It’s Boogie Time!  Welcome one and all to the Southern Summer Jam at Pudding Hill from February 11th to the 14th.

This boogie is primarily aimed at creating an anual event where any past students of the New Zealand Skydiving School can return to the school to reunite with old course mates. It is however open to all sports jumpers to come along for a great weekend.

Check out the website www.southernsummerjam.co.nz  for all the details you need.

PERRIS, CA –  September 26, 2009 – Leigh Ainsworth joined 180 other female skydivers from 30 other countries on September 26 at 1:30 p.m. Pacific Time to set a new women’s formation skydiving world record and raise over $900,000 USD for the fight against breast cancer, the most in the event’s history.  The week-long event was organized to raise funds for City of Hope’s breast cancer research.  Sponsored by Jump for the Cause (www.jumpforthecause.com), a sky diving nonprofit organization, the event was held at the Perris Valley Skydiving Center (www.skydiveperris.com) in Perris, California, September 21-27 to kick off October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month.

The Perris Valley Skydiving Center is the largest in North America providing 9 planes to lift the women to 17,000 ft. and create the new women’s world record formation skydive.  Participants include breast and other cancer survivors, friends, family and supporters.   Women from all walks of life with varied occupations and motivations worked together to be a part of this historic event and contributed to a cause that affects women worldwide.

Led by Kate Cooper-Jensen, one of the foremost skydivers in the world, Jump for the Cause was co-founded with Mallory Lewis, Lamb Chop’s sister, after her mother, legendary puppeteer Shari Lewis, lost her own battle with cancer in 1998.  Events in 1999, 2002 and 2005 raised a combined total of over $1 million and broke the previous world records with 119 women in 1999, 131 women in 2002 and 151 in 2005.

Leigh Ainsworth received her  Diploma in Commercial Skydiving from New Zealand Skydiving School (formerly Christchurch Parachute School) in 2001.

Hello and welcome to the new weekly(ish) NZ skydiving School blog.  I’ll be keeping you up to date with all the news, and some occasional gossip, from the coolest school in the world!!!  And with the help from you guys …. and girls (how could I nearly forget the main proportion of skydivers), who are ex students to swoop some info to me on the progression of their skydiving, and any gossip, funny info (pics are welcome) you would like to share with the lovely people in our community.

Let’s jump off by welcoming the July ‘09 course to the pumping town of Methven. So here goes:

To the kiwis – kia ora

The Aussies – g’day mates

The Yankee – word up dude!!

The Fin – terve

The Czech – ahoj

The Brazilians (people, not a hair style!!) – ola

The Austrian – hallo

As you can see we have an amazing selection of nationalities on this course, and they will all be kept in line by our new beer sheriff, Jose “the dirty Mexican” from Venezuela and his deputy Sam “the Tranny Sponder “.  I wish you new guys and girls much luck, lots of fun and plenty of beer fines; let’s have an awesome few months.  I know it’s a cliché but the more effort you put in the more you will get out, so go hard.  And my final words of advice to the new course that I know all ex students will remember, “DON’T (MESS) UP!!!!

Now we have welcomed the new course lets fill you in on the 2 way completion the newly crowned old course have been doing (attempting!!).  The comp consists of 4 jumps in a round and 3 rounds.  Scoring is on an individual basis.  The first 2 rounds will be done with the same partner and the final round we will have some fun with partner swapping.  To add some seriousness to the comp the instructors have organized a prize for 1^st place, a $60 voucher for the lodge, good work gents, I am sure it will be wasted wisely!  And to really whet the appetite of the students our instructor Tukes “the Ninja” promised to cook dinner for any team that could hit 10 points in one jump.

After round one our leaders were team Deceptecon, Paul “St George the dragon slayer” Easterbrook and Juliette “Miss Flexible, any position is good” Greenwood with 13 points from their first 4 jumps.  Just behind on 12 points were 2 teams, Bulan “the gigolo” Casley with the dirty Mexican, and Mason “the Grom” Holden with Tranny.  The remaining 8 teams had score’s ranging from 5 – 10 points.  Oh and the instructors, Wade “the Bo Jadie” and Francois “squeaks” (I don’t want to know how he got that name)  did a round of jumps, not to show off and have fun, yeah right, but as an aid to show the students what could be done, and in the process scoring a paltry 61 points off the 4 jumps!!

