This page contains the news from the second two weeks of May at the Freefall University in Spain. We have spilt the page in order to keep the download times down. This also allows us to publish more pictures. For Section 1 of the News click here
Please note that this page will not be updated untill the 1st of June as the webmaster is in the Northwest Parachute Centre ( Morecombe Bay )competing with the Freefall University Student Team.
13.05.05
Congratulations to Jerry Ramshaw who has passed his AFF skydiving course. He is pictured here on his AFF level seven. Jerry will be with us solo jumping for the next week.
Also finished his consolidation jumps and British Parachute Assocition license is Jon Peaple. Jon told me he wished he had booked more time , as the thought of going back to work was " killing him " .
Here are the promised pictures of his level seven. These pictures are from the camera of Luci Boella.
The Freefall University
student team has been training today. What a blast. Exits proved a bit of a challenge , but it being only day one of training were not worried about it. The skydives themselves have been going well. I also got a chance to play with one of the new school cameras. Here are some pictures of the team that I took.
Click the pics to enlarge.
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14.05.05
Sam Cornwall was back with us for a few days training. On this holiday ( I believe this is his fourth since completing the beginners course with us here last year ). He completed his formation skydiving course with Marcus Lazer achieving 11 points on his qualification dive with Marcus, Luci Boella and Brian Vacher
A " point " is a shape such as the one above from the Student team.
Also back for a few days holidays was Jason " Butt Clencher " Atherton who has featured in some of our advertising recently. Jason trained with us last year , but after one jump on his last trip hurt himself snowboarding in the Indoor ski centre ( Madrid ) . After a period of recouperation its good to see him back. Jason is in the middle of this picture and on his left is Paul " Aint no Mountain high enough " Goodman who continues to outdo himself in the sport. Paul who trained with us last year also is now starting to enjoy formation skydiving and camera flying.
The Freefall University is the beginners school in a larger dropzone , Skydive Lillo. This month we have released an advertisement in conjunction with them which appears in Skydive the Mag . The advert aims to point out ( as I guess thats what adverts do ) Skydive Lilloas a centre of excellence , not only for beginners , but also for returning students and experienced jumpers who may not have come to Lillobefore. click on the thumbnail to see a larger image.
Tom Corcoran also popped in for a few days jumping. Tom is from Ireland and trained with me a year ago. Tom has become a keen formation skydiver and is about to get into filming skydiving
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16.05.05
Welcome to Karen Donaldson who has joined us to learn to skydive. Karen had no previous experience before arriving and has now completed her first three levels.
I spoke to her directly after her first jump. Appearing a little lost for words , she told me " Im not sure what ive just done, it hasnt sunk in. The door of the plane was opened and it all became very real. Watcing the people ahead of me jump out was an experience in itself"
Also welcome to Chris Sargant who is here to learn to skydive. He is doing very we lland is about to move onto level five.
When asked for his thoughts he said " I am starting to understand the idea and benefits of relaxing in freefall..you have a lot more time " .
We will publish
some pictures of him in Freefall Shortly ( Angela I guess your watching the site , so bear with me ).
We also got to watch Jerry´s AFF video in the bar when he bought the traditional case of beer for the rest of the students and staff on the dropzone. This case is shared as we watch the video , generally cheering at the funnier moments. Generally speaking you get to see some pretty terrific expression on peoples faces as they experience the course.
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17.05.05
Welcome to Stuart Houghton from the UK. Stuart is in the British Army and this course is a present to himself before he heads off to Iraq. He will be training with Steven.
Jamie Salvage also joins us from the UK to start the beginners course. He has never skydived before and will be training with Marcus.
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19.05.05
Congratulations to Karen Donaldson who graduated her course in only two days of jumping. She has now started to jump solo.
She is pictured here about to jump and do the level seven exercises. She will do some solos now and then complete the British Parachute Association level 8.
Also graduated today , was Chris Sargant . Chris was one of the calmest students I have seen in quite some time ..snoozing on his way to altitude.
BBQ´night! Most Saturday nights we have bbqs on the dropzone. Its a socail opportunity for most as all the midweek and weekend jumpers are together swopping skydiving stories. An outdoor sound system has recently been installed also.
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22.05.05
Congratulations to Mike Worthington who attended our beginners course last year and has today qualified as a British Parachute Association Formation skydiving coach. Mike is the " odds on favourite " for the first Freefall University Graduate to become an AFF Instructor. Heres a picture of Mike from the archive on his level six as an AFF Student...
Record holder !
Congratulations also to Stuart Houghton who completed his AFF course. Stuart did his course in two days of jumping and on his third day completed 9 solo skydives . This is the new school record which was previously 8 jumps in one day!
Karen Donaldson who graduated a few days ago has completed fifteen solos and left today. Here are a few photos from her last solo jump.
Click to enlarge>>
Click to enlarge>>
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24.05.05
The Freefall University Student team have been in action and over the last two days have completed 25 skydives together. Here is a picture that Mike Carpenter from Freefly Euphoria took of them in action.
Click to enlarge>>
The Team will compete at the British Grand Prix in Cark this weekend. If any graduates from our school fancy hooking up with us call 0034 618257023. We will train in Cark on this Friday the 27th May from 9am and jump there through to Monday the 30th of May. So calling all graduates get in touch ..the UK forecast is good and Cark have their PAC-750XL if youve not jumped that before!
Congratulations to Jamie Salvage who completed his AFF course with us and began jumping solo.
He is pictured here getting ready for his level seven jump. Jamie was one of the most enthusiastic skydiving students I have seen here in a good while and we look forward to having him back.
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24.05.05
Chris Bridge has joined us for our beginners AFF course. He is already a paraglider pilot and did well on his level one. He is pictured here getting ready for his level on jump with Marcus.
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25.05.05
Congratulations to Cliff Harvey who did his AFF level one today. He came down to us from the UK accompanying Chris Bridge. He came only for one jump and stayed two days. Chris jumped under our introduction to skydiving programme.
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27.05.05
Congratulations to Chris Bridge who completed his AFF course with us and started to jump solo.
Chris trained with Marcus.
30.05.05
The Freefall University won the Grand Prix at Cark. With a 7.6 Avg. Team Escondido came second and Team Exile were third proving
to be strong opposition making us work for our place. Here they are pictured on a fun jump after the competitions was finished.
We also met some of our Graduates at the competition also. Pictured here are Ron and Madeline who were on holiday with us mid last year.
Also competing on team " For better for Worse " were David Honeybone and Helen Davies who trained with us mid 2004. David is on the bottom right and Helen on the bottom Left. They had a 5 point average for the competition.
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