NSW – The Moruya Trio

For the planning of bigway events in NSW in the lead up to our Premier Event and ultimately Perris 2019, three weekend dates were set for Skydive Oz, Moruya.

Aussie Bigways would like to thank the ongoing support we have received from the NSWPC, the APF and Skydive Oz in sponsoring our Coaches, the Coaching slots and Camera Slots.

Thank you also to Luke and Sarah for delicious meals on the Saturday nights that we included in the participants registration.

APRIL

In terms of the weather, we had the Good, the Not So Bad and the Ugly… starting off in April with the Ugly with absolutely no jumps all weekend!

The two groups busied themselves with dirt diving, briefings and seminars on all things bigways.

The highlight of the weekend would be the Tom Jenkins tribute dirt dive, that went viral on Facebook once our cameraman Calder Chernoff spruced the back drop to be over Sydney Harbour. Nice one Calder and thank you Davey for the TJ jump engineering to commemorate P3 Bigway Coach Tom Jenkins.

JULY

July saw one x 16way group with Melissa Harvie get in a good day of jumping on the Sunday. Finally!! Here we have the Not So Bad! Thank you Spot for the camerawork. Watch Video Here

Laurence Garceau (LG) arranged a day for those that missed out on the 16way group to jump inventive and fun Bigway drill dives at Picton the following weekend. The weather gods are playing ball now and jumpers are getting current.

SEPT

September was the Good. Jumping both days for 2 groups x 14ways. 10 jumps for the weekend with Dave Loncasty, Stretch and Tracey Basman coaching. Some nice formations were built over the sunny skies of the Moruya coastline. Thank you Spot for capturing these moments.

Bigway Tales by John Garnett

“As the alarm went off at 6am I jumped out of bed ready for my big day ahead. To Skydive? No. To start my drive north from Melbourne to Moruya. It was a Friday morning and I had a bigway camp to get to over 700km away. I’d driven this route 5 months earlier only to be disappointed with no jumping being done the whole weekend. Although I’d met some more Skydiving friends, it was a long way to drive for some great dirt dives & coaching tips. So this time I was hoping for some freefall. For me, this was a chance to increase my bigway skills as I forge my path to the Australian Formation record and the prior camps at Perris in 36 weeks time.

Upon arriving in Moruya at 7pm, it was time to have a quick dinner in the town centre & an early night ready for a big weekend ahead. The next morning the group of 28 were assembled & split into 2 x 14 way teams for the weekend. The cloud looked worrying but we decided to proceed. I was hoping this wasn’t going to be a repeat experience of last time I drove up. And when the first load returned with all on board I was thinking that this could be another weekend of no jumping. But the clouds slowly lifted & the loads started to get up. And what a spectacular view as we climbed to height. Both groups had some fantastic jumps & the scenery over the coast was beautiful from what we could see through the numerous scattered layers of clouds. That night a sumptuous dinner was prepared by Sarah and Luke and the beer line penalties were enjoyed!

The following day we all assembled slightly earlier in our groups and the skies were mostly blue. As the first load of the day took off and climbed over the ocean I looked out the window and saw a pod of around 20 dolphins playing in the waves only meters off the shore. What an amazing sight! It was at that point that I realised how glad I was that I made the journey all the way to Moruya. The jumps we then nailed during the day built a strong bond between our team & as tends to happen in our sport many friendships were strengthened and some new ones formed.

By the end of the weekend we were all exhausted and sad to head off in our respective directions all over Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales. But on my 9 hour drive back to Melbourne the following day I had a huge smile from having completed 10 jumps at one of the most picturesque locations I’ve ever jumped at and a weekend that I’ll not forget.”

Written by John Garnet