Skydive Toronto hosted yet another successful closing celebration to the 2010 season! Thank you to everyone who came out to celebrate the holidays with us, and we look forward to seeing you next year! Also, a thank you too all of those who participated in our food donation. Together, we were able to raise 50 lbs. of non-perishable food items to donate to the local food bank.
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Skydive Toronto attended TEDx as a sponsor this year!
TED is a small non-profit company devoted to ideas worth spreading. It is geared toward technology, entertainment and design. Skydive Toronto was invited to be a sponsor for the Toronto branch, TedX. We were invited to the after party where a booth was set up and skydives were promoted!
Congratulations to the two Tandem Skydive winners, and we hope to see them out on the drop zone soon!
Special thanks to everyone involves with the set up of the booth, including Scott Stevens, Allison Gandy, Jen Chow, Myron Luis and Jill Wynott.
Last weekend, September 25th and 26th, Skydive Toronto hosted the CanPops Nationals. The event struggled with some poor weather on Saturday, however was able to complete three events on Sunday, including the Traditional Accuracy event, Sport Accuracy event and the Hit and Rock event. Results from the match can be found at the CanPops webpage. Thanks to all of those that attended!
Timmy Boyle came to us on June 12 2010 to knock off his Dream #14.
Timmy Boyle is a comedian living in Toronto who has created 18 huge dreams for himself to complete in 25 weeks. His Dare2Dream list consisted of dream #14, which was to Skydive. He knocked this off his list when he came to Skydive Toronto and completed a Tandem Skydive with instructor Oleg.
Check out his experience on his dare2dream blog!
http://dare2dreamadventure.blogspot.com/
The world meet has been an exceptional experience so. The journey here was an adventure. Flew thru Frankfort, Zegreb (with Joel) to Dubrovnik; picked up by car and driven thru Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, traveling on narrow mountainous roads and finally arriving in Niksic, Montenegro.
The Niksic DZ is really so very beautiful, surrounded by moutains. For the world meet it is lined with numerous army tents semi-circling a very official landing area equipped with tuffet, electonic parapad and wind metre set-up. The airport is new and was completed on the day of our arrival to revive aerosports and tourism. A small hangar/office is the only building.
Practice week was mostly winded out but we did make 6 skydives from a Huey helicopter. (Folks, go and eat your hearts out!) The airlift finally arrived and it included 4 Pilatus Porters from Slovenia & Austria, an AN-2, a Cessna 182 (registration E7-SEX) & a Queenair from Serbia.
The opening ceremonies were absolutely awesome. Well coreographed; included short speeches, an air show, fireworks and all the teams marched onto the stage and concluded with a paradrop of all countries. The people of Montenegro have put their hearts into the organization of this championship.
The competitors of 28 teams are from countries around the world with the largest contingents from the USA, Russia, France and a very young group from China (17 includes 5 men competitors, 5 women, coaches, leaders, translators). A single competitor from Sweden. Had dinner with the Chinese team a few days ago. Their Head of Delegation and I communicated through their translator. He was on the Bronze winning Chinese CRW Rotation Team of the early 1980′s.
When the sun is shining, the weather is HOT, HOT, HOT, in the high 30′s C.
The team jumpsuits that Nina made are perfect and the team members love them. Thank you, Nina!
We did 3 rounds of accuracy yesterday. Challenging conditions range from low winds with bumpy thermals to high uppers with lower but gusty surface winds. Unfortunately we all have had some sizeable landing scores except for John McCarthy who is hanging in there with a 4cm. total. Frequent delays due to high winds. We have been getting up at 5am for breakfast.
Scott and John are gearing up for their 1st style jump as this email is being typed.
Barb Davies has been doing an excellent job as team leader and head of delegation. So glad she is here.
The Montenegroese are all very tall (6 feet and up) and handsome/beautiful. From the comments heard, all the team members are in lust/love? The locals have an endearing Saturday night ritual; the women dress up in their finest and sexiest outfits (with high heels that make them look even taller) and walk down the downtown street in small groups.
The men, in their scuffy T-shirts and jeans, sit on the sidewalk and admire the women as they go by.
The Hotel Onogost is plain but is home to all the competitors for 2 weeks.
It is surrounded by cheap fruitstands and really cheap beer stores. The Aussies, Germans, Finns, Brits, Italians, Slovenians, Austrians, Dutch, Croatians, Czechs, Ukraine, Serbs, Poles, Danes, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Romanians, Swiss and others are all here. Like a big family reunion in many ways.
Signing off for now.
Regards from Montenegro,
Joe Chow, Canadian Parachute team
On Saturday August 21st, Derek Walton and 35 other jumpers came out to support the Derek Walton Cure 4 ALS Fund by jumping out of a plane!
Derek was diagnosed in 2002 with ALS, or Lou Gehrigs Disease. Since then, he has dedicated his life to finding a cure for the disease, and started the Walton Cure 4 ALS in May 2008, through which he has raised tens of thousands of dollars through a variety fundraising activities. Derek also serves on the Advisory Committees for ALS Canada to raise awareness at the highest levels of Government.
Congratulations on another sucessful campaign and thanks to all of the jumpers involved in the 2010 Jump For The Cure!
On August 15th, 2010, 10 dedicated jumpers came out to help raise money to create Canada’s first Lyme disease research and testing center.
Lyme disease, or Lyme Borreliosis, is a vector borne bacterial infection. It is the most common tick borne disease, and is transfered by the bite of infected ticks. There are an estimated 3 million Lyme Disease cases in the United States today.
Tyler Blake Smith organized ten jumpers to come out and Freefall for Lyme Disease! They were able to raise a total of $4355 through fundraising for the cause.
For more information on the Canadian Lyme Disease Foundation, visit their website at http://www.canlyme.com/
On August 9th, Summer in the City host, Antony Robart from Global Toronto, came out for a Tandem Skydive!
Summer in the City showcases the most exciting summer events in the GTA, so naturally, they decided to do a skydive at Skydive Toronto! Our Tandem Instructor J-Rodd provided a great interview and experience for Antony, while our videographer Marc captured the entire event on film. Good job guys!
To check out the final piece, click the link below;
On August 2nd, Russia celebrated 80 years since the creation of airborne troops! It is a celebration which marks the courage and bravery of the paratroopers who have participated in a number of wars, including fighting the Nazi invaders during the battles of Stalingrad, Kursk and Berlin. They are easily identified by wearing uniforms – blue berets and striped vests.
We celebrated with some of our Russian Tandem Masters on site on August 2nd. Alex and Oleg have returned to Skydive Toronto for the summer season, and filled us in on this cultural tradition! Thanks guys!
“Once a Paratrooper, Always a Paratrooper!”
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