December achievments
Even in the coldest months of the year in the UK, some of our regular skydivers are still passing important milestones in the world of skydiving. So congratulations goes to:
 

	Mike McNulty - 500 jumps
	Lee Jones - A license
	Mike Sanders - 1st consolidation jump
	Leah Pecon - back in the air after a few months off

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Christmas party and winter closing times
2010 has been our best season yet in terms of tandem customers, weekends with events organised, number of competitions and new AFF. To celebrate this, we are having an end of year Christmas party on the 12th December at the dropzone.

There will with a free buffet and band. Please come an celebrate with your friends! Awards will also be given out for the best progressed individual and best team.

The Sunday after the party (13th) will be our last jumping day at the dropzone. If you are looking for something to do over the winter period, why not come to the Skydive Spain Christmas Boogie?

For those of you not going away, the dropzone will reopen for business on January 16th. See you at the Christmas party!
 

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Blankety Blank weekend
This weekend saw a return for the Choose a Challenge group, this time with Nottingham University. 37 students arrived but unfortunately the weather let us down and so no jumping was done on Saturday. The dour spirit didn't continue into the evening though as Hibaldstow held it first Blankety Blank night, hosted by the one and only Stu Ferguson who became the unbelievable "Willy Savage" for the night.
 

'All in the best possible taste teams' completed to fill the missing words hoping to match the select panels' choice of word. thanks Willy, we hope to see you in something less revealing next time (although with all the same grace and elegance).

Blankety Blank was followed by DJ Pod wars, each DJ selects a play list of 3 songs and the crowd choose the winner after both DJs have played their set. The eventual winner was Jo Burns, with eclectic sets from Prodigy to ELO!

Sunday the weather cleared in the afternoon and we snook in in a couple of lifts, Stu Ferguson organising a couple of 5 and 6 way formation skydives. Although cold after the forecast, it was good to see people enjoying the blue skies.
 

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Successful instructor course candidates
We have some more qualified instructors at Hibaldstow thanks to the 2nd week of instructor courses.
 

	Sally Uren - Category System Instructor (CSI)
	Olly Burgin - Tandem Instructor
	Hannah Swallow - Pre-Advanced Instructor (Hannah got a 3 month recommendation)

Don't forget the Christmas party which is coming up on the weekend of the 12th December.

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Weekend news 14th to 15th November
Thursday saw the return too of the MPC (Military Preparation Course) from Wakefield. This is a system to help school leavers get ready to join the forces and prepare for their selection courses. Skydive Hibaldstow has run 5 static line courses so far and we've had over 40 students jump already. This week we got 4 jumped from the last training course and the next intake who are due to come and train next week came to have a look at what they were letting themselves in for.

Sadly, Saturday was blown out with high winds and rain which was exprected to last all weekend. However, on Sunday the weather was poles apart being clear and dry. This brought lots of students to the dropzone and saw John Marshall get from 20 second delays to doing his dive and tracks . He we blown away by 15000ft on his tracking dive and hasn't stopped smiling yet! Charlie Pearce got through AFF level 7 and is on to console jumps. Well done to all those who progressed.

In our last news we reported that Karen Bain and Mike Mcnulty passed their CSBI. So on Sunday they got straight into it with the refreshes, briefs and dispatching.
 

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New instructors at Skydive Hibaldstow - 13th November 2009
If you read the experienced news, you will find extensive news coverage on competitions, boogies and coaching. Rarely do we give credit to those experienced skydivers who have decided to give something back to the sport, who are going for their instructor ratings.

Every year the dropzone hosts several instructor courses. This week we had the Category System Basic Instructor and Accelerated Freefall Basic Instructor courses running. All the candidates who skydive at the dropzone passed with flying colours receiving the best recommendations possible of 6 months each until the final examination.

So congratulations go to Olly Burgin and Chris Brook for their AFFBI, Mike McNulty and Karen Bain for their CSBI rating.

Next week Skydive Hibaldstow will be hosting Tandem and Advanced Instructor courses. Good luck to all those who are attending.

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B License progression date announced for Wednesday 25th November
The next B-Licence Progression Day will be running on Wednesday 25th November, starting at 9am (for 9.30am). The course costs £10 for the day and will cover all of the theory briefings that you will require for your BPA B-Licence (plus CH1, required for A-Licence). If the weather is good, it would also be nice to get the practical spotting done. So bring your rigs with you too.
 

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Weekend 7th to 8th November 2009
Saturday's morning was clear blue but cold skies and low winds. This allowed the instructor to crack on with some AFF and also some of the York University first time static-line students. Well done to all those who did their first jumps, we have some potentially good skydivers in the making there.

