Everyone already receives The Parachutist, which as published by the USPA displays the professionalism of our sport.  I think Blue Skies displays us – when we’re not trying so hard to be professional!  If you haven’t already subscribed, get over there and do it!  It’s worth the cost of a jump ticket to read the stuff that got them kicked out of their first printer!

The swoop club event was scheduled for Monday morning, but alas, the clouds and rain just didn’t want to let it happen. Well the rain paused for a moment, so we decided to quickly get the Cessna up and test the ceiling. Well, we were able to get up to 4,000 feet, but it sure hadn’t stopped raining up there! I’m sure someone might have considered not proceeding.. but the next load was already manifested.. and they had already setup the swoop course.

Now for a bit of my personal history, I am not a swooper. I hadn’t ever participated in swoop club before. I was on the load for a quick hop-n-pop and I saw the course setup, I thought I’d just use it for a bit of accuracy practice. Of course when I landed, Ryan said I was the only one that had even scored in the round, putting me momentary in first place, so I decided I should stick around and finish it -- couldn’t hurt to learn a bit more about my canopy! Many thanks to Ryan for answering all my questions that day, the rules, scoring procedures, the different rounds, etc.. I really learned a lot.

Mostly I focused on just hitting the gates with an accurate approach. In the first round (above) I had a 77′ swoop followed with a 42′ swoop in the second round. The rules changed in the third round (accuracy) so I just tried to land in the square Ryan showed me and in the process I hit three of the four gates. At this point, I was the only person to score in each round and I might have had a chance at placing first or second.

Hellfish Swoop Club 2009 - 3rd Place Medal

However for the final round I decided to put a bit more effort into it and hit all four gates, which I did, but landed 10′ early in the “no mans land” area just before the target landing area! Oh well -- How much can you learn if you don’t try hard enough that you might fuck up? All in all, it was a good end to the boogie weekend. One that will be well remembered by myself at the least. And, after a few calculations by Ryan (you’ve gotta love a weighted scoring system) I ended up placing third -- in my first try at swoop club!

I’ve got pretty good range with my own jumpsuit, but with all the warnings I was receiving, I thought I’d better grab one of the bigger spare suits in the back. I ended up with giant blue and yellow balloon suit that I could have fit into twice! I was able to do two jumps with the student. The first, I went out poised with her diving behind me. As I released and glided down the hill, I recall wondering if she had let go of the plane yet, she had, but was.. well a bit floaty! I de-arched and “hugged the beachball” as quickly as I could, but to no avail – I was able to keep myself from falling any lower, but couldn’t get back up! I had to turn my head sideways and watch her do her turns from 20 feet below!

The second jump I knew what to expect. I had her go out poised and dove out two seconds behind her and instantly de-arched and then let myself slowly sink to her level. This went much better and I was able to stay on level and watch the dive. The student herself did very well on both jumps, I was easily able to check of her objectives. Unfortunately, she’s had a hard time going through the progression as many of our Instructors and Coaches have had a hard time falling slowly with her.

Anyhow, the definition of good hump day at the dropzone? Being there to help out the anxious students.. the ones that can’t wait until the weekend. Getting more instruction myself from the current Instructors – my Coaches from years past! And ending the night down at Muk’s – 1/2 burrito, hot, sour cream & hot pepper on the side and a tall Labatt – that will be missed as much til next season as the jumps!

So, a perfect day? Almost. The gopro has starting acting up on me a little bit. Each jump the camera didn’t turn on until I thought I was turning it off – two long clips of me flying the canopy (in a huge balloon suit), so every will have to wait until the next post to get their video fix!

The weather on Friday kept me at home, and really, even Saturday and Sunday didn’t look that great. However, things seem to work out when they need too, and this was no exception. Saturday came and the clouds rolled back enough to get out there and get a few in. Of three jumps on Saturday, the second was great. Just a simple three way with Glenn and Mac, but Mac had the great idea for us to swap camera’s (you’ve gotta love the way the gopro’s click in and out of their mount so easily). So below, for the first time on this blog, you can see me in the video!

On Sunday, everyone (well, actually just most) that I wanted to be there on my three hundredth were there, so i tried to squeeze onto each load and get the jumps done before the weather went bad. On jump number 298, Jon, Franz, and I went out to do a very common skydive at our dz, a “Cat Fly-Around”, you can see it the first half of the video how the jump is supposed to go.. but towards the end, appearantly Jon and Franz and decided to fuck with me a bit by turning the two way and not letting me get into my next slot!

