WA Mentor Update May 2018
The Countdown
The last WA Newsletter challenged you to set the goal, say it out loud and then identify what you needed to do to improve your skills, stay current, get the money together and DO IT!
The great thing is that this challenge seems to have been taken up by some of the jumpers in WA. I was over the moon to see that Gus Boisson and Darrin Scott made the trip to Skydive Perris to participate in the Big Way Training & 100-way Camps. Both have already said how much they have learnt and have also identified the skills that they still need to work on. They are on the road. Well done, guys. The Big Way skill development road is a long and never ending one – never get complacent – there is always something new to learn and a skill that you can improve on.
The Doug Forth Event, in December 2017, enthused quite a few people to want to be a part of the last-light loads and we are keen to make these jumps as big as they can be and successful. During the December event there was one participant who had to work late on the Friday. She arrived on the Saturday morning having only had a couple of hours sleep and managed one or two jumps before being called back to work. She wasn’t able to participate in the State Sequential Records we achieved, so for her hundredth jump we tried to recreate it for her. Congratulations, Molly. Great jump, as last diver, for your 100th.
April was a really busy period for WA with the Big T Mega Boogie taking up much of our time. This event, held at Skydive York, was a great success. It was the “Boogie by the people for the people” and had many of the coaches giving up their time to coach at the event. FS coaches were Shirley Cowcher and Joe Rummy Clarke, both are Aussie Bigways Mentors and Coaches. During the event, Shirley organised for a group of 9 ladies to make an attempt at a Women’s Star Crest Recipient Award. The rules for the WSCR Award is that a Star Formation, made up of a minimum of 8 women, must be free-built and held for at least 5 seconds. Men can be recipients; they just have to wait until the 8 women have built the star before they can dock- you still have to hold the star for 5 seconds though. To make it interesting we also decided we would attempt a State Record Star Formation (Women’s Category) in the same jump. All the men were supportive and there were some that were even willing to get up early to be on the first load to join the jump and “watch”. This was such a fun jump. Congratulations to Cherie Bailey, Dicey Bergic, Kelly Brennan, Stephanie Dunkel, Maddy Gouge, Kat Papastratos, Susan Probert and Netty Savage. Thanks go to Graeme White, Garry Smith, Paul Gresser, Kevin Dodd, Gus Boisson and Artour Kolesnikov for the smiles in the plane and the air and also to Jordan Michalov for the video (the photo is a grab from the video)
We are now gearing up for an Aussie Bigway event with Greg Jack on the June long-weekend. All slots have been taken and we are looking forward to a terrific weekend of learning, skill development and fun. This will be a good opportunity for many of those who have expressed an interest in the Aussie Record in 2019 to hone their skills and perhaps even give them that extra push to make that expression of interest a commitment. This will be the last Aussie Bigway event in WA prior to the Aussie Bigway Premier Event for 2018 with Larry Henderson at Toogs. Registration for the Larry Henderson event will be open on 1 June, so look out for the email and get in quick as there is a lot of interest. The Larry Henderson Event will be the last P3 event in Australia before we all go to Perris for the Aussie Record and that is a very good reason to be a part of it.
On a final note I would like to congratulate Tracey Basman, the Aussie Bigways National Coordinator, who was the recipient of the Tim Bates Award – Outstanding Skydiver of the Year for 2017 at the recent APF Conference. Many of you would have met Tracey, at the Doug Forth event at York last year, and I’m sure you’ll agree that Tracey certainly meets the criteria for the award:
- A passion for the sport, and for developing the sport
- Demonstrated ability to, at times, put the sport before individual ambition
- Willingness to help and nurture others in the sport, and to work towards inclusiveness
- Desire and ability to excel within their chosen area(s) of endeavour within the sport
- Ability, skill and desire to put more back into the sport
Shirley Cowcher – WA Mentor
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