For skydivers in the northern US, we spend the winter asking ourselves and others a few simple questions: When will the new season begin? How much longer do we have to wait? What will we do until winter is over? Each skydiver handles winter a little differently, though none seem to handle it well!
Some find winter hobbies: skiing, ice skating, or snowboarding. Some travel: mostly to boogies all over the south and out west – though this past winter many jumpers I know jumped the ocean and landed in Puerto Rico! (lucky bastards) But mostly, we just sit around, look at the sky, and pout.
So when does it end? Well, when the new season begins of course! But when is that, exactly? Is it the big get together all the skydivers had in the winter where you discussed some of the changes coming this year? nope. Was it a couple weeks ago at Safety Day when we all got together and figured out how to keep our asses alive this year? nope. Is it the “opening day” date on the website? nope. So when, when do you ask? When is the moment that new season begins? Well here is a clue.. First you hear someone yell “DOOR”, then a few seconds later…
A little green light comes on. Your trusty S&TA checks the spot and you look outside of that open airplane door for the first time in months, only slightly scared (not that you would admit it), and you remind yourself that you’ve done this hundreds of times before. Your friends climb out, you know they’re waiting on you to start the count, so you take a diving stance, look up at them, smile and nod.
The 2010 season is here!
Tags: Skydive Tecumseh
Well it’s not everyday (okay, never) that I get to see myself in a magazine, but as of today that changed. Coincidentally, I myself am a recent subscriber, so this was also the first issue I’ve received – with me in it! One of regular columns in the mag is called “Jump A Random Stranger”, and yes, if you turn to the back of issue #3, you’ll find.. me! Just one more thing I’ll have to thank Twitter for!
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!
Labor Day Weekend only means one thing to a Flying Hellfish -- five days of mayhem at Skydive Tecumseh! The Hellfish make an appearance at a few other boogies, but Labor Day is when they come home. As my luck worked out, this was my weekend with my kids, so I had to do some clever scheduling to try to make it. I was able to get out for a few jumps on Saturday afternoon, but had to leave before the legendary Hellfish Toga Party so I could take my kids to the Labor Day Fireworks in Jackson -- but I made it back for two night jumps in moon light Sunday night!
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!
Tags: Boogie, Hellfish, Hop-n-Pop, Skydive Tecumseh, Swoop Club, weather