Aussie Bigway Record: From L.A. to Perris Valley

May 18, 2015: arrive at Skydive Perris

Getting up in the morning was a bit of a struggle, I had my alarm set for 0630 because Steve was picking up Garry and I from our hotel in Venice Beach. Jet lag has been a bitch, being awake in the middle of the night local LA time has sucked, but I am powering through it. I am traveling out to Perris Valley with Garry and Steve in a rental car that through the art of negotiation which saw us agree to all their terms, conditions and insurance we drove away in an over priced Ford Escape.

The drive out to Perris was pretty uneventful, well other than trying to navigate California’s motorways, where we ended up in the wrong lane being forced to exit and do some backtracking and u-turns. Then having massive trucks flying past us on both sides in skinny ass lanes was enough to pucker up the butt hole, but we survived. We made it to Perris city limits.

Driving down Goetz Road approaching Skydive Perris, the first thing you see of the dropzone is the Indoor Skydiving wind tunnel. It looks almost like a rocket ship and certainly sounds like it is about to take off when it is operating. There is a massive parking lot at Perris, which is a little unusual for the dropzones I am used to jumping at where we have a dirt carpark and little bit of overflow around the corner. As we pull up the feeling in my body is electric. WE MADE IT! We are actually in Perris Valley for the 2015 Aussie Big Way Record Attempt. The first person we bumped into was Tracey as she steps out of her big ass RV parked up in the parking lot (adequately describing it would take far too many paragraphs, needless to say it is impressive!!).

Walking into the dropzone I am buzzing with excitement. This feeling is only increased as I start to see faces of skydiving friends from the east coast who I have not seen for months. We sort out our gear and do our safety brief with manifest and then it is up into the sky doing a 10-way jump to get familiar with the dropzone. The crew working here at Perris are worthy of a mention, especially the team in manifest who are so friendly and welcoming!

One jump was enough for the day, I am knackered and keen to get familiar with the other facilities the dropzone has on offer, namely the bar! So it’s off to The Bomb Shelter for some cold alcoholic beverages.