Victorian State Mentor Update April 2017
by Janine Hayes
Fortunately for Victorian jumpers the last of the summer and early Autumn have seen warm summery conditions making for great skydiving opportunities across all the DZ’s with plenty of events leading up to the Nationals.
Before the last jumping weekend for the Commandos Club at Tooradin I was able to organise some 8 way jumps with 4 star crest participants gaining their ticket on one load. A great example of everyone utilising the Bigway discipline and methodology. The basics of present, identify intercept, stadium, quadrant, radial, stop and fly in your slot prior to taking up a grip can never be over emphasised and reinforces the importance of these skills from a 2 way to a 200 way. Well done to Dave C, Dave R, Leigh and Sean who are commencing the journey toward 2019.
Commandos has now moved to the Latrobe Valley and has been busy with a number of events leading up to the move including organising hop & pops from an AN2 a Russian radial biplane with more than 30 people making a leap.
Having participated briefly (thanks Tracey’s Team Gastronauts) I witnessed the success of the Blast event at the Nationals and will be looking to support teams in this event with a couple of 4 way weekends planned in the coming months and will be encouraging all drop zones to participate in a competition.
According to Kelly the Barwon Heads March Star Crest day was abridged however, fun was had by those who played. And those who stuck around until sunset got to be part of an awesome 13-way for Kelly’s 2500th, John Garnett’s 250th and Nigel’s 8th back in the sky with his new hip! This was a super fun, super chillaxed load with several packers and Tandem Masters who’s been working hard all day. That’s what bigway is all about!
The group is having a ‘bonus’ Star Crest day on Saturday April 15, finishing up with cheese, beer and the annual prize draw to wrap up the season. Prizes will include a Cookie G3 and tunnel time at Melbourne iFly. Naturally, there will also be a toast to our friend Bogdan who was a big part of flatty fun at Barwon Heads in recent months.
With support from Skydive Australia, the APF Fi Fund and the VTPC, there are also dates locked in for Star Crest Saturdays NEXT summer 2017/18 at Barwon Heads DZ..the 1st Saturday in each month of Daylight Savings over summer 2017/18 – That’s October 7, November 4, December 2, January 6, February 3, March 3.
For my part, I could not finish this without a sad farewell to Bogdan an avid aerial enthusiast and cheeky skydiver who was passionate about Bigway who expanded his own skydiving through that involvement into 8 way and ultimately became part of the 4 way team.
He will be sorely missed and my heart goes out to his team mates, family and friends. It would be remiss of us all not to learn something from this tragedy so take care out there and remain vigilant.
Blue Skies J9
From Christian
It’s been another busy month at Nagambie for the bigway flatties! Star Crests were held over two separate weekends.
Earlier in March over the Birthday Boogie, three people were successful in achieving their Star Crests. Congratulations to Dylan, Lauren and Steve. Over the two days, successful 9 and 10 ways were completed.
Two Saturday’s later saw Star Crest loads led by Drew, with one candidate achieving 2 of the 3 jumps needed, in 10 ways all day, surely to be completed in April.
All the regular experienced players came to play at both events and demonstrated impressive skills and desire to work on testing and improving their flying skills with every jump, which was fantastic to see. The desire and focus to get better is welcomed and noticeable throughout.
The March events followed the very successful February Star Crest day, as previously reported, with three candidates achieving their Star Crests back then, Ben, Rod and Aaron.
So what’s next? Look out for the Easter weekend event in April; where 4 way scrambles on Saturday will be complemented by Star Crests on Easter Sunday, led by James Boyle. This will be the last of the Star Crest events at Nagambie for this season, with prizes to be drawn from the generous sponsors and a sausage sizzle after jumping is finished for the day. So give Louise a call to register and come on up for what should be a bumper weekend filled with great skydives, good fun and all the more learning for our road to the new Bigway record in Perris 2019!
Cheers,
Christian
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