Nelson Skydive Club - NZ

On the weekend of 31 Oct/1Nov Nelson Skydive Club are planning a weekend at St Arnaud in Nelson Lakes National Park.

Deano will be flying the 172 and we will do a few jumps in the National Park. Walking/kayaking and other activities available for non-jumping family and friends. We are still finalising arrangements with the air strip and Gliding club, and if this falls thru, plan B is a weekend at Fox Glacier. Email Wayne if you are interested in the weekend wayne@nelsonskydiveclub.org or visit the link above for more info.

Skydive Waikato 2009

Skydive Waikato, under the new management of Jodi and Mark Horning, are hosting a launch party and boogie in Matamata on the weekend of the 26th/27th of September!

This will be an excellent weekend with heaps of sport skydivers coming from all over! The pink Cresco from Skydive Taupo will be up if the weather is good. And of course the Cessna will be there too! Accommodation is available at the airfield, for more info contact Mark or Jodi on +64 7 888 8763. Rego fee is $25 which includes the BBQ on Saturday night and jump tickets are $45 to 12,500.

The POP's and NZPF AGM will be held in Matamata this weekend as well, so make sure you are there to be able to vote and get your say in!

Good Vibes Boogie 09! 15th-23rd August

The 2009 Good Vibes Boogie at Skydive Abel Tasman in Motueka proved to be the biggest GV so far with people travelling from as far as Australia for this excellent week of jumping. As always this event ran smoothly with the team at SD Abel Tasman doing an amazing job.

The weather was typical Motueka weather with blue skies and no wind for most of the boogie. Close to 2000 jumps were performed over the entire 9 days with nearly 500 jumps on the last day! We were lucky enough to have a range of different aircrafts to jump from with the PAC and the Fletcher flying almost constantly during the event. A highlight was the Friday morning heli jumps (as well as the PAC stalling)! The leather seats in the chopper were a luxury that was well deserved and certainly enjoyed!

It is great to see so many sport jumpers in one place and loving the opportunity to jump together. There were numerous 16-ways, 20 ways, free flying and swooping. The last load on Saturday saw Ida do her 300^th jump and her first 16 way, lots of people earned there B license at the boogie and we saw a few lingerie jumps – thanks ladies!

Deepseed ran a great night on Thursday with two DJ’s, Miijaka and Minnie travelling up from Christchurch for a party at the local bar, Hot Mamas. Even with sore heads the DJ’s loved their 1^st tandem skydive early Friday morning!

The awards night was a hit at The Gothic with lots of laughs and Deepseed, Icarus and other sponsors donating heaps of prizes. The party at Hot Mamas was packed out with everyone enjoying a bar tab knowing that not too much jumping would be happening Sunday!

Thanks has to go to Lisa, Stu and the crew at Skydive Abel Tasman who rocked the boogie with their efficient and relaxed way of running the best sport skydiving event in New Zealand. If you didn’t make it this year, book it in for 2010 and we will see you all next year!

Dale Elliott in Taupo

You may remember that Dale Elliott was coming to NZ and catching up with Deepseed about the super tech designs for his new Deepseed suit, giving a talk for the locals and having a rad time…. Well he came, and hung out in Taupo for 5 days, and we had a wicked time!

After spending some time with the students at the Methven School and in Auckland at Icarus, Dale drove down on Thursday and met up with us at the wind tunnel in Rotorua. Taupo business owner of Skydive The Source and world class AFF Instructor Geoff Mundy came with us, to give Dale the benefit of his years of experience. The focus of the exercise was to evaluate and tweak Dale’s flying style so we can come up with the Deepseed suit that would best help Dale in his future skydiving exploits. It was a great session in the tunnel at Freefall Xtreme Rotorua, and Dale even chucked in a spot of back flying…

On the Thursday evening, it was talk time, at the Suncourt Motor Lodge in Taupo. A great night was had by all especially ‘cos Deepseed put on a tab for our NZ friends and we had some great support with guys travelling from Rotorua (cheers Paul and the boys from NZONE) and from Hawkes Bay (thanks Marty and the crew from Bridge Pa).

Friday was all about business with Dale at Deepseed HQ hanging out in the Think Tank! We set to work getting all the info that Dave will need to build the suit to meet all of Dales quite specific requirements. We still had time for a good laugh at the same time.

Saturday was a crap weather day, so Dale took some time out with to check out some of the local tourist attractions in Taupo including a couple of the higher class drinking establishments around the town!

On Sunday, the weather cleared, and it was off to Taupo Tandem Skydive to get Dale flying over Taupo. Unfortunately, the morning’s good weather didn’t last, and in the afternoon the winds were too light for Dale. It was an eye opener to see how much thought and prep goes into Dale’s jumping and to see how much of jumping we take for granted.

Then Monday came and a mission up to Auckland with one last check in with the guys from Icarus (cheers for the lunch Jyro!!) and Dale was off back to Aussie. Now the mission is on at Deepseed to build the suit of all suits for Dales next adventures in the sky! We will keep everyone informed of the progress with Dale’s suit, and of Dale’s exploits as he continues to push the envelope for paraplegic skydiving.