Happy new year !

Membership and insurance are paid, the sky is blue and it is not too cold today. Let year 19 of my skydiving career begin!

First jump of the year is to prove we all still love each other: let there be physical contact! It is an 8-way, full of level problems. There is a lot of unintentional hugging and mid-air pinchecks going on. Everybody keeps falling on top of everybody else, I have three collisions with the same guy: lousy jump, big fun.

Second jump is memorable for the exit. From our Cessna Caravan, we try a 7-way open accordion. We launch it straight, 5 floaters, 2 divers. The masterpiece is the super-front-floater. He climbs out and when he is in position, he turns around, with his back against the plane, and from this position he takes a left hand grip on the second floater, and he dives the exit. Guess what: it works!

Next I make two more attempts at sitfly. Slowly (very slowly) I start getting the hang of it. I can stay seated for the better part of a jump now, even manage to stop a slow turning by pushing down a leg. I flip backwards once, it is so quick that I make a complete back flip, rather than just fall over on my back and sit back up again. As soon as I am under canopy, I realise that my ass is freezing off. I have thermic underwear, but it's clearly no wind stopping fabric.

First beer of the year at the DZ... Mmmhhh, tastes even better than last years' :-)