Weekly Update for 10/4/09
It’s only right that I start this weekend update with a sincere
apology – I try my hardest to stay on top of the recaps of our wonderful
weekends at Fly Free Skydiving but there are times that I fall behind!
Now that I have that out of the way, let’s move on to the real meat and
potatoes! Another great weekend at the Drop Zone full of altitude, old
friends, family, great food and smiling faces!
The weekend started early Saturday with some honkin winds and scattered
clouds. The good news was the clouds moved out in record time giving way
to beautiful blue skies… The bad news was that the clouds were pushed
out of our area by some insanely high upper winds that we just couldn’t
rationalize jumping in. There is a lot to be said for sitting on the
ground wishing you were in the air and not floating in the air wishing
you were on the ground!
The Kula Klan showed up late afternoon with the tent and kitchen ready
to be used. We welcomed in some new friends to the DZ – Michael and Jeff
– and many of us weaseled some productivity into the day with some
packing lessons for our up and coming jumpers. As the day slowly passed
us by we all started to get antsy for the arrival of our guests of honor
for the weekend. It wasn’t long after the beer light was on that the
headlights rounded the corner and the crowd at the DZ was headed out to
great Cory, Brian, Tracey, Taylor, and Bracken. The Meade’s didn’t make
it past the parking lot before they were pummeled with hugs! We spent
the night sitting around the fire, enjoying cold (and hot!) beverages,
listening to stories from Cory’s 15 weeks in Basic Training, and smiling
at the love and happiness filling our hearts to all be together again.
The Meade’s brought some good luck with them too – because Sunday was
picture perfect for skydiving! We started the day with an overflow of
tandems from Saturday and put Dave to work! Dave did a great job keeping
up with the flow and showing these first time jumpers a wonderful time!
It was a blast to see you working your grove Dave – you rock!!!
Victor, Kyle, and Jen were all out this weekend showing us what
skydiving should look like! Victor and Kyle nailed their Category B
skydives and are on to category C. Jen did an especially awesome job on
her Category C release skydive and is now on to solo instructor
skydives! With one of my favorite skydivers of all times, Brian, out at
the DZ, I was honored when he said he would fly AFF’s with me for the
day!!! Not only did Brian make an amazing AFF partner, but I was lucky
enough to share skydive 1-0-0-0 with him Sunday!!!! Brian, you have no
idea what that meant to me! A beautiful AFF jump with someone I’ve
looked up to since I first met him. I sure hope when I make my 1000th I
can look over and see you in the skydive with me, you rock man!!
Maddie, Mike and Meggan’s lovely daughter who I plan to kidnap and keep
for myself, was not going to let the beautiful day go by without her own
taste of altitude. Terrill was happy to take Maddie for a ride and give
her a birds eye view of the DZ. Maybe next time Terrill can teach her
how to fly jumpers!
Amanda, who made a personal record making 7 jumps on Sunday, brought out
her excited sister Theresa for her 1st taste of the sky! Theresa was a
blast to have around as would be expected from a Kula!!! No doubt she’ll
be tagging along on future trips to the DZ! Congrat’s on your first of
many skydives girl!
There was a definite reason for Amanda’s mad dash to fill any available
load – she was fixated on that special number 1-0-0!!! Did she make it??
OH YEA SHE DID!!! We had to scratch the planned hybrid skydive for a
swoop and chug in order to get back to the ground with day light, and it
turned out to be a n absolute BLAST!! Mark, Cory, Amanda and myself made
the special ride to altitude together and once our feet touched down the
race was on! Amanda we are so proud of you and the skydiver you have
become. You are such a blast to be around and we are so lucky to have
you as part of our family!
Congratulations are also in order to our newest A license skydiver
Pete!! Him! Him! Woo hoo Pete! Mike you aren’t far behind my friend,
let’s get that license this weekend!
Saturday was an exhausting day for everyone with all of the excitement
and happiness going every which direction! We managed to muster up
enough strength to remind Amanda and Brian that nobody has a monumental
skydive and gets away clean!!!
With the one day weekend behind us, Ariel, our chariot, was really
feeling left out and wanting to fly some more loads! Ed was nice enough
to chauffer Mark, Banks, Colleen, Mike and myself on a few hop and pops
Monday! We didn’t stop there… Wednesday was a special day for Frank –
our tandem student who was celebrating his 64th birthday. Frank came
prepared with his own goggles and he was gung ho and ready to go! Happy
Birthday Frank!
Such a beautiful day should not go to waste and Thomas and his niece
Katy couldn’t agree more! The two made it out Wednesday afternoon to
take in the fresh air! Katy nailed her 1st skydive and Thomas showed us
how it is done making his 64th skydive! We hope to see you guys out
again sometime soon!
The weekend (and Monday and Wednesday!) was so great that we are all
anxiously awaiting the return of the Meade family on October 17th and
18th! Cory’s last weekend on the main land before leaving for Hawaii and
ultimately Afghanistan will surely be one to remember. Everyone is
invited to come help us ship Cory out in style! Last weekend we kept
Cory in check having him pack in the landing area and run the rigs back
to the hanger, maybe when he gets back out here we’ll let him relax some
and make a few extra skydives! So don’t forget everyone – lots of fun on
the horizon at Fly Free Skydiving! This weekend’s forecast is BEAUTIFUL
(what better excuse then to make some sweet skydives?), the following
weekend we are jumping with the Meade family, and Saturday October 31st
we have cooking ala the Kula Klan and the Halloween party! Hope to see
you guys there!
Until Next weekend…
XOXO
Ashes
