Been a while

Wow, I can't believe it has been a whole year since I was last here. Time really fly's by and all those good intentions just slip on by unnoticed.

So much has happened on our dropzone in Southern California, we have been very busy and seen lots of growth and change.

My responsibilities have grown along with the company and finding time to get everything done is definitely a challenge.

A quick recap of our past year.

We graduated our first student through our Accelerated Feefall Program through to A license. This might not seem like much to the average Joe, but to us, the first student to go through the program from start to finish, is like your first born. We have made such a strong connection to this individual, his life will always be a part of ours, his home will always be our skydiving facility and we will always keep tabs on him and be proud of all of his skydiving achievements for the rest of his skydiving life!

We outgrew our C-182 and we are now flying a C-206. A slightly bigger plane, more comfortable for our customers, more power for our pilot and the clear roll-down door allows our Tandem Passengers to have an unobstructed view of the magnificent mountain ranges that we fly over.

I obtained my Tandem Master Rating, it's been a long time coming, 27 years in the Sport and now, after all this time, I decided if I am going to have my staff taking customers, I want to be able to take them too. And what a great experience it has been taking people on the front of my strapped to a me with our special harness system. It is such a high to share the experience with someone that has never jumped before. Although I have been teaching AFF for 24 years, I have never had the fun of being with the student through the opening of the parachute and getting to share that initial excitement under the parachute with the customer. It is just brilliant, it's energizing and a whole new "high" that I have never experienced before. I just love it!

I also became the S&TA, Safety and Training Adviser for the skydiving operation. A responsibility that I wasn't sure I would want, but have to say, luckily our staff are such great professionals that they make the job quite stress free. Basically my role is to represent the United States Parachute Association and their safety expectations; To train the instructors on what is recommended as safe practices and ensure that all students are being trained to the USPA expectations.

We also had three film crews here making quite a varied range of productions, from a Korean tech company promoting a new 360 degree camera, an youtube star celebrating 5 million followers by having us film her putting makeup on at 120mph in freefall. Hilarious!

Not to mention a few sports professionals and Dr Who's assistant coming to jump with his son for a British TV show, "Breaking Dad". yes, that'r right, Bradly Walsh came to jump with us and as much as he says was scared, the smile on his face in freefall shows that he clearly had a great time. Not to say that he wasn't elated when he landed and was able to give his son a huge hug of relief, it was mostly because his natural father instincts kicked in when he watched his son leave the plane before him. That definitely scared the life out of him, he was genuinely terrified, but for his son, not because of the skydive he was about to make. It was actually quite touching to see such genuine love!