I'm Jane and I Sell Adventure

I have spent the last two weeks learning more than I ever wanted to know about swim platforms and floating docks. We're getting ready for great white shark season here at Incredible Adventures. This year, we're offering cage dives from two new boats, which means conquering new logistical challenges. How to get customers from the boat easily and safely into the shark cages has been our biggest concern. After a lot of research, we've purchased two customizable floating docks that will be positioned between the boats and the cages. Shark divers will be able to easily climb down a staircase/ladder and wait on the docks for last minute instructions from our certified dive instructors before going down into the cages. New ladders going from the docks down into the cages themselves will make it quicker and easier for divers to enter and leave the cages. This year's shark season runs from September 20 to November 16.

Sometimes You've Gotta Scramble.... What do you do when you have three customers lined up to do HALO jumps and you get a call telling you that your pilot and plane is unavailable indefinitely? If you're an adventure goddess, you don't panic....cause stuff like that happens all the time. You set out to find a Plan B....and fast. The two men from England and one from New York will now be jumping from a perfectly good airplane located about 90 minutes from the originally planned jumped location and Incredible Adventures will be picking up the tab to get them there. They'll jump from an amazing altitude, have an incredible adventure and all will end well. The End.

Labels: HALO, Incredible Adventures, skydiving

Not everyone who claims to sell adventures really does. Trust me. I know this stuff. Before you buy from anyone, do your homework and make sure the company is for real. Talk to references. Check with the state where they're located to see if they're a registered business. Look online for news reports and information about the company.

If you aren't careful, you could find out you've wired money to a non-existent company. About a week ago, someone in our office discovered a website that still has my blood boiling. Some Russians (at least we think they're Russian...that's where they claim to be located) are pretending to run a company called "Incredible and Fabulous Adventures". They've created a pretty impressive looking website using text and photos stolen from the real Incredible Adventures website and the websites of many legitimate businesses. We know of two such websites and we're sure there are others we haven't found yet.

Be careful. Don't trust your dreams to just anyone.

June has been a busy month. I spent a few action-packed days in the Bahamas, putting all the finishing touches on our new tiger shark dive adventure. I traveled to the Bahamas from Fort Lauderdale on a Discovery Cruise with Jillian Morris, our "new" dive instructor. Jill used to run dive trips for us out in San Francisco and will now be overseeing our dive ops in the Bahamas. We had such a great time, it's hard to believe it was actually work. We inspected boats, hotels and the like and learned all the little details that can make life easier for our customers. (We've got a trip coming up July 28th and another on August 4th, if anyone is interested. Just email me at jane@incredible-adventures.com. )I then unpacked the suitcase and repacked it for Aspen and a conference called Flight School. I was actually surprised by how many really fun and successful people I met there. It was an event that brought together those of us in the space "tourism" field with those in the air taxi and private jet field.

I had a blind date last night and something tells me I accidentally turned it into an informercial for Incredible Adventures. It's hard not to talk about what I do. After all, how many people have had the chance to do the things I have? Thanks to my job and our variety of adventures, I can shift easily between a conversation about the performance capabilities of the MiG-31 to a debate over which is the more impressive shark...the tiger or the great white. I can talk about preventing GLOC or firing carbines and the differences between long track and short track racing. I can describe what it's like to balloon over the Sahara or experience zero-gravity.

I met a legend on Monday. I made the 90 minute road trip south to Bonita Springs, Florida to meet Esther Dyson. It's hard to describe Esther...internet guru...computer genius, venture capitalist, author, visionary... Google her and you'll see what I mean. I feel privileged to have been chosen to speak at "Flight School", a conference created and hosted by Esther. It takes place in Aspen this June. She's gathering all the key players in the "new" field of space "tourism", as well as those starting innovative air taxi services and the like. You can read more about the event, and Esther herself, here. Getting to meet exceptional people is definitely a job perk!

Good news! The runway at Russia's Sokol Aircraft Building Plant won't be closed an entire month this summer after all. When we first heard that the runway would be closed for repairs, we weren't happy....that meant we'd have to tell customers wanting to fly during summer's peak travel times that they couldn't...but we weren't surprised either. When you're involved in an adventure business, you tend to come to expect little "gifts", as our Russian GM likes to call them. Every week a new obstacle pops up to make our jobs difficult. On the plus side though, things never get boring. We have to be always ready to tackle new "situations". Thanks to some great work on the part of our Russian partners, runway upgrades are now going to be completed in half the time and in a way as to not interfere with customer MiG adventures.