Bad weekend turned into an AWESOME weekend

[ojf1982 0]

Well 2 friends and I left Friday morning 5am from Miami to go to the University of Florida Collegiate Boogie at Skydive Williston. We drove 6 hours to see that the DZ was a terrible place to jump at. The only thing going for them was they had a CASA for the boogie.
We get there and one of my friends who doesnt have his own gear yet, goes to rent a rig. Well he check the reserve seal on the rental and he sees that it looks like it was tampered with because it was hanging on by one piece of string. He takes it to the DZO and shows it to her. Her response was that it might have been the girl who only uses that rig that must have done that. The DZO takes it to what im guessing is the DZ Manager and shows it to him and his response was not to tell my friend about it, and then the DZO says but he was the one who discovered it and he replied well just give him another rental. My friend was scared shitless, when he overhead all of this. The DZO comes back with another rig and gives it to him. He checks it out and it seems to be OK. 20 minutes before the first CASA load will be up I checked the reserve repack card on the rig and it hasnt been repacked since April 2001. It should have been repacked several times since but wasnt. I told my friend and he showed it to the DZO and she looks at it and says that her rigger always forgets to write it down. Then my friend was like no thanks i aint jumping that. Well, me and our other friend went up and did a 2 way sit fly, we open around 3000 feet. I look up and about 150 feet away from me is jumpers still in freefall. Even though i have around 90 jumps and my friend about 120, we open high; the people that were still in freefall had less experience than me and my friend and they were opening around 1800 feet. I was afraid that someone was gonna fall right on top of me and that would be the end. Luckily, we landed safely. This didnt happen just that time but 2 more times. After night fall, we left vowing never to return there again.
We slept at a friends house in Gainesville, and woke up the next morning and decided to head up to Deland. We get there and I was in awe at what I saw: a real DZ. My home DZ is sufficient and very professional but so far nothing compares to Skydive Deland. We got there around noon, and quickly sign the waivers and manifest ourselves on the first available load, on the Porter. After we got down, we waited for a Skyvan load which we got on and then a another Porter load afterwards. I was amazed to see 7 Birdman suits on the same Skyvan load that i was on, I had never seen a Birdman suit in person and in front of me is 7! By 3:30 the rest of the days loads were full. The way this DZ is run is very efficient and professional. I was in love with this place. So we camp out at the DZ and even late at night there were people drinking and chillin together. I was in awe. We wake up, it is Sunday morning, and it is total overcast. We wanted to get a few jumps in before we head back to Miami. We start packing up out stuff, eat an early lunch at the DZ restaurant and leave back toward Miami.
As we were on I-95, I had an idea, i said lets stop by Skydive Sebastian, at first they decided that we were in a hurry to get back but then changed their mines when we decided we had a little time to kill. So we call and get directions to the DZ. We get there and my overall impression is that it is a very nice DZ, but not has hectic as Deland is. On the place I got to sit next to Mike Swanson, very nice guy, I wish i would have been able to jump with him, but we didnt have enough time for a second jump. We get one jump out of the CASA and get our rigs packed and head back to Miami.
All in all, it started as a shitty weekend but ended as a trip ill never forget. I will be definitely head back to Deland soon.
Omar B-24801

[MarkM 0]

Damn, Williston sounds like it needs a new owner. I've jumped some not-so-state-of-the-art rental gear and seen some lax attitudes, but I at least knew the gear was well maintained the DZO ran the place professionally.
They a USPA dropzone?
Anyway, what's your home DZ, Homestead? I live in Fort Lauderdale and have been itching to cruise down there to check the place out.

[ojf1982 0]

Yup, Williston is a USPA dropzone. Maybe I should contact USPA to tell them about these incidents.
Yea my home DZ is Skydive Miami in Homestead. Its a relatively small DZ, but very nice and very professional and well ran DZ. We usually have a Caravan but for the winter we have a Super Twin Otter that takes us to 15k in 12 mins. Where do you jump out regularly MarkM?
Omar B-24801

[MarkM 0]

Last jumped in Indiana, moved down here a year and a half ago so I could jump more regularly but the move and some IRS difficulties strapped me for cash until now.
Will finish up my A this March, but haven't decided on a local DZ yet. Only been out to Skydive America so far, but Homestead and Clewiston are two that are near enough that I want to check out.

[skymama 37]

Glad you enjoyed Deland, that's my home dz, and I was there on Saturday. I think it's a great place, but it's usually not quite so crowded though. They had a bunch of people in town doing those big ways, and of course the trapeze being there added to the crowd. Hope I get to meet you the next time you come up!
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[ojf1982 0]

yea i was astounded as to the amount of people there. And more astoundedWhen i got there I saw the trapeze set up and some guy juggling and I thought to myself is this a circus or a dropzone? Another thing that impressed me was how the organized those 40 ways and 3 planes up in the air. Skymama maybe you saw me or went up on a load together. I went up on the Porter twice (they stuff us in there like sardines in a tin can, very cramp), and one Skyvan load. I was wearing a navy blue & gold Odyssey. I had an all blue with gold ribs canopy.
Omar B-24801

[skymama 37]

I don't think we were on the same loads, unless the Skyvan one you were on was when it went up...kinda high. I can't place you, but then I didn't know to look for you. I was walking around in short red shorts, and a tight white tank top.
I agree with you with the organization that manifest had, but then they usually do a pretty good job. I just wish we wouldn't have had to wait over an hour to get on the planes!
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[lazerq3 0]

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I was walking around in short red shorts, and a tight white tank top.

PROVE IT!!!!!!!! We wanna see pictures!!!
jason

[skymama 37]

LOL, sorry no pics...you'll just have to come to Deland!
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[Iflyme 0]

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you'll just have to come to Deland!

Do you ever see Carrie? Whatever happened to her... she was fun!

[skymama 37]

Yeah, I saw Carrie on Saturday. She greeted me by coming up and squeezing my ass! She's still a lot of fun!
Andrea
The brave may not live forever, but the timid may not live at all.

[Aviatrr 0]

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Yeah, I saw Carrie on Saturday. She greeted me by coming up and squeezing my ass! She's still a lot of fun!

Did you grab back? I would've liked to have seen that..
I think that will be my new way of greeting the women........well, all of 'em except Clay and Justin..
Mike

[jfields 0]

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I think that will be my new way of greeting the women........well, all of 'em except Clay and Justin..

If you calling me a women is my pass to the women's showers at the gym, then count me in.
Justin

[apoil 0]

Here's something ironic.
There's another drop zone near gainesville. Palatka. Palatka is normally a turbine drop zone with a King Air going to 13500.
The USF skydiving club however has made a commitment to jumping at Williston.
This is not an unreasonable situation if they can negotiate a favorable agreement (although in this case, they don't get any special financial breaks, unless it is in the form of under the table kickbacks).
Well they actively discourage people to go to Palatka by basically saying that Palatka has a poor safety record and you are risking your life by going there.

[wrightskyguy 1]

Sounds like a seperation problem and not an altitude problem. It is impossible to accurately judge someone elses opening altitude unless you open at the same altitude. How did you know how high they opened? Did they tell you? Or did you draw on your 90 jumps worth of experience and wisdom to calculate it. If you had a near miss then you should have discussed seperation problems before jumping again, obviously it didn't bother you then since you let it happen to you again, TWICE! Think man, Think! No, I don't jump there.