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| Our Safety Day t-shirts, free to first 50 attendees |
Safety Day at Skydive Snohomish is unlike any other I have attended. Being a member of USPA for twenty years now, I've gone to quite a few, but nobody does it like this! The big day yesterday started with registration at 8:30 am, and we left home at 7:00 to get there in time (more than an hour's drive), so that we could be one of the lucky registrants to get a free USPA t-shirt, as shown above by two good-looking young men.
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| The breakfast spread |
The US Parachute Association encourages the Safety & Training Advisors at each Drop Zone to organize a day at the beginning of the season dedicated to learning more about our sport and getting current on the latest technology and information. This is the first one I have attended at Skydive Snohomish, and I could not have been more impressed.
First of all, jump operations were suspended for most of the day (until 5:00 pm), while those who attended were treated to breakfast, lunch, and dinner at no cost, and if you attended all five of the hour-long safety briefings, you were eligible to participate in the drawings. Tyson and Elaine Harvey (the owners) gave away such things as 3 free skydives, reserve repacks, video and stills of your skydive, and other such items, totaling almost $7,000 in value. (Also, the skydives and tandem jumps that were not made yesterday during the picture-perfect day must have cost them at least that much.)
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| Tyson presenting the Ches Judy Safety Award to Sonya |
More than 90 people showed up, and after we signed in, we were given a card with five different events to attend: Equipment, Aircraft, The Skydive, Emergencies, and Canopy Control. Each presenter gave the same talk five times, while we made our way to each area in rotation. I had never met the Cessna pilot Dieter before, and his talk was really interesting and informative. It also made me feel very safe, knowing that someone with his expertise is flying. He is an aeronautical engineer in his "real" life and provided helpful information to deal with any type of aircraft emergency.
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| Dieter, Rocket Scientist, giving his presentation at Safety Day |
Smart Guy had his name drawn for a prize, and he generously let me choose a hooded sweatshirt for myself that I am wearing as I write this. One really good thing that came from yesterday is the camaraderie that was built among the jumpers and staff, as well as some really good information to help us all be better skydivers. I won't miss another one of these Safety Days!
Thank you, Tyson and Elaine Harvey for the wonderful day, thank you to all who attended, and thank you very much, Skydive Snohomish staff! I will be a safer skydiver because of what I learned yesterday.
:-)
That sounds like great fun! Don't you love the warm fuzzy feelings you get when you share a day with a group like that, exploring your common interest? I'm glad ya'll had such a good day. I can't imagine giving the same hour long talk five times...
ReplyDeleteI wondered why you were absent from Blogville yesterday. Now I see you were off enjoying other company. Glad you had a good time.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see your 'sport' puts so much into safety events. Sounds like it was an event very much worth your time.
ReplyDeleteYou skydive? You are an extremely brave lady!! My son has been talking about wanting to do that! Now I'll know who to ask for further info! Great post! I love the way you did the pictures, too! Love you, Janine XO
ReplyDeleteIt is always fun to have a supportive group of friends in hobbies you adore!
ReplyDeleteThere you are throwing yourself from a plane again and encouraging others to join you! And! You eat food before you do that? Talk about being sore from my highway pictures? My stomach is sore at the thought of Sky Diving!
ReplyDeleteI see you figured out the captions! ;o)
ReplyDeleteYeah...I guess if I were going to be sky diving safety would be my first issue. Glad you keep up on that. Looks like the breakfast was worth the trip!
ReplyDeleteI see you did find a new sky diving home here in the northwest. I wasn't sure. And I'm glad to hear that they are being so safety conscious. And even more, I glad that you have found a group of good people to share your passion.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of the last things I would do. Well, I did take my basic training with the 101st Airborne. But I was young then and at my age now I would be the first one to hit the ground.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it wonderful to spend the day with people who share your passion? You are my hero!
ReplyDeleteI admire you for keeping up with your passion and joy. I've only been skydiving once and that was a tandem jump, I loved it and can't wait to go again!
ReplyDeleteSounds like a very enlightening day!
ReplyDeleteMy daughter's hometown had a jumper critically injured last week. He's made thousands of jumps, and just had a hard landing. I guess you know what that's like! Be safe DJan.
What a worthwhile day for those of you in the skydiving fraternity. Safety must be paramount I'm sure and it did seem so well organised. Are those doughnuts on the breakfast table?
ReplyDeleteBlessings, Star
What a wonderful way to spend a day, time with fellow skydivers and safety training. I am a former First Aid/CPR instructor and my hubby is a licensed private pilot, we are all about safety. Glad to hear you had a great time.
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