cmnorris

It's going to be held at Skydive Williston which is only about 20 minutes away from the UF campus (north central Florida area). So far, it looks like we should have over 40 college student skydivers there so it should be much fun. We've got a CASA lined up for the event and we are planning on the following: 4-way scrambles, raft dives, free load organizing, prize give-aways, Bird-man demo suits (if you have the appropriate number of jumps), all-college big-ways, $115 tandems, lots and lots and lots of fun with free beer all weekend long to keep the party going. If you'd like more info, you can go to: http://grove.ufl.edu/~blueskys

Our school gives us about $5000, but we are not supposed to spend our money on competitions. To get money for that we must apply to become a sports club (instead of just a regular club, I suppose). We are in the process of doing this now, but your sports club is first put on probation for one year before receiving any money. On top of that, in order to continue getting money you must fundraise 25% of your annual budget every year. Also, the registration fees for collegiates were not posted until some time in October. Traveling expenses are a big deal at our school and you must have advance permission (very far in advance) if you want everything to be covered. Finding out that registration was so expensive that late was the major issue for our club. I think that the idea of a national collegiate skydiving association is a good idea, even if it was simply a place that people could turn to find out more info on how to set up clubs or how to grow clubs. Having a yahoo college skydiving e-mail list that is little used is not really accomplishing anything.

For anyone else out there that is need of lodging and would like to stay on the DZ this is for you! We have a team room reserved, but due to certain unfortunate matters we will be without all of our team members. So, we have room for 2 more people. Room is less than $40/night so that it will only end up costing someone $10/night if it's filled. We will be there Dec. 25 - Dec. 29, but the room is reserved through Jan. 2 in case you would like to stay longer.

Just wanted to know what people's favortie boogie shirts were and why they're your favorite.

This was someone's DZ rating that was listed from April about Marana: "I was there for a boogie and was very unhappy. Lots of things promised that didn't exist. Aircraft (caravan) never showed up (or was ever even planned probably), the RV slots they advertise don't exist, the King air that will "give Mullins a run for it's money, and do 10 min turn arounds" was doing all of 9 mins to 9 grand (granted there were clouds, but the clime rate was super porter fast...not even in the ball park of Mullins). having people landing 3 differnt ways in zero wind (most days out there)at 2000ft. in a tight landing area isn't fun or cool to see. LOTS of near misses."

I think that this year we should just not have anything to do with collegiates and then next year we can actually take time to organize something. If you have an event that truly rivals the USPA backed nationals, that will turn more heads than something that is just quickly thrown together.

Actually, it's not in there. Apparently, in older versions of the SCM, the 100 jumps that you referred to was in there. The version that is online at the USPA website now makes no mention of jump numbers anywhere. That's why the USPA guy I was corresponding with admitted that the SCM would need to be revised.

I'm sure USPA knows fairly nothing. I tried to clear up a point in October for my club members and no one at USPA was able to give a satisfactory answer. Here was the question: How many jumps can you have and participate in the 2-way competition? It doesn't say anywhere in the manual. It doesn't even mention whether or not there are the novice, intermediate, and advanced classes that the other events have. When I e-mailed USPA, it took a week to get this answer: "the 2-way competition is meant to be for novice competitors." How did that help at all? I also was told that I was right and that the manual needed "revising." I also made the mistake of asking USPA about registration fee info before it was posted on the Skydive Arizona website. At UF we need to have travel approval way before the event so that we can receive funding. Likewise, the USPA person that I e-mailed then was clueless. I've reached the conclusion that collegiates is pretty much put on by the DZ holding the competitions, with little USPA input.

so, how do we make the National Collegiate Skydiving Assoc a reality?

Here's what I've done/bought in the past: coached jumps cloud book (instead of looking up and saying, "nice clouds," they now know what kind of clouds they are) wind tunnel time jump suit skydiving toys rubber stamp men (for the log book) videos pro track software Unfortunately, some of these larger presents, I've had to starting saving for months in advance. Being a student doesn't give you too much money to play around with.

I think our team already said "screw Collegiates" when we saw the price back in October. There's no way they could have had college students in mind when they set the registration fee. We're going to AZ simply to have fun, not to compete.

I just got an e-mail last night saying that someone from the Falling Illini probably will be making the trip. I'll give you more details once I know. We'll find some way to get you down here.

our classes start up again on Jan. 6

The University of Florida Falling Gators and the FSU Terminoles will be co-hosting this event. There will be a CASA and King Air present ($18 for 14 000 feet). Raft dives, 4-way scrambles, free organizing, and great prizes will be going on. Bird-man will be providing demo suits for people with the appropriate jump numbers. Registration gets you at least two dinners and all the beer that you can drink all weekend long. "You don't have to be a college student, you just have to be able to party like one." Follow this for more info: http://grove.ufl.edu/~blueskys

I know that quite a few people from Maryland will be driving down to the boogie. You should check with the Falling Illini club (southern Illinois?), someone from there may be going.