The Story of Big Air Sportz

Founded by Brian Germain in 1998, Big Air Sportz is a company built upon a single principle: “Believe in what you do, and it will succeed”. From our parachutes to our clothing, every item that displays the Big Air logo has meaning and integrity. While many companies stand for nothing but the almighty dollar, we strive to be more.

We don’t just sell parachutes, we sell our ideals. Our canopies are designed, tested and constructed to the very highest standards conceivable. We do this not to dodge liability, but because we honestly care about the people who use them. We too, are pilots, and we want nothing but the best tools innovation can provide.

We believe in the Airlock, not because it is some gimmick that helps us sell our canopies, but because we believe airlock canopies to be safer. From the inception of our company, parachute stability has been the central focus of our work. Our pride as a company comes from our conviction that we are doing the right thing; we are improving the safety of the sport.

Brief Biography of Brian Germain
And the Birth of Big Air Sportz.

Inspirational Speaker Brian Germain is the skydiving industry's foremost expert on Adrenalin Management, and has become a world voice on the topic of transcending fear. Brian's fascination with fear and its effects began with his wide diversity of adventure leadership experiences, but became crystallized when tragic paraglider collapse nearly took his life in 1993. Rejecting the doctors’ proclamation that he would never jump again, Brian not only emerged from his wheelchair to continue skydiving, but a mere four years later became the ESPN X-Games Champion in Freefly Skydiving. His journey through and beyond fear has moved people all over the world to challenge their own personal boundaries, and expand who they are by taking fear head-on.

Brian's amazing recovery has led him to author numerous inspiring books and articles about overcoming fear and life challenges, including his best-selling hit Transcending Fear, the inspiring Green Light Your Life, and his upcoming celebration of the path of fearlessness, Lift. His passion for the topic of fearless living has resulted in a barrage of interviews with the media, as well as his inspiring business keynote talks and experiential workshops. Brian's journey through apparent impasse has led him to many refreshing insights that will uplift your organization and provide you with powerful secrets for handling stress in all its forms.

Brian Germain has dedicated his life to the study of fear and its antidotes, but what distinguishes him from others on similar paths is his unique ability to tell the story in an enjoyable way. His animated expression of this challenging aspect of the human experience is both profound and useful, and surprisingly funny. Brian's uncanny ability to paint the picture of the archetypal journey from fear to heroism has been fostered by many years of compassionate skydiving instruction.

Brian got his start as an Adventure Guide with Longacre Expeditions, focusing on rock climbing and mountaineering. After earning a BA in Psychology from the University of Vermont, Brian founded "Vermont Skydiving Adventures" parachute school at the age of twenty five, which he owned and operated for several years. At this small operation on the Canadian border, Brian trained many now-world-renowned skydivers with his unique and heart-driven methodology.

That is when his tragic paraglider collapse changed his life forever. For the next two years, Brian had to focus his efforts on the physical and mental healing process. As part of his path to recovery, he set his sights on preventing the same tragedy from befalling other parachutists. He faced his own fear by returning to the sky to test his own collapse-resistant “Airlock” prototypes, eventually founding his parachute design company BIG AIR Sportz. Brian's innovative work earned him a Patent for “Valved Apparatus for Ram-Air Canopies” (US Patent #5,573,207), a design that has been utilized in thousands of parachutes all over the. He continues to build and test advanced parachute designs in order to improve safety and efficiency.

After writing the definitive book on parachute aerodynamics and safety, The Parachute and its Pilot, Brian created his world-renowned Parachute Flight Skills and Safety Course, an advanced training workshop for civilian and military parachutists. Brian continues to tour the world teaching parachuting safety, and is also the host of the very popular radio show entitled “Safety First with Brian Germain” on SkydiveRadio.com, as well as "BG Live", a revolutionary online training program on AdventureWisdom.com.

Now with more than 14,000 jumps over 25 years, Brian Germain has many messages of great value from which anyone can benefit. The wisdom and positive outlook he has gathered applies directly to every aspect of life. The core skills that he teaches can help you to thrive in the midst of the most ominous leadership challenges, and help you to establish an emotional buoyancy that will make you the kind of person that others want to follow.

What’s Next?
This is the question asked at Big Air Sportz every day. This question embodies everything we are as a company. The beauty is, “What’s next?” has a new answer every day. The important thing is that we are thinking about it constantly. More importantly, we’re doing something to make these dreams happen.

Research continues on many products here at Big Air Sportz. From high performance kites to extreme canopies for the next generation of skydivers, we’re always working. Creation is a continual process that is, in fact, a way of life. We know you want more, and we are working feverishly to bring the future to you.

Current Research Projects:

• Sensei: cross-braced elliptical ultra-performance canopy
• Samurai X-18
• Civilian Space Program: "Project R.U.S.H." (go to www.rocketguy.com for more information)
• Psychology Research: Fear and Adventure Activities

Who are our customers?
Big Air Sportz is the company for people who want a little more, and won’t settle for anything less. They are searchers, looking for a better way, who believe in their hearts, as we do, that the future is wide open. They seek technology, yes, but more importantly they seek experience, incredible, exhilarating experience. They seek Big Air.

Within this in mind, however, airlocks aren’t just for hotshots anymore. The first three canopy designs to use the airlock system were high performance parachutes. This somehow gave the impression that airlock canopies fly faster, and dive harder. The release of the Lotus proved beyond any doubt that this is simply not true, and has opened the airlock advantage to new skydivers as well. In fact, we’re finding, that the objective mind of the new skydiver is often more likely to understand and appreciate the value of having one-way valves in their parachutes. Old habits die hard...

Our canopies are flying over every continent on earth. From “A” license holders to World Champions like Mike Swanson and Colon Berry, Big Air is bringing skydivers back to earth safely, and in style.

Our customers have a passion for ram-air wing design, and talk tirelessly about new ideas around campfires and in skydiver bars. They are thinkers. We’re thrilled to have attracted this kind of customer because this is exactly who we are. We love parachutes. We love talking about wings and airplanes and wind and anything that flies.

Is Big Air Sportz a “cult” company? Perhaps, but no more than skydiving is a cult sport. It is a loose organization of like-minded individuals that swear allegiance to a common goal. It’s a pretty amusing stigma to be saddled with, but if the shoe fits… Don’t forget, Mercedes is a cult company too.

At BIG AIR we have a very simple philosophy on the longevity of our product: "We get customers by building the best parachutes in the world, not by having the old ones wear out."

Precise Computer Cutting
All of BIG AIR's canopies are designed and cut out by an advanced computer system. This affords us the ability to design more complicated and exact panel shapes, and cut them out with perfect consistency. This makes every one of BIG AIR’s canopies the same as the last. You should expect nothing less from a company like BIG AIR...

Brian Germain's Famous Brother Andy

www.AndyGlockenspiel.com