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.
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