Sunday's fog cleared mid morning and the dropzone got going again working on the student. However the weather man wasn't going to give us two good days and a massive thunderstorm came in a called and end to play in the early afternoon.

Remember the Christmas Party is the 12th December, dress to impress, free buffet and a band.

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Halloween Frostbite Friendly 10-way Speed Competition
5 teams turned out for the Frostbite Friendly competition at Skydive Hibaldstow in what turned out to be less of a 'Frostbite' and more of a 'a mild nip in the air' competition. Temperatures on Saturday soared to a dizzying 14c during the middle of the day.

After a slow start due to low cloud cover, the weather cleared and the teams began to jump one by one. Three rounds were quickly completed before the end of the day. Points were awarded in 2 parts. Firstly the fastest building team (to a star) score 5 points, the 2nd fastest score 4 points and so on down to 1 point. Secondly, 5 points were awarded for each successful point thereafter chosen from a Halloween-themed dive pool.

1st place Maggots - 133 - Simon Cathrine
2nd place Fallen Angels - 114 - Lesley Gale
3rd place Spookin 'ell - 54 - Shell Meakins
4th place Sheer Karnage - 7 - Ant Hill
5th place Ice Mike - 0 - Hibaldstow Staff

Congratulations goes to team Maggots who on their 3rd round managed to do 9 extra formations to score 45 additional points. In addition, Lesley Gale's team put a fastest build time of 17.7 seconds.

Running alongside the 10-way Speed competition was a 4-way Scrambles event run by Stu Ferguson. This was an excellent idea designed to engage those jumpers who did not feel they were up to the 10-way. Completing 2 rounds, 2 teams made up the competition and provided for an exciting alternative.

1st place More Awesome - 6 points - Lisa Lister, Adam Pencharz, Kate French, Tom Ruttle
2nd place Danger Awesome Word - 0 points - Stuart Ferguson, Mhari Dunlop,
Mike Chiu, Graham Cleave

The main event believe it or not for the weekend was not the skydiving competition, but the Halloween fancy dress party which has been running since the early 90's at Hibaldstow.

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Funshine Boogie and Skydive Choreography - 10th to 11th October

This weekend was the turn of the Funshine boogie to visit Skydive Hibaldstow. Dan Parker, James Davies and Matt O'Riordan were the coaches hire for the weekend by top event organiser Mark Owen. Saturday saw some fantastic weather and despite a late start due to mist & fog, the jumpers were able to get 6 or 7 jumps in each.

Of the 14 jumpers who took part, their skills ranged from intermediate sit fly to experienced headdown. Different groups were put together to help them hone their skills. The objective of the boogie was definately about getting in as many jumps as possible and to that end, it was a success. On the Sunday, there was significantly more wind, however the freeflyers were still able to make 5 jumps each.

Glen Philips, Duncan Aspinal and Will Walls launch a 4-way.

To finish the Funshine Boogie event, everyone took part in a headup Day at Races jump. If you want to find out more about these exciting boogies, visit their website.

Running side by side with the Funshine boogie was Caroline Hughes' Skydive Coreography weekend. This consisted of 2 plane experienced sequential formation loads. The vast majority of planned dives built first time, the secret however was to build the more difficult 2nd points. Many thanks goes to Caroline and Billy for running a succesfull weekend despite the fact it was at the end of the season.

Its fantastic to see how busy the dropzone still is despite the shorter days and colder temperatures. To that end, next weekend we have Simon Cathrine's beginners formation loads event.

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AFF Level 1 to 7 in 14 days in October

For the most part, the news reported here discusses the exploits of qualified experienced skydiver. Not enough credit goes to those skydivers who are right at the beginning of their career and who have shown just as much dedication and skill as the rest of us.

On Wednesday the 7th October this week Dan Lether, Sally and Mick Cosgrove not only completed their level 7 AFF, but even got one console jump in each. Congratulations are particularly deserved because they only completed their groundschool training 2 weeks ago.

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FS v FF 8way Speed - 26th to 27th Sept

Some described it as the event of the year - a head to head match FF versus FS 8 way speed. 4 FS and 2 FF teams attended the meet. Saturday's weather kept us on hold all day with winds strong enough to lift the tents. Sunday however a completely different picture. The weather broke to clear skies and nil wind on the ground and we got cracking with the competition.

