26 Jan Brighter Days To Come
After a difficult and tricky year we finally felt like we were somewhere near whatever the skydiving equivalent of normal might be. Regulars have been returning – socially distanced of course – tandems are going ahead and everyone at the centre has worked hard to make sure that we can stay open, stay operational and stay safe. The past few months we’ve been focussing on student progression and all of our students, new and more established, are doing great. We have had full static line courses and a popular training and refresh school operating most weekends.
Naturally we’ve experienced more than our fair share of weekends where the weather gods were not as kind, and the nights are drawing in as we approach winter, but that’s not deterred us and we’re still managing to get in the air.
We’ve been developing new ways of operating safely while the Covid situation continues to mess up our otherwise carefully laid plans. Life is returning to the centre and the strong community we have here in Bridlington is shining through, giving our weekends a sense of fun, familiarity and friendship. We still face challenges though and this has been the most difficult year on record, not just for us but also for all the skydiving community in the UK and the world. Normally our season closes at the end of November but, following this second lockdown we’re planning to stay open in December to compensate for some of the missed jumping time.
As we noted in the last edition, Jess Saunders completed a static line for her 300th jump and everyone marvelled at her graceful model of a student exit. To contrast this we’ve found a more realistic representation in the attached picture, taken by Matt Penney featuring Jess Saunders and Grahame Morris.
Martin Heywood achieved his hand cam rating for tandems and we also welcome Nigel Peacock to our Category System teaching team. It’s great to have him with us, guiding the next generation of skydivers. with the theme of passing things on to the next generation we would particularly like to thank Bill Rule for being awesome and giving us the benefit of his wealth of experience this year.
As we head into Christmas we’d like to thank all our members, staff, tandem students, Category System students, visitors and friends of the centre. As 2020 draws to a close we all recognise that it wasn’t perhaps the best year, but we look forward to a brighter and better 2021. With that in mind, from all of us at Skydive GB Parachute Club, a merry Christmas and Very Happy New Year. Stay safe and we hope to welcome you all to the Yorkshire skies soon.
Originally printed in Skydive The Mag, December 2020
Photo by Matt Penney