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Hurray for good weather!
What I though was going to be another cloudy weekend ended up being jam-packed! Starting off in the tandem arena, with the registration line sometimes backed up into the foyer, we cranked out the biggest weekend of the summer! Even Saturday with the occasional weather hold we pumped out 163! With tradition of Sundays being slower, this wasn’t the case with the perfect weather. We kept the planes turning with an impressive 150 tandems! Not a bad weekend! Thanks to all the tandem masters, packers, and manifest for making it happen.
On the other side of the hanger the Bagland 8 held another training camp. Between the Bag 8 and Max organizing we kept both Otters going most of Saturday. Shannon and Karyn of SDC Furies organized a 3-way scrambles. Two teams went head to head Saturday. The following is a post from the Furies:
For the annual 3-way scrambles this year, we took a slightly different approach, organizing separate competitions on each day of the weekend. This allowed more people to participate, and offered those jumping both days a chance to jump an even wider variety of people.
The weather forecast for Saturday looked iffy, but after a brief weather hold 2 teams of jumpers joined the Furies for a friendly competition! Amber, Betsy & Omnia made up “Team Top Heavy”, with Kevin on video, while Al, Bob & Kris made up “Awesomistic,” with Pete on video. After 4 competitive rounds, both teams were holding their own in this competition, but “Team Top Heavy” pulled into the winning slot with 14 points.
Sunday brought even more beautiful weather. The jumpers gathered again and the Furies formed 2 different teams. Al, Bob & David formed “We Follow the Boobs,” with Pete on video, while Amber, Holly & Kris formed “We are the Boobs,” with Raj on video. Clearly these teams started the day with a sense of humor! After another 4 round competition, Sunday’s winning team was the “Followers”! Good job everyone.
As with most scrambles, while there is friendly competition, we also work on making new friends, ground work, dive engineering, exit technique, and lots of learning. Oh yeah and there are FABULOUS prizes as well as bragging rights! “Top Heavy” walked away with a summerfest jump ticket, a video slot at summerfest and a few other trinkets, and “We Follow the Boobs” also claimed a summerfest jump ticket, a video slot at summerfest and a few little items. Don’t forget to congratulate the participants!
The Furies would like to thank everyone who participated as well as the GLOM (gorgeous ladies of manifest), Eat Up, Charles Lane and SDC for donating prizes
Hope to see you at our next organizing weekend – Aug. 15-16.
Most of you have seen the annual face lift that SDC gets before Summerfest. Donovan and his grounds crew staff have been working hard getting ready for the event. Local jumper Al has installed tankless hot water heaters in the shower house. No more cold showers at SDC! Thanks Al and I’m glad you found your way through the flux capacitor.
Biff has been busy constructing a stage for the Tiki Hut. We have some great bands coming in and wanted to maximize the space. The new stage will sit on the bottom part of the double deck increasing the crowd area. Thanks Biff for all the hard work.
Great news, the cabins now have AC. With the summer temps starting to raise the need to install them was apparent. Find out more about the cabins by clicking HERE.
SDC graduated three more students. Congratulations to Russell Bennett, Simon Barr, and finally Ziggy Ziemba. Just in time for Summerfest!
Long time SDC jumper Kevin Brown hosted a summer party at his farm north of the DZ. 13 jumpers made a sunset demo into the farm and were treated to a fireworks show and pig roast. Congratulations Erin and Robin on making your first demo jump. Thanks Kevin for letting us be a part of your event.
Beat the crowd and register for Summerfest early. While you are here this weekend stop into manifest and get registered. We are planning for the biggest event yet so take advantage of being a local. If you aren’t going to be out again before Summerfest, but have already waivered this year you may call manifest at 815-433-0000 to pre-pay your registration. It will help speed up your registration process during the boogie.
Todd and Lisa will be back organizing this weekend, here is a post from them:
Join us for RW organizing on Saturday, July 18th and Sunday, July 19th!!! Our goal is to improve and accelerate your RW skills, focusing on small groups. The purpose is learning and working on basic RW skills. This includes exits, diving toward a formation, working on fall rate, grip techniques, eye contact, referencing, and tracking. Our target audience is AFP grads to intermediate RW jumpers, but all skill levels are welcome to join us! There is no registration fee. You are only responsible for your jump ticket (and, packing, if you choose). There is no sign-up required. Just look for us over by the red mats at 9am each day. If you have any questions, you can contact us thru Facebook (Lisa DeSimone); or, SDC Forums; or, email us at zaats@sbcglobal.net.
Don’t forget that Swoop Club was moved to this Sunday, the 19th, at 9am. Come get your swoop on!
As some of you know we are fighting a battle to keep Ameren from building 138,000 kW power lines along the railroad tracks. They proposed to put in 75-90 foot tall polls on the west side of the tracks through SDC. Obviously this isn’t very safe from a jumper’s standpoint. I encourage you to visit www.Foxriveralliance.org to get the latest info. This is going to be a battle and we need all the help we can get. If you have any contacts in agencies that you think might be able to help please email rook@skydiveChicago.com
Coming up
July 19 Swoop Club
July 18-19 Freefly LO with Ben Crooch
July 18-19 RW organizing with Todd & Lisa
July 18 Continuing Education
July 17-26 A license in a Week!
July 24 - Aug. 2 SUMMERFEST!
Thanks to all the supporters of SDC.
Rook
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