ChutingStar Skydive News

With the release of the STELLA electronic analog altimeter by LB Altimeters (aka Larsen & Brusgaard), skydivers are living in a brand new world of analog altimeters to choose from.

Even manufacturer Mads Larsen was surprised by the demand and response a few days before initial STELLA orders shipped out.

"The STELLA seems to have become very popular..." he told ChutingStar.

Marissa Barclay's unique combination of a love of creating art for other people and her late father's business knowledge has skydivers worldwide flocking to her to transform their bland helmets into flying works of art.

Marissa has only been skydiving since 2013, but like most of us, she fell in love with the sport, culture and people immediately. She painted up her first skydiving helmet with her favorite animal, a crow. In this social media world, her posts of this helmet created a buzz in the skydiving community, and she soon found out there was a full-time market for customizing skydiving gear.

Compass & Crow Studios was born.

Advanced Aerospace Designs, manufacturer of the Vigil AAD, sent out a new Product Service Bulletin today that affects more than 1900 Vigil AAD units with cutters manufactured this year.

The PSB is a mandatory cutter inspection requiring each cutter to be sent back to Vigil America or AAD. The inspection is due to a severed closing loop due to rough edges inside a Vigil cutter. The manufacturer will be inspecting each of these cutters for sharp or rough edges for repair or replacement, and then return to each skydiver.

To see if your cutter is affected, see the SN's on the full PSB here:  Vigil PSB 01-2015.

Lesley Gale of Skydivemag.com interviewed ChutingStar's Mike Gruwell last month about the past, present and future of skydiving's largest skydiving gear retailer.

Curious about how the business came to be? Read on for the full scoop on how we all became to be G'd Up!