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FS1+ Organising Weekend - 10th Mar 2012 - 11th Mar 2012

The return of the new FS+ weekends designed to get FS1 grade jumpers involved in group skydiving.

If you have your FS1 and want to push it to the next level, join us for a bespoke weekend of docking on small formations in comfortable groups. Organising is provided for skydivers who want to learn how to dock on formations from unlinked exits up to 6-way with a focus of approaching from similar slots throughout the day. 

If you would like to join is, please register with Stu@Skydiving.co.uk as spaces limited. 

Well, it’s safe to say that there aren’t usually quite this many skydivers gathered in the Hib games room at 8.15am, but we weren’t preparing for a usual weekend. FS1+ was on the agenda for the next couple of days, with Stu kicking the spectacle off with a brief on Saturday morning. With the focus on unlinked exits in a variety of slots for each jumper, we were all hyped for a progressive weekend. This very informative run-through of what was going down saw us then split into groups, before the dirt diving began as we waited for the cloud to open up.

And open up it did! Saturday saw all the groups braving the winds to pull some shapes, while I sat watching ruefully from behind manifest. Although the winds were just too strong around midday, each group got multiple jumps in and smiles were seen all round. But this may have been at least partly because that night was the infamous X Factor! Always a keynote event in Hib’s calendar, and this year was no disappointment. Highlights included Matt ‘Freddie Mercury’ Lancaster disturbing us all, and George Glass’ incredible rendition of Flo Rida’s ‘Right Round’. In the end Jo Burns proved to be a worthy winner, with her very bassoon-y rendition of My Sharona. But thanks have to go out to all the entries for mostly embarrassing themselves for everyone else’s entertainment, including our York Uni entry that, quite frankly, clearly should have stolen the show.

But even the X Factor couldn’t match up to the Sunday. We woke up to blue skies and low winds, making me glad that I had chosen this day to stay off the manifest desk! What followed was a fantastic day of jumping, with clear progression seen on each successive jump. The 4 jumps I did as part of Dave West’s group saw us all jumping in at least a couple of different slots throughout the day, with the formation varying from 5-way up to 8-way. It all culminated in a great last jump of the day, where we all proved skills learnt and confidence gained by whacking out 3 points in a great 5-way dive.

Personally I think the weekend was massively beneficial to me as a skydiver; not only did I have a bucket-load of fun in some of the best weather I’ve seen in a while, but I gained, improved and reinforced my skills to no end. Many thanks have to go out to Dave West for all the advice and coaching, and everyone I jumped with for helping make it awesome!

With each group’s jump being filmed from above by either Dave Butterell or Dave Curtin (a massive thanks to both of you too), the detailed debriefs and footage really put the focus on progression. The weather helped us out on Sunday, and topped of a truly great weekend. I was definitely reminded why skydiving is a truly epic sport, and an even better community.

Krystian Groom