So to the second round, that straight away had Tukes quaking in his ninja slippers as he watched the Gigolo and the dirty Mexicans first jump, an agonizingly, so close they could taste the food, 9 points; Well done gentlemen!!  And fortunately for ninja, the highest score in one jump after 2 rounds.   At the end of round 2 the gigolo and dirty Mexican had moved into the lead on 27 points, with St George and miss flexi in 2^nd on 25 points.  The rest of the meat bombs have scores ranging from 12 to 20 points.

Some special mentions have to go to team Iraqitack, Mohammad “habibi” Amir (yes he’s back) for some funny jumps with Darryn “the mus” White, and to the self proclaimed team speed of Nick “the gopher “ Smith and Andrew “wants to be Michael” Bolton who managed to go head down on exit and on another jump pull out a horny gorilla!!  The cameramen had fun with those jumps.  A thanks to the guys filming and with only 2 camera busts (it’s on leave it alone!!!) not bad.   Good luck to all in round 3.

Other news of interest, the old course has started organizing work placement, starting in September, and we have a couple of new and interesting destinations.  The gopher is off to ‘Go Jump’ in Berlin Germany and Graeme “gutterboy” Black flying out to Thai Sky Adventures in Sri Racha Thailand, awesome I look forward to hearing all about it. 

Thanks for reading, and any ideas or things you want to hear about just mail me at woody_edwards(at)hotmail(dot)com.  And any ex students please let me know of your achievements and things going on with your skydiving.

Peace out and blue skies to all.

We have new signs at the Entry to Pudding Hill on Highway 72, and at the Dropzone.  A new fireplace in the reception area, a new staff car park with an improved guest car park, and a new outdoor area with 6 tables for the guests and students to watch the skydiving landings.  We are accepting bookings for everyday of the week, and we encourage anyone to stop by and have look at all of the recent improvements.

At the start of April we offered the first Diploma in Advanced Skydiving Course filling four out of the possible five slots for the course.  As the first course of this Qualification, we couldn’t ask for a better bunch.  With the Diploma in Commercial Skydiving, or the equivalent experience, as a pre-requisite, we have 2 students who passed the Diploma, and 2 students who have equivalent experience in skydiving.  It adds to our learning environment to have 4 more experienced skydivers around to help out all of the new students for the Diploma in Commercial Skydiving.

The Diploma in Commercial Skydiving had 18 students join us in April, and we’re expecting the July, October, and next January courses to fill up fast, so be sure to get your applications in at least 8 weeks in advance to help secure your place.  With the influx of so many new students, we’re now in the process of building a new student lounge to give the students a place of their own to enjoy.

The January ‘09 Course is off to do their work placement soon, we’ll be sad to see them go, but they must all leave the nest eventually!  Best of luck to the crew:

Maybe the biggest news of all, we’re getting a Caravan!  All the skydivers rejoice!  If you don’t know what this means, check it out:

SkydivingNZ operated two dropzones, one in the heart of the City, and one in the heart of the Southern Alps.  Now, with Wigram Aerodrome closing on the last day of February 2009, all operations will move out to Pudding Hill.

Pudding Hill is located just over an hours drive from Christchurch, and only 10 minutes outside the town of Methven.  Methven is famous for the Mt Hutt Ski Area, which is the largest ski field in Canterbury.

From Christchurch, the Pudding Hill location is only 5 minutes past the turn off to Mt Hutt Ski Area from Highway 77.  It is a beautiful location with amazing views from the Southern Alps out to the Ocean.  It is also an adventurous area, with a multitude of tourist activities within minutes of each other.  Come out for a skydive and then hike through the native bush around Sharplin Falls.  Or keep your adventure day going with a jet boat ride through Rakaia Gorge.  Or relax on the Methven Golf Course, or head over to Terrace Downs for a luxurious day of Golf, horseback rides, and more.  The area is packed with options, and it all starts with jumping out of a plane!

