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| JONATHAN TAGLE |
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Age: 36
Marital Status: Single
Occupation: Director of Marketing for EFI University, Performance Designs Factory Pilot, High Performance Canopy Coach, AFF Instructor, and Videographer.
Education: AS in Multimedia Communications, Master's Institute
Transportation: Green Chrysler Cirrus
Pet Peeves: Say you'll do something, and not do it (repeatedly of course).
Hobbies: Skydiving, Flying, Poker Tournaments, Video Games, and some Snowboarding
Favorite Food: Sushi and of course my mother's home cooking.
Rock, Rap or Country: Rock (Classic and Alternative) and some Rap.
Life Philosophy: I would rather die with a pure heart than live with a tainted soul.
Hard opening or line twists: Twists…lots of 'em.
Neat packer or trash packer: Neater than most.
Did you start out as AFF, S/L or Tandem student? AFF, November 5th, 2000
Jump Philosophy: I've always been fascinated by human flight, from the stories of Icarus and Daedalus to the Wright Brothers. I have dreamt of flight, and today I live it.
Team Names: Performance Designs Factory Team.
Sponsors: Performance Designs, Sun Path, Tony Suits, Alti-2, Icaro, Terminal Imagery and Rigging
Container: Javelin Odyssey
Main Canopy: PD Velocity 79/84/90
Reserve Canopy: PD 113
AAD: Cypres
Home DZ: Skydive Elsinore
Year of First Jump: November 2000
Licenses/Ratings: D-24341 and AFF Instructor
Competition Accomplishments:
Canopy Events
1st Place Overall - U.S. National Skydiving Championships (September 2005)
1st Place Overall - European Swoop Tour Lapalisse, France (August 2005)
1st Place Distance - 3rd World Cup of Canopy Piloting (August 2005)
1st Place Speed - PST Grand Prix (April 2005)
1st Place Distance - PST Grand Prix (April 2005) WR: 494 ft
1st Place Accuracy - PST Grand Prix (April 2005)
1st Place Speed - 2nd World Cup of Canopy Piloting (February 2005)
1st Place Distance - 2nd World Cup of Canopy Piloting (February 2005) WR: 479 ft
1st Place Overall - 2nd World Cup of Canopy Piloting (February 2005)
1st Place - Skydive Elsinore Canopy Accuracy (December 2001)
1st Place - Total Eclipse Intermediate Freefly/Swoop Competition (July 2002)
2nd Place Overall - European Swoop Tour Kolomna, Russia (August 2005)
2nd Place Speed - Empuriabrava Beach Swoop Challenge (July 2004)
2nd Place Distance - Empuriabrava Beach Swoop Challenge (July 2004)
2nd Place Overall - Empuriabrava Beach Swoop Challenge (July 2004)
2nd Place Overall - The Ranch Pond Swooping Meet (August 2004)
2nd Place Distance - U.S. Nationals/Pro Swooping Tour (October 2004)
2nd Place Overall - European Swoop Tour Bussloo, Netherlands (September 2005)
3rd Place Team Speed - PST Loreto, Mexico (November 2003)
3rd Place Distance - Texel Island Canopy Swoop Meet (July 2004)
3rd Place Team Speed - U.S. Nationals/Pro Swooping Tour (October 2004)
Freefall Events
1st Place - World Games 2005 U.S. 4-way FS Team (Camera - July 2005)
1st Place - Total Eclipse Intermediate Freefly/Swoop Competition (July 2002)
1st Place - SSL 4-way Formation Skydiving (Camera - July 2002)
1st Place - Skydive Elsinore Tracking Contest (October 2002)
1st Place - SSL 4-way Formation Skydiving (Camera - June 2004)
1st Place - SSL Playoffs 4-way Formation Skydiving (Camera - August 2004)
1st Place - NSL Championships 4-way Formation Skydiving (Camera - November 2004)
2nd Place Intermediate - SSL 4-way Formation Skydiving (Inside Center - August 2001)
2nd Place - SSL 4-way Formation Skydiving (Camera - May 2004)
3rd Place - SSL 4-way Formation Skydiving (Camera - June 2004)
Total # of jumps: 3200
Freefly: 500
RW: 500
CRW: 40
Camera: 1600
Hop & Pops: 550
Tandems: 0
Accuracy: Most of them
Demos: 2
BASE: 0
Other: 6 Balloon Jumps, 3 Birdman, 1 Skysurf
Cutaways: 8 Total
Going back to student status, what has been your canopy progression?
| PD 230 |
7 jumps |
| Spectre 190 |
60 jumps |
| Spectre 170 |
15 jumps |
| Spectre 150 |
15 jumps |
| Sabre 150 |
500 jumps |
| Stiletto 120 |
225 jumps |
| Velocity 103 |
725 jumps |
| Velocity 90 |
700 jumps |
| Extreme VX 75 |
525 jumps |
| Extreme VX 83 |
425 jumps |
| Velocity 84 |
25 jumps |
Most people don't know this about me: I am an instrument rated private pilot.