With only one day to complete the event, the organisers decided to shorten the event to 3 rounds. Prior to the competition beginning, most competitors believed the freeflyers would be able to build quicker and the FS jumpers turn more points. So it was with no surprise that the freeflyers team managed to clinch the quickest time of 19 seconds. Some 4 seconds behind them, were Britchicks headed by Lesley Gale who then went on to do 5 points.

The scoring system for rounds 1 and 3 were calculated in 2 parts. The time in seconds to build the first formation was worked out. Secondly, the number of points scored thereafter (within a working time of 40 seconds) was subtracted from the time score. Round 2 worked slightly different as it was an open round. Points were award on the most innovate / interesting formations created. Well done to the Britchicks team who did the most interesting formation according to Weed. Since there were 6 teams, they had 6 points removed from their time.

In rounds 2 and 3, team "5 boys 2 girls and Henry Chow" started to show their metal, slowing improving their build times and the number of points scored. Thanks to a fastest round build time and number of points scored, they took 1st place on the final round. The best freeflyers team, TBOC were edged into third place after the Brit Chicks in second.

Thank you to all the teams (Clara Melia, Stubert Ferguson and Darren Glover) who made the effort to travel and join in. And thanks for the Bad Lieutenants and Simon Cathrine for setting up the competition. If people have feed back then please email us to let us know and we plan to make this an annual event.

Thanks also to Weed for coming along to judge the event and keeping everyone on their toes with the scores until the last possible moment. There were some close calls on the rounds so it was not an easy one to judge, the scores are below:

	R1			R2			R3
	Time	Pts	Tot	Time	Pts	Tot	Time	Pts	Tot	Tot	Rank
TBOC	20	2	18	28	4	24	19	2	17	59	3rd
5B2G Henry	27	4	23	23	3	20	18	6	12	55	1st
Fell 8	40	0	40	34	2	32	40	0	40	112	5th
Shaven Haven	37	0	37	31	5	26	25	4	21	84	4th
Flatulence	40	0	40	40	1	39	40	0	40	119	6th
Brit Chicks	24	5	19	21	6	15	26	3	23	57	2nd
	Compulsory			Free			Compulsory

 

Following the conclusion of the competition, Kate French went up to do her FS1 qualifying jump. She did 14 points only 6 months from first AFF jump. Kate even managed to finish the skydive with a malfunction!

At the end of the day the Freeflyers got together and with Weed's checking of the video, the 14-way which they completed set the new UK head down record. Well done guys. Bigger and better things are to follow and for those not quite there yet a few of the guys on it are available regularly for coaching at Hib and will be so for next year too.

Next weekend, Caroline Hughes returns to the UK for the last Skydive Choreography event of the season. This is an invitational only challenge event where the experienced jumpers will be doing bigway sequentials.

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Scrambles - 26th to 27th September 2009

Another glorious weekend of weather, another skydiving competition at Hibaldstow. This weekend, was the turn of the 2nd scrambles competition lead by Simon Cathrine in replacement of Pete Mathers who was sadly ill this weekend.

Six teams entered the competition and experience range from Pre-FS1 jumpers all the way up to 4-way national team members. Many thanks goes to team leaders, Lynne Murray, Stu Ferguson, Simon Cathrine and Trish McDonagh.

The teams were able to complete all 4 rounds on the Saturday. To make things interesting, each round had a different theme. Round 1 was all about randoms, round 2 consisted of star-backloop-star, round 3 had blocks and randoms involved and round 4 was a 4-point random dive.

Congratulations goes to Big Bad Booty Daddies (Stu Ferguson) who won with a total of 45 points. Well done also goes to the other teams: Roll of Linoleum, Half Cut, 4 Scrambled Eggs and a Cameraman, Team Dreaming and Googlise.

In addition to the scrambles skydiving competition, there were over 100 tandem jumps completed. One group in particular deserves mention. They were supporting charities associated Claire Wilson, Grimsby’s Special Care Baby Unit and the Blue Cross Animal Hospital. Claire was very sadly was killed in Scunthorpe. This was the chance for her friends and family to remember her and raise money for charity.

Congratulations goes to Mhari Dunlop who did 12 points on her FS1 dive on the Sunday. She also competed in the scrambles competition on Lynne's team. Another mention must be made to George Glass who has been working hard on his AFF. He has perservered all through the summer and finally achieved his A license. Alongside him is Dan Brown who also completed his FAI A license.

Next weekend is the exciting FS v FF 8-way speed competition. So far there are 6 teams registered for the event. Do you still want to come along? Telephone the office on 01132 505600 if you are.