We offer a shuttle from the Tram Stop at Christchurch City Centre at 830 am for advanced bookings only, so be sure to visit our bookings page or give us a call.  We will also offer transport from the Methven I-site at the Town Centre, but either way, it’s a beautiful drive through rural Canterbury that will only add to your entire experience.

The New Zealand Skydiving School is pleased to welcome Stephan Lipp from the Arizona Flight Club as a visiting coach for our participating students from 21^st February – 29th^th April.  In support of the sport we would like to offer all skydivers the opportunity of experiencing coaching at this level.  In addition, for those who pre-book, we will offer scheduled slots at a discounted rate of $35 (reduced from $45) & Stephan is happy to coach at US$35 plus the slot rate.  He’s available 7 days a week so make the most of this opportunity.

Stephan Lipp – Arizona Flight Club - www.FlightClub.Tv

Born: July 5, 1973; professional skydiver & BASE jumper; # jumps: 13.900+;

Experience: Interim Vice President, Coaches Certification Course Conductor for Skydive University, Inc, (1998-2002);

Accelerated Freefall Instructor, Coaches Certification Course Conductor for United States Parachute Association (since 1998) Co- Founder & Director AZ Training Center, Eloy, AZ, USA (2002-2004), IBA Instructor (2008)

Competition & Awards:

FAI World Record, skydiving competition, Team AZ Airspeed Blue, Eloy, AZ, USA (2001); FAI World Record skydiving exhibition, 300- way World Team, Eloy, AZ, USA (2002);  US National Champion, 16- way Formation skydiving, Team AZ Airspeed Blue, Eloy, AZ, USA (2001) & Chicago, IL, USA (2002); Bronze medal, 8-way, US National Championships, Team Elsinore Matrix, Eloy, AZ, USA (2001); Certificate of Appreciation, US Department of Defense, Army Parachute Team Golden Knights;

Former Technical Advisor/ Training Partner to the following National- & World Champion skydiving teams & US Armed Forces special tasks groups:

AZ Airspeed 4-way (USA); US Army Parachute Team Golden Knights 8-way; US Navy Parachute Team Leap Frogs; US Navy Seal Team 5; US Bureau of Land Management Smokejumper Battalion Alaska & Idaho; Elsinore Matrix 8 (USA);

About Skydive Arizona, Eloy & the Flight Club

Mecca of sport skydiving & home of the world’ s largest & most modern fleet of turbine aircraft. FlightClub, LLC offers licensing & progressive skills development courses in all disciplines of the sport & for all experience levels. All training is conducted by US National Champion skydivers & in compliance with United States Parachute Association regulations.

All coach jumps will be recorded in Full HD quality. 

The Hayden Rowan Award of excellence has been developed in recognition of a student’s outstanding performance in all areas of the Diploma in Commercial Skydiving.   The recipient will be the highest overall achiever, demonstrating excellence in skydiving ability, academic achievement and attitude.  A recipient of this award will stand out as someone who has consistently demonstrated a high standard of attributes an employer seeks when engaging staff.

The Hayden Rowan award was kindly donated to the school by Hayden’s family following his death in a plane crash in Tanzania, in February 2008. Hayden had just successfully completed a Diploma in Commercial Skydiving, which his family say were very happy days for him.  Hayden was a star pupil making an award of excellence an appropriate achievement. 

Michael, Hayden’s brother is currently studying at the school.  His intake will be the first intake eligible for the award with the result being announced in February next year.

It should be noted that each intake will not automatically be allocated an award.  Should no one in the intake meet the required standard to receive this award, an award will not be given.  All award recipients will receive a certificate and be listed on our website.  In addition an email will be sent to all dropzones owners on the school’s mailing list commending the student on their achievement.

We thank Hayden’s family for this very special award.