Oh my gosh, did Summerfest ever deliver, or what? It absolutely did. I was only there for the first weekend plus a few days. If I’d stayed until the second, my brain would have exploded from awesomeness and then they’d have to be scraping up my gray matter all the way from the Tiki to the hangar.
So, I flew out Thursday to VFS team train at Summerfest. (Gasp! What idiot would do that? Well, jokes on you because it actually went well. More on that later.) And instead of flying home Sunday, I extended my trip for a few more days. I had so much FUN! I did FUN jumps! One of my MOST fun fun-jumps was a no-plan 2-way with an old friend. Literally, the plan: 1. Hold hands 2. Jump out of plane 3. Land safely.
I have not done a no plan jump in… 1000 jumps? 1300 jumps? It’s been since my wahoo days at Byron probably,. Even those had a Mad John plan which generally only 22%-worked but was still a plan. I was actually nervous about having no plan. Where do I put
my feet? (Always Sunny anyone?)
So, obviously, I chattered incessantly on the way up to altitude. I tried not to worry about sucking. How can you suck at a no plan dive? Well, even if I can’t suck at a no plan dive, I’m such a good worrier that I can worry about it. And then it was time. I jumped out of a plane, no plan, and had a killer rip. I forgot the joy of just plummeting to earth and not then dying at the end. What a salve for the soul.
Overall though, I had an awesome time at Summerfest. The Flying V, my VFS team, did 20ish training jumps and we really saw improvement! Since the first weekend of Summerfest is a little quiet, we were able to commandeer LOs and camera flyers pretty easily. Sam Lendle flew video for us once or twice. Nick Nash was flying video for Summerfest and he took some gorgeous footage of us as well, which 1. Helped us see what was happening on our jumps and 2. Gave us some awesome promo footy and stills, making us look super cool. Norman Kent tagged along for a jump with us because who DOESN’T want to fly with 4 talented ladies?
Plus, we got some coaching. Sam debriefed the jumps he did with us and helped us with exits. We had a well-timed weather hold so JRuss sat down with us, debriefed our jumps and then proceeded to drop more VFS knowledge with us for almost 2 hours. Right place, right time.
Plus-plus, we got visibility as a team. Team training at a boogie may make us like like sticks in the mud but we sure do show dedication and fortitude, turning down all the fun jumps we got invited on. Joking aside, I think that says something about dedication to the team. We want to be good.
I got Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday to just goof around and fun jump. Joey Baker LO’d a tube jump for me and some pals. I fun jumped with some peeps I don’t see so often. I tried flying MFS camera for Seeing Double (half of The Flying V). Holy hell, MFS camera is a blast. [Anyone looking for MFS camera, hit me up. I’m not great but it’s so fun.] We had an amazing sunset load Sunday that was magic and you’re getting that video too. (So much content!)
Really, I’m just pretty pleased. Overall, rad long weekend. Saw a lot of familiar faces from near and far. Met a lot of new faces. While I love my SoCal bubble, it’s also nice to get out and about. Next up, tum team training with Kombucha Punch in Eloy next weekend. Praying I don’t turn into a piece of toast or a melted crayon in the heat.
P.S. I forgot to remove the sound from the videos before I posted to youtube so just deal.