Next was my 300′th! In the beginning, this started as just a small jump.. maybe a four way. But one by one I saw people around the dz that I just couldn’t not invite and then someone brought out the hoop. Yes, “the” hoop.. it’s the hoop that set the world record hoop dive (21 people through the hoop, World Freefall Convention, 2002). My first mistake on this dive? Think I should try to go through backwards on my first attempt. My second? Managing to kick both hoop holders.. and my third misktake? Thinking they might let me go through the hoop a second time! Oh well, fun jump!

Just for reference, out of my current jumps, I’ve got 40 on student canopies (from 288 to 210) the next 100 on a Sabre-1 190, and the next 150+ on a Pilot 168. For the day I decided to demo the Pilot 150, as that would be my next logical step down. However, the Aerodyne guy, after watching me land a few times, though I’d be fine with the Pilot 140, not so sure myself, what do you think, with my progression and an exit weight of 190 pounds?

Anyway, on to the days video’s! In the first one Jon does a backflip, Chris does a half barrel roll, I do a strut curl exit and wave goodbye to the pilot!

Here are to good examples of stable cessna exits: Jim does a diving exit, Ian goes out poised.

As soon as I got to the DZ I could tell the day was a little more hectic than most, Franz was running manifest himself, and it seemed the phone was ringing off the hook.  Rather than bug him to see the next load I could jump on, I just hung out for a moment, next up to the counter was a student looking for coach, good timing. We were quickly manifested and starting some ground training for his jump. Kent had a good jump and was able to get an adjusted fall rate & dock and a swoop and dock checked off his A card.

After that, Dale was putting together a small way with some of the newer jumpers around this year, I of course, was glad to jump into the mix!

The sad part about days like these?  For me, I know they’re numbered.. my boys will be back to school in a few weeks, and I’ll be back to a weekend jumper

The Inaugorial Jump for Diabetes at Canton Airsports in Ohio!  I’d been looking forward to this weekend and a chance to really come down and get to know a new dropzone after having had a brief introduction a few weeks previous.  And as expected, I came away with a lot of new skydiving friends that I’ll be looking forward to jumping with again.  At first take Saturday morning, things weren’t looking to well. We had expected a Caravan to be flying loads by 10AM, so after waking up to get there bright and early, we were disappointed to hear the Caravan had been delayed due to maintenance and would not be arriving until 2PM.

So with 4 hours to spare, we had time to plan the best ever four-way dive.  Then someone asked to join, so we planned the best ever five-way dive.  Then someone asked to join… and yes, we went to a 6 way then 7 way, before finally settling on an 8 way before the plane finally arrived at almost 5PM!!  The finally dive started with a BFR (Big Fucking Round) then with two going into a two way base, with four people sidebodied off the base, with two stingers on either side, next point the stingers come into the be the base, the satelites turn 90’s to sidebody the new base, and the old base backs out to be the next stingers!  It’s a fun dive when it goes well, lucky for us that day it’s also fun when it doesn’t go well!  Luckily that video I forgot to turn off so I didn’t upload it.. it’s one for the personal archieves!

Next was a three way cat fly-arounds with Ashley and Fuzzy.  Log book entry says simply enough “Exit Good”.  This shows why you need to keep positive pressure on a grip (don’t pull/hang on it) else when you let go of the grip, you’ll fly off backwards!

Next up was a fun two-way with Ashley, basically, the goal was just to play keep way, and no -- she never caught me  Of course today, now wearing her booties for a few jumps, she seems to think she could catch me.. that will be a jump for another day!

The next morning started with a fun five-way with me, Ashley, and a few new guys we had met there, Dennis, John, & John. They each easily outnumbered me in jumps and experience, and I think both me and Ashley were able to learn a lot from the dives we did that day with them.  In the first one, I know we had a dive plan, but Ashley was determined to come onto my side of the formation at exit, so the rest of us did a bit of improv to keep the rest of the jump going.. spider, round, open accordian… who says it has to be slot specific anyway!

After the previous success -- aww shit, I showed you the video, didn’t I?  We decided to increase our odds by adding three more into the mix, enter Fuzzy, Dave, and Don.  Now I won’t name names.. but found it rather funny (actually hilarious really) that the ONLY person that went low on this jump, was the 50 jump wonder who swore he needed five pounds of lead to keep up with us..   As an extra challenge to myself, as the group exits, you can hear my turn and give a two count before I followed.

