2022
TEACHING IN FREEFALL
February 2022- Skydance Skydiving
From the day I started ground school I set a goal to become an AFF instructor. AFFI stands for "accelerated FreeFall Instructor". This means I am able to teach students how to skydive on the ground BUT also jump with them while holding onto them and instructing them during freefall. I tried to take a few AFFI courses but the timing did not work out. An opportunity came up to take a course at the end of February at Skydance (Davis, CA) and I jumped on it.
The course was spread out over 2 weekends. The first weekend was mostly practice jumps (we did 11)! The following weekend we did a few practice jumps and then went "hot" which means we did real evaluation jumps. You have to pass 3 jumps and you have 4 total attempts. While the course was really tough mentally and physically (I haven't done this many jumps in a row in a while..), it was super rewarding. After passing the final jump I felt so accomplished and excited to jump with a real student.
The following weekend I did my first real AFF jump with a student. I was super nervous but excited. The first jump went perfectly! My student was well prepared and the jump went as planned. We even did his Cat B (second jump) right after. I am so thankful to have become an instructor. I love spending time with the students and watching them grow!
I am really excited to start using the rating more. I love getting to know the students and watching them grow in the sport.
Chicks Rock Boogie
October- Skydive Elsinore
This is one of my favorite boogies and dropzones to visit. I sadly missed Chick's Rock last year so I made it a priority to attend this year. I havent been to Skydive Elsinore since moving to Nothern California so I did not realize how far away it is. From Phoenix, it took less than 6 hours, but from Nor Cal, it showed 8 hours! I decided that if I am going to drive 8 hours, then I am going to make it worth it and extend the trip. I left the weekend before Chick's Rock so I had time to go to Skydive Taft on the way!
After driving about 5 hours, I made it to Skydive Taft! I picked this dropzone for 2 reasons: First, my good friends that I met at Lodi are now working at Taft. Second, it is pretty close to half way between Nor Cal and So Cal. On Saturday we did a few fun jumps! It was nice to jump with old friends and new. We went out to dinner and then hung out at the drop zone. I woke up early Sunday morning to drive down to So Cal for my cousins bridal shower! The bridal shower was fun and it was nice to see my family. After the shower, I drove to my aunt and uncle's house. I stayed with my aunt and uncle for a few nights and then drove about an hour to Lake Elsinore.
Once I arrived at Skydive Elsniore (and found a good parking spot for my car), I checked in with manifest. SInce I havent jumped at Elsinore in a few years and I have never landed in the grass main landing area, I recieved a DZ briefing. There was not much going on Thursday afternoon so I just hung out at the DZ. Kirby surprised me and showed up late Thursday night! It was a nice surprise! We jumped all day Saturday. I did 3 jumps with Kirby, 1 jump with a freefly LO and 1 belly jump (10way) as a warm up for the all women 20 way jumps on Saturday. I also demoed a canopy. While it was fun to try a new canopy, it was not fun to have my canopy hooked up with twists in the risers after I was done demoing the canopy.
I spent all day Saturday with an amazing group of women doing 20 way jumps out of the Skyvan! I learned how to do a 6 way linked exit ouf the skyvan and then how to do diving exits out of the skyvan (previously, I would run and do a backflip of of the skyvan). We were supposed to do 5 jumps but it rained after jump 4 so we were done for the day. Night swoops kicked off the night festivities, then we had dinner and had a party with a glow theme.
Overall this boogie was superfun, looking forward to Chicks Rock next year.