly competition, and explanation of what the heck “F-14-O” means. This was the second annual Introduction to 4-way, hosted by the SDC Furies.  Saturday was set up as a learning day, beginning with explanation of basic terminology and the dive pool, followed by coached jumps designed to address each person’s goals and level of experience, and closing with a discussion of efficient training techniques and debriefing.  Alan Butt, meet director for the Midwest Skydiving League, was also on hand all day to answer questions and assist with coaching.  On Sunday, the jumpers were greeted with a mock competition, in which they completed three rounds, then watched as their efforts were scored on the big screen.  Congratulations Beth, Kelly, and Randy, for increasing your “team” score by more than 100% in just two days!  The team Chasing Amy was training Sunday as well, and took advantage of the opportunity to learn some new block moves and get pointers on exit technique.  Everyone reported learning a lot, not just about flying, but also about teamwork and where to go to keep learning more.  A few of the participants may be looking for people to join a pick-up team at the next meet, so watch the bulletin boards if you’re interested! 

Another season has started and it's no joke... In April, the ladies traveled down to Orlando for a few hours of tunnel time coached by Sally Hathaway from Synchronicity and Martin "GB" Skrzypczak. The tunnel is not only great for learning to manage your piece of air, but also for finding your limits - speed and strength wise. Now the real challenge of putting all that knowledge to work in the sky. While in Orlando, the girls took advantage of their proximity to Performance Designs and went on a tour of the production area and learned lots.

SDC Furies Calendars are available for sale. Contact one of the Furies for your very own calendar.

2005

SDC Furies traveled to Perris Valley, California for the 2005 USPA Nationals. They competed in 4 Way Formation Skydiving, Intermediate Class starting on September 5th through the 7th. You can check out the Nationals website at www.uspanationals.com. You can also check out the scores and daily activities on Omniskore at www.omniskore.com.

The 4th Midwest Skydiving League (MWSL) competition of the 2005 season was held at Skydive Chicago on the 20th of August. The SDC Furies won with 69 points over 6 rounds giving them an 11.5 average. Playoffs were also held for the National Skydiving League (NSL) that weekend and included the 6 rounds from Saturday and 4 additional rounds on Sunday. The SDC Furies scored a cumulative 106 points over the ten rounds giving them a 10.6 average. The playoffs are graded on a handicap system determined at the beginning of the season which has yet to be officially applied, but from initial reports it appears the SDC Furies won the playoffs for the A class. You can check out the highlights at www.skyleague.com. The SDC Furies also earned a team high of 15 points on round 3 on Saturday. The dive was F-E-9. Check it out here: round 3. The girls also did well on round 8.

Training is complete! The girls had a wonderful time Saturday at Skydive Chicago's annual Halloween Party and made sure to celebrate: Sarah's birthday, Sarah's 1,000th jump, and the completion of training. We'll post pics of the pieing on our gallery. What a season! The girls got to sleep in til 10am or so... but that Sunday, the girls were already planning next season. No lineup change for next season. With the accomplishments of this season, the girls hope to build off of it and get better, and faster, and smoother... and of course... have fun doing it.

Mid October, the girls took a weekend off. Mom visited one Fury, another Fury went biking in WI, while the remaining two with video went to Bridge Day. Obviously everyone got back alright and the stories are still being told.

Golden Knights were doing tandems at Skydive Chicago the weekend of 9/24/05. After those were done, the Furies got a chance to do a couple jumps with Kurt Isenbarger of the Knights. The girls and Kurt had an awesome time and learned a few things. The team was weathered out on Sunday due to Hurricane Rita effects reaching all the way from Louisiana to Chicago area.

With Nationals completed, you'd think the girls would be off celebrating. The girls did celebrate in Perris, but once home, training started for 2006. With solid goals in mind from their Nationals experience, the girls want to do better next season and are wasting no time working toward those goals.

SDC Furies had an awesome time at Nationals in Perris Valley, CA. 43 teams competed in Intermediate class. There was tons of competition. After ten rounds, the girls earned 98 points for a 9.8 average. This placed them in 13th place. Check out the update on the News Forum.

SDC Furies have completed their training for the 2005 season in preparation for USPA Nationals on August 28, 2005. A total of 8 jumps were done over that last weekend. The girls did 4 jumps on Saturday from 13.5 doing their favorite exits and dives to keep the last few just fun and positive. On Sunday, thanks to SDC pilot and DZO Rook Nelson, the girls were exiting at 10.5 and at Nationals speed to get a feel for the changes. The changes did not slow down the girls, it actually sped them up. They beat their 15 point record with a 16 in 35 seconds in one of their dives! It looks like the girls are ready.

SDC Furies want to thank Skydive Chicago for helping them complete their training for nationals. The pilots, manifest, Rook, Melissa, Donovan, the grounds crew, the other teams, Pimps and Sirens, Jeanie and the cafe staff. Thank you all. We could not have trained as hard nor focused as much as we were able to without your help. Thank you. Thank you to the fun jumpers for keeping the loads going... without them we'd still be sitting on the ground.

Sarah had a bad opening on Saturday in which her bright green helmet came off and fell to the ground. Luckily she watched where it was headed. The SDC Furies and the Pimps went trudging through high grass, trees, and near electric fences in search of the helmet. After a half hour, the green helmet was found amongst green grass and green trees near green corn. The SDC Furies extend a thank you to the Pimps for their help and a special thank you to Shane for actually finding the helmet with the green neptune nearby.

For more news stories and updates, check out the News section of the SDC Furies Forum.