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Two judges today evaluated a photograph and video footage of our wingsuit formation record attempts and declared a new valid US National Wingsuit Record! Footage from the jumps will be shown on the Today show tomorrow (Thursday) morning, as well as local news channels. More coming soon, including photos, but it’s been a long day and we all need to get some rest. Congratulations to the participants, and thank you to City Year for inspiring us with your inspirational work.

Tuesday dawned relatively warm as we got ready to start the day’s formation loads. Four aircraft, Otters from both Skydive Elsinore and Skydive Perris just over the mountains here, arrived for a wheels-up takeoff at 7:30am. The sun was shining, the air was clean, and the mood was high.

In an incredible display of focus and talent, the team came together and started to fly. We completed four jumps over the course of the day, each one better than the last. By the last jump, the organizers reviewed the footage from our videographers and decided that it was time to get a judge on call. The group agreed that after five attempts, they want to keep improving and building on what we’ve done – and it’s not a record until the USPA (United States Parachute Association) sings!

At the end of the day, I got to go on live television (the Los Angeles NBC station) and do an interview about the record attempts. I stood outside in the dark after sunset with a light shining on me, friends from Skydive Elsinore surrounding the news van for moral support, wired up with a mic and excited to talk about my team and our efforts to support City Year. I haven’t seen the broadcast, but I know they were playing in-air footage from our amazing videographers: Matt Hoover, Craig O’Brien, Mark Harris, and Scotty Burns.

I have a good feeling about today. It’s nice to see local media taking an interest in what we’re doing, and I’ve gotten a few calls from people who live in the area wanting to know when they can start looking up from their front porches. I’m headed down to do another interview now, and then it will be time to kit up and jump!

Judges are standing by… and our friends at City Year are coming out for a visit soon.

Yesterday part of the Raise the Sky and Wingsuit Bigway record team visited an elementary school in South LA, where a City Year Los Angeles group of volunteers (known as “Corps members”) tutor and mentor kids in an after school program. We were excited to see what City Year is doing on the ground, since we are supporting and partnering them through both fundraising and awareness raising at the US National Wingsuit Record attempt here at Skydive Elsinore in Southern California. We met some of the bravest young people you could imagine, shot some wonderful footage and interviews with students, Corps members, and a school representative, and saw a side of LA that most skydivers don’t get to experience.

Some of these kids have never been to the beach, even though they live only a few miles from the Pacific shore. The school sends food parcels home to their families because some can’t make ends meet. Their elementary school is surrounded by a tall fence and locked gates to guard against threats from the neighborhood. And this is only an hour away from where we soar through the sky wearing wingsuits, and where we are about to set a record in the history of human flight.

Did you know that every 26 seconds a student gives up on school in America? Many of the students we met yesterday are at the highest risk in the nation of dropping out eventually. They are bright eyed, cheerful, playful, and full of life – but because of where they live, graduating from high school ten years from now and succeeding in life is a dream as crazy as flying through the sky without an airplane. We wanted to tell them: If we can fly, you can graduate!

They responded by yelling: “If you can fly, WE CAN GRADUATE!” We even got to sign a few autographs and talk about our own experiences overcoming fear and challenges. I think there are some future City Year wingsuit champions!

If you happen to be flying over Lake Elsinore, you better hope you have Sully Sullenberger flying your plane…because there will be birds everywhere!!

Today, we saw many participants showing up early to the event. Duncan was organizing 16-Ways, while Justin and Jeff were handling the smaller groups. Austrians, Brits, Canadians, Danes, Finns, Germans, Italians, Russians, South Africans, and of course Americans are all coming together and making some great skydives…and the event has not even started yet!

Media attention began early, as we were featured in a HUGE front page spread of the local paper. Many thank you’s to Mark and Taya for providing information and pictures to make it possible! We also had a news crew show up from CBS2/KCAL9. It has been wonderful having an opportunity to not only raise awareness about wingsuiting and our event, but also for City Year and the wonderful kids we had the opportunity to meet yesterday.

Registration and briefing will begin early tomorrow, so we can begin flying in our sectors. Stay posted and up-to-date through our facebook fan page and follow us on Twitter

If you’re not here, you’re missing out!

Raise the Sky is hosting the US National Wingsuit Record at Skydive Elsinore this week, to benefit City Year Los Angeles. But before all the record-setting begins, we like to have a little fun! Flying video by board member Phil Peggs.

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