Out of all of your skydives is there one jump that stands out most? Flying my canopy from 10,000 feet above the island of Isla Coronado just off the coast of Loreto, Mexico. The view was surreal; lava rock formations, crystal clear waters, white sandy beaches, and vibrant coral reefs. An Incredible Jump!
How long do you plan on skydiving? Once you find your passion in life, I think most people would agree that you tend to become a part of it for as long as humanly possible.
What do you like most about the sport? The diversity. You can focus an entire lifetime in the pursuit of just one discipline of skydiving, or enjoy all them without ever really being the best at any one of them.
What do you like least about the sport? Packing.
Who has been your skydiving mentor? My first AFF Instructor, Peter Learmonth, who fed my curiosity with knowledge and taught me to fly. And then of course, all the Greats of Canopy Piloting… Heath Richardson, J. C. Colclasure, Jay Moledzki, Jim Slaton, Ian Bobo, Luigi Cani, Shannon Pilcher, and Clint Clawson.
What are your future skydiving goals?
1) Continue to place in the top 5 and win at least 1 event in 2005
2) Represent the U.S. at the 2005 World Games in Germany
3) Give 100% in supporting my PD Factory Team Members
What safety item do you think is most important and/or most often neglected? Education! If you take the time to learn the most you can about this sport, then you arm yourself with the most tools to keep you out of trouble.
How did you become interested in skydiving? A co-worker at Atari put together a big group of people to go jump in Monterey California. I did the AFF ground school, but was unable to jump because the winds had picked up. The following week I returned to do my first jump, and a week later I finished my AFF jumps and was jumping solo. My first year in the sport I logged 820 jumps, and I've been hooked ever since.
I skydive because… it is an important piece of the complex puzzle that is my life.
Any suggestions for new students? Ask lots of questions, and when you have all the answers, ask more questions. Learning from as many people as possible, you'll pick up on important things because they were explained differently. When you are a student, there are no stupid questions in this sport.
What's the most bad-ass thing you can do in the air? Fly my high performance canopy very fast through an extreme carving course with a teammate only a few feet away.
What's your favorite jump aircraft and why? Helicopter. I love its versatility and the feeling you get when you exit.
Someday I'm going to own… an island and an airplane
Most embarrassing moment in skydiving: Ian Bobo and I had just returned to the Atlanta airport from Europe. We each grabbed luggage carts and headed over to retrieve our luggage, when we got on the subject of practicing freestyle moves. I told him that I like to practice freestyle moves when I'm grocery shopping. I proceeded to show him what I meant on the luggage cart, when all of a sudden, SMAAAAACK! The luggage cart went wheels up on me, and down I went. Unfortunately, as I was falling, I put most of my weight on the ankle I had recently injured in Spain. I was in so much pain, I thought it was broken. There I was laying in the middle of the floor looking up at Ian thinking, "that's not usually how it goes in the grocery store". I didn't break anything, and we laugh about it now.
The toughest thing to do in skydiving is: Make a successful living at it.
What kind of skydiving student were you? Eager, Curious, Determined… I finished my AFF jumps in one week.
Of your many jumps, is there one jump you would like to do over again? Round 3 of Accuracy, in the final round of the First World Cup of Canopy Piloting. 9th place finishes in Speed and Distance in the days before put me in 6th overall, going into the final day. Round 1 and 2 of accuracy went really well, and I was in a tight race for fourth overall with Hans Paulsen and Clint Clawson. This was the best I'd done all year. And then I miss-calculated the cross-wind on my setup. I struck the first blade on the water and ended up short to give me a "ZERO". I ended up 13th overall. It humbled me to the n-teenth degree, but became the driving force of my success in 2004.
What do you consider your most significant life achievement? Having learned to live my life to the fullest by exploring new challenges, overcoming difficult obstacles, and believing that you can accomplish anything you set your mind to, including human flight.
Greatest accomplishment in skydiving? Winning the 2nd World Cup of Canopy Piloting as a member of the PD Factory Swoop Team.
What is the future of swoop competitions? Public swoop demos at large venues like Airshows, NASCAR, PGA and/or other sporting events will open the doors for big sponsors to support dedicated swoop teams. Swooping will merge with other extreme sports events like Moto X, Snowboarding, and Wakeboarding. Televised events on MTV and ESPN will attract advertising dollars which is critical to the growth of the sport. Eventually, as the popularity of swooping increases and more qualified canopy pilots enter the competitive arena, companies will sponsor bigger events all around the world. Team competition will evolve into events like team freestyle, synchronized swooping, etc. Canopy Piloting will become an event in the Olympics with courses that will challenge even the most experienced pilots.
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