Weekly Update for 9/13/09
As the days get shorter Mother Nature seems to be giving us somewhat
a break and the weather has been pretty nice out in Festus! Friday,
Saturday and Sunday were all awesome days for skydiving at Fly Free
Skydiving and we were sure to take advantage of them! Mark and Mike
started the weekend off with Dawn and John out for their first skydives
Friday morning. Great skydives you two!
Keeping the pace going, Friday afternoon was reserved for a very special
tandem; Shayna came to visit us making her long awaited first skydive!
Shayna, who’s mother Charlie worked manifest at Quantum Leap Skydiving,
has grown up around the sport of skydiving and long dreamed of the day
she would get her turn to concur the sky. As her 19th birthday rolled
around, Shayna finally made her much anticipated journey to 11,000 ft.
With Charlie and Robert flying along with them in the sky, Shayna and
Mark enjoyed a very special skydive – congrats Shayna! We thoroughly
enjoyed having you at the DZ and hope that you come back to visit soon!
Saturday morning was text book perfect weather for skydiving and there
wasn’t one person out at the DZ that wasn’t ready to jump! Curtis came
out to knock out 3 IAD skydives and really seemed to enjoy his air time!
Curtis – enjoy your next 3 months overseas dreaming about being in the
air and we will see you in January! We also had the pleasure of meeting
Cutis’s lovely bride Rachel who was happy to get a taste of what all the
hype was about. Our plan is to get Rachel back out to the DZ and well on
her way to becoming a skydiver while Curtis is away so when he comes
back he has something to aspire to!
Saturday was a very special day for a good friend of ours – Mike Boyer
ended his 13 month hiatus from the sky with his 143rd tandem with Mark
Cook at the controls! Saturday was Mike’s birthday and as he said, there
was nothing that was going to keep him from coming to the Drop Zone! It
was such a honor to have you out Mike, it was truly our pleasure, and we
can’t wait to have you come see us again. 13 months is too long to go
without some air under your wings, never again!
The day was set after that, tandems going up one after the other and fun
jumpers out to enjoy the air. Amanda, my Dad, Brandon, Banks and
Colleen… It was great to have the gang out on a day worthy of some sweet
jumping!
Sunday was another great day and we did our best not to take it for
granted! We were happy to welcome Jen and Brad back out for their Cat B
AFF skydives and they both did an awesome job! Along with the AFF we had
several groups of excited tandems out to fill the sky. Thank you Ed for
keeping the loads going and letting me bring you your lunch at the fuel
pump – you sure are a team sport!
We had the honor of taking a Festus icon for her first skydive this
weekend – Tammy, as in “Talk to Tammy”, the areas most well known and by
far most fun to be around real estate agent was out to take on the sky!
Tammy was an absolute blast and we are already working on ideas for her
next brochures… We are thinking “Tammy will go to all heights to help
you find the home you are looking for!” would be a great new slogan!
Visit us again really soon Tammy, and bring Rick and Joe back with you!
Blake, who is soon to be the first A license recipient to have learned
from the school of Fly Free Skydiving, showed Mark and I his moves
Sunday afternoon. With just a couple swoop and docks left to knock out
the requirements on his A license card I was happy to take to the sky
and see how my young grasshopper (or was that pig?) was coming along.
Needless to say I was beyond impressed as he nailed his docks, adjusted
his fall rate, and kept his altitude awareness from start to finish. We
couldn’t be more proud of how far you’ve come in such a short time
Blake, you are making one heck of a skydiver, and we are so glad you are
part of our family.
Just like I say every weekend, I just can’t get over how wonderful this
sport is and I am truly amazed at what it has to offer. With about 600
jumps in the past 2 years I’ve barely scratched the surface of what
there is to learn and the thought alone is so exciting. My recent
adventures in free flying have shown me how no matter how much skydiving
I do, there will always be more to learn, and I just don’t see how that
could ever get old! So, if you haven’t jumped in a while, or you’re in a
rut, come out this weekend and try something new…. The weather is
looking to be perfect for some airtime, and the gang at Fly Free
Skydiving is always happy to have our fun jumper family out to play!
Until Next Weekend…
XOXO
Ash