Next we decided to downsize again and tried to be serious.  Down to just Me, Ashley, Dennis, Fuzzy, John, & John. I think we did a lot better.  The spider exit came off the door so well, I actually went low anticipating I’d have to catch up with a tumbling mess, but once I got back into the formation (on the second attempt -- first try I almost came up under the formation, I had to back out and come up a second time) we got a three way donut, each with a single whacker, then the donuts released and we flew each donut/whacker pair into the reverse with the previous whacker become part of the next donut (yes, I know this probably sounds really confusing for my non-skydiving audience -- more reason to come jump and learn!) then we got into a round before breakoff.

After that success (yes, we finally had a success!) we decided to debrief and try the same jump again, which once again, went off much better.  The next exit didn’t go quite as smoothly, and by time the formation built I was on the wrong side of it, none the less, I think we had a good jump, and a good end to a great weekend of jumping.

This post would note be complete with out mentioning Rich Simenc.  The Jump for Diabetes was of course hosted by Canton Airsports, but it was the brainchild of Rick -- he spent many months organizing and recruiting venders, supporters, donators; he sold raffle tickes, 50/50 tickets, and jumped his a** of (as he had many people donating on a “per jump” basis).

All in all, after the prizes were paid out, he was able to make close to a $5,000 donation to the American Diabetes Association.  I salute your efforts Rick and as you know, I among many have already volunteered to both attent and assist in the 2nd Annual Jump for Diabetes next year -- just let us know when, where, and what you need us to do!

Starting back two weeks ago I had a great day jumping at Tecumseh – as I’ve been jumping out of town a lot lately, I really appreiciate the days that I get to jump back at home.  On a Wednesday, the weather was great, and the Otter was flying!  As soon as I drove into the dropzone I saw people gearing up so I rushed out of the car to see what the call was.. 5 minutes!  Sure, I could make that

I jumped with Rob, whom although still on student status was just knocking off the last few jumps to 25, he already had his A license card filled out, so we just went up and did a simple dive, sidedock, round, sidedock, round..  he is still working on staying in control of his levels, but the jump went well with four points.

As soon as I got down on the ground Manifest pointed Ben, a fresh AFF grad student my way.  After going over his log book we decided we would be doing a Category G dive.  We had to wait for the gear he needed to be avaible, so while he waited, I jumped the next load to go up with Dale, Jon, and a few less experienced jumpers.  It was a fun jump – one that pointed out that the amount of fun has nothing to do with the number of points.

Once back on the ground, I went through the ground prep with my student Ben and we got geared up for the next load. He did really well, completing both docks requiring an adjustment in fallrate, as well as one swoop and dock.  Then at the bottom end of the dive, signaled breakoff right on queue and turned his 180 and had a great track away.

After landing I thought that would be the last jump of the day, but Dale was trying to get one last load up before sunset.  It was about time I finally figured out what was going on with my camera, it had some how filled itself with just the canopy flight (not the freefall!) from the first jump, nothing else had been recorded!  Anyway, with the days video’s lost I thought I would test out the picture mode on the GoPro for the last jump, we ended up doing a sunset six-way full of experienced jumpers – 4 points

A great way to end the day.

The first jump were some fly arounds with Glenn and Ashley, always a good and fun jump to practice fall rates.  The second dive was a tracking dive with Ashely.

The first jump was with Larry and Glenn, a classic three way Larry special skydive -- a circle into an open accordion, then breaking the grips, and rotating the pieces.. over and over..

On the previous jump Neil was on the plane doing his last student status skydive to jump his first pack job.. upon landing he earned his A license and was able to jump with us for his first licensed jump, his first jump with non-instructional staff, and his first four way… (haha, can we say BEER!) This was the first time I’d seen him jump and was really impressed with both of his docks. Also, watch his exit at about 12 seconds into the video, he had his legs out a bit too much which was causing him to roll forward and loose stability, but with some quick thinking on his part he grabbed his knees and tucked into a front flip and then came out of it right back into a dive.. very nice Neil -- but next time keep your feet on your ass when diving!

Not sure what happened to Glenn and Neil after the last dive, but it was down to me and Larry for the last dive of the night, we tried the same dive plan that me and Jon scored 29 points on a few weeks ago, and it went off well, not quite as many points, but still a great dive. The video cut out just before we got the 12th point, but as i recall we finished that cycle right before the end of the dive, would have been 15 points.

With that dive done, it’s put me at 275 skydives so far, so I’m starting to put some thought into where and what I want to do for my 300th skydive.. any ideas? Also, yes I’m aware there is an awful whistling sound in some of the video’s this week. The locking mechanism of my GoPro camera got a small crack in and I’m waiting for the company to send out a replacement part. Until I receive the part to fix it, when the wind catches it right… well, you can hear what happends..