 

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Dates released for Nationals 2010 and the Christmas party

Just when you thought the season was all but over, we have more dates for your diary. Skydive Hibaldstow this year won a bid to host 3 national  championships back-to-back. The 2010 competition dates are as follows:

	Aug 14th to 16th - British National Championships 4-way & VFS
	Aug 21st to 23rd - British National Championships 8-way and Artistics. (4-way & VFS reserve weekend)
	Aug 28th to 30th - British National Championships 8-way and Artistics reserve weekend

We are looking to schedule team training weeks between now and the competition. This is where teams come to Skydive Hibaldstow to share coaches and guarantee high volumes of jumps in a short space of time. If you have any preferred dates, please let us know.

Finishing the 2010 season is the traditional Christmas Party at Hibaldstow. This is your chance to celebrate the end of the season, dress up and have a good party. The Christmas Party will be held on the 12th December.

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19th Aug to 20th Aug - Fine weather for jumping in Lincolnshire

This weekend was one of those rare times when the weather was perfect, no clouds, no rain and no wind at all. So the tandem skydiving instructors were able to plough through over 100 customers. Along side them, the AFF instructors were jumping like crazy as there were many courses booked recently.

For the regular jumpers at Hib, Chris Brook was on hand to organise and coach. Next weekend, we have the 2nd Scrambles weekend organised by Pete Mathers from Unagi.

For those of you who have not entered before, the Scrambles competition is a 4-way event where jumpers of different experience are mixed together. Each team should have roughly the same level of experience as the next. We would like to encourage you to come along and take part in this fun competition.

 

 

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Rules for FS v FF 8-way speed competition released

For those of you thinking of entering the 8-way speed formation skydiving versus freefly competition, the rules have just been released.

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11th to 13th September - European Skydiving League Finals

Congratulations goes to the Dutch teams who competed at this weekends' ESL finals at Skydive Hibaldstow. They won the overall Spirit Trophy to bring the sword back to Holland. This was the first time the ESL finals had been held in the UK and everyone was impressed at how quickly the dropzone could shift the loads.

23 FS 4way teams registered and by the end of the first day of competition on the Friday, the teams had got as far as round 7. The forecast was blue skies and warm temperatures for the weekend and sure enough on Saturday morning this is what we got. By 13:00 the last R10 lift was completed and Kate Charters the chief judge was finishing off the jumps.

So, onto the results:

Rookie

	Gold - Team Meo (Holland) 14.4 avg
	Silver - Gr4vity (UK) 12.5 avg
	Bronze - Blue Rebels (Greece) 9.7 avg

A class

	Gold - Creeps (Holland) 11.9 avg
	Silver - Slot Machines (UK) 11.0 avg
	Bronze - PE (UK) 10.3 avg

AA class

	Gold - Ignition (Holland) 11.4 avg
	Silver - Empat Laki Laki (Holland) 10.3 avg
	Bronze - Random Vengeance (UK) 10.1 avg

AAA class

	Gold - Satori (UK) 21.3 avg
	Silver - 4XTT (Belgium) 19.4 avg
	Bronze - Frost (Norway) 17.1 avg

You can read all the news and scores at our sister website:
www.skydivingchampionships.com.

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GoPro Cameras now for sale

Some of you may have seen the super wide angle mini video cameras on the internet. We are now stocking them for the price of £189.99 at the Skydive Hibaldstow shop.

The camera comes with 6 mounts which can be attached to your camera helmet for a range of angles. Combined with the waterproof housing and 0.2 wide angle lens, you should be able to get lots of exciting footage without paying the high costs normally associated with video cameras.

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Volare win at the World Cup

Congratulations goes to Skydive Spain sponsored team Volare, who have just come back from the Czech Republic with the Gold medal around their necks. Volare are Mikey Carpenter, Alberto Fuertes and Adam Mattacola. Right from the start of the competition, Volare put up an impressive score of 8.40, a whole 1.80 above their nearest competitors the 2 French teams. Out of the 7 rounds, Volare took top scores on 4 occasions to finish with an impressive total of 57.80.

View their scores here.

As a Skydive Spain sponsored team you can benefit from their experience in the form of boogies, one-on-one coaching and training camps. Visit our sister dropzone Skydive Spain which is based in Seville, Southern Spain. The dropzone runs on the same successful combination as our UK centre, 15,000ft height, efficient manifest and high turn around allowing you to train hard.

Mikey and Adam will be load organising at the Christmas Boogie at Skydive Spain offering tube jumps, mini coaching camps, bigways and beginner loads.

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Progression Days