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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FvHq_xvoDWY

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNgoHY24g-4

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!

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!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=-t4WArK33jk

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!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUww06GQVE0

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!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqzWRAf4NA8

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA3pBrFFw9I

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=nonNkcQApJ4

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.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=By-GzBRFOCQ

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!

Thats right, Labor Day weekend 2009 – SDT is the place to be!  The details are still being worked out, but the legendary Toga party will be held on Saturday September 5th, 2009.  It hasn’t been officially announced yet, but the Toga Party is generally accompanied with free margarita’s all night long!

And yes, it’s not just a four day party… There is also skydiving too, lots of it!  This year there is going to be a Twin Otter, Super Skyvan, and a Cessna available for hop & pops!

Check back here, or on the official Skydive Tecumseh Events Page for more details!