Thursday, September 3, 2009

My first pie

I've been a bad blogger.

It's been about 4 months since my last post, and so much fun has happened in that time. I won't go into all the details, but I will share some of the highlights.

I've been busy with two jobs this summer, so I haven't had as much free time for jumping as I would have liked, but that hasn't stopped me from enjoying the little bit of time that I did get out at the DZ.

June and July were pretty slow for jumping. I made it out for a few afternoons of jumping, and for some good after-hours shenanigans (racing down the runway while holding on to the top of the car... in the rain... anyone?).

I spent the first weekend of August in Lost Prairie, MT. That was a FUN boogie. Got the chance to jump out of a twin otter, as well as a helicopter. I didn't waste any time getting into the swing of the boogie spirit... there may have been some flashing involved at one point or another. I also did my first cross country sunset load. We got out 4.5 miles away from the landing area and had a 20 minute canopy ride down as the sun disappeared behind the mountain tops. It was absolutely gorgeous! On jump #87, I did a 3-way horny gorilla jump with a couple guys from Washington, and one of my shoes got scraped off and lost over the Montana mountains.

The following weekend, I did my first night jump. I was soooo excited for it. I was really nervous about landing in the dark, but it wasn't so bad and I was easily on my feet. As I was gearing up for my second night jump, someone suggested we turn the load into a naked jump. I don't know what got into me, but I agreed to it. That was one awkward ride to altitude, and climb-out was COLD! We managed to hold our naked 4-way all the way to 6k, although we were spinning most of the way down. If you think I was nervous about landing in the dark, just try to imagine how nervous I was about landing in the dark without any clothes on. I decided to land out away from the landing area (which was lighted by car headlights) to avoid getting my white butt in the light where everyone could see it. Instead, I had only the moon light to go by, but still managed to come away from it unscathed. It was a huge relief to not have to experience a naked PLF out in the dirt and sagebrush!

The most recent highlight was my 100th jump tonight. I did a 3-way hybrid (another first for me) on the sunset load with Bill and Tim. Tim went into a stand, swinging on my and Bill's chest straps until about 6k. Then he and Bill were going to switch places, but we ran out of altitude. Still a very fun jump! Bill had a cut-away from diving line twists. After we tracked down his canopy, I got a little bit too relaxed and let my guard down... and then I got a pie in the face for my 100th jump. I think the smell of whipped cream is going to be lingering in my nostrils for at least a day or two.

Somewhere along the way I also got everything done for my B license. I'm still stalling on sending the paperwork in to USPA. Once I have a little bit more money in the bank, that will move up my list of things to get done.

I'll try to remember to post some updates more often, but I'm not promising anything!

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