We were pleased by the visit of the South-American couple Rossina (Uruguay) and Alejandro (Argentina) who have moved to Europe in order to work in the skydiving industry. While Rossina has already managed her tandem rating in the past, it was now turn for Alejandro to become a USPA and UPT Tandem Instructor. Ale did a great job and showed the needed performance on his evaluation. We therefore are happy to present him as a new tandem instructor and wish him the best of luck for his upcoming working season! Thanks to Greek Freefall Club for the nice hospitality and thanks to Rossina for giving a hand during the course!

We welcome Alberto from Mexico who is already long time in the sport and a very experienced tandem master. Alberto has been without jumping for a while and wanted to get back into business for this season. He took the initiative and travelled to Greece for a weekend where Marcus trained him on his recurrency procedures. With a short refresher and some recurrency jumps, Alberto is now back in the air and ready to take passengers for a joy ride. Thanks for your visit and have a great season!

To escape the winter blues and to learn how to skydive? This combination seemed attractive to our new AFF students from Germany who preferred to spend a weeks holiday in sunny Andalucia and to be trained in freefall. Thomas and Patrick did a great job and definitely got hooked onto this fascinating sport. We are pleased to have been able to be a part of it and thank Skydive Spain for a professional training and thank the guys for joining our school!

Another USPA Coach Course comes to an end at Skydive Empuriabrava Spain. The course has been full with 10 participants and we were able to complete the entire program despite some rainy weather. Thanks to the help of the staff of Skydive Empuriabrava: Alain, Felix, Clara, Amelie, Santi and Parisio. We congratulate all the participants for gaining their new USPA Coach Rating: Irina, Daria, Nadja, Alex, Anton, Egor, Peter, Julio, Oscar and Sergey! Great news, guys!

Having held another USPA and UPT Tandem Instructor Course at Greek Freefall Club in Greece, we are happy to announce that our friend and Coach Thodoris Douzenis from Athens completed the course successfully! Well done, Teo and all the best with your future tandem guests and passengers!

As summer temperatures begin to drop with the approach of the winter season, appropiate clothing and gloves will be necessary for skydiving in the cold. For many new jumpers, this will be their first (beer?) experience with jumping in cooler temperatures. When bundling up to stay warm, make sure you can still reach and operate all of your handles and that none of the handles are obstructed in any way. Gloves need to be thick enough to offer protection, but thin enough that you can still feel and grab the handles on your container, as well as your steering toggles. Many outdoor outfitters and skydiving equipment retailers offer gloves and clothing that work great for keeping warm when the freefall gets cold. Always consult with the DZ Staff before trying something new – SAFETY FIRST everyone!

Beginning January 1, 2013, the stamped A-license proficiency and progression cards will no longer be considered valid licenses beyond 60 days. They can still be used to apply for an A license beyond this timeframe.
Also beginning January 1, all USPA instructional rating applications will require a valid USPA license in lieu of the FAI equivalent.
Beginning January 1, 2013, foreign drop zones will be eligible to apply for USPA’s new Foreign-Affiliate program. The USPA Group Member program has been modified to include only U.S.-based drop zones.

During the first weekend in November we conducted another USPA Coach Course at Greek Freefall Club in Greece.We greeted three candidates from Spain, Romania and Greece and thank you all for your visit and participation. Finally, we were able to congratulate Fernando and Frederic for their achievement. Congrats to your newly gained Coach Rating and good luck with your upcoming coaching work.

During our stay at Skydive Nuggets, we also conducted a USPA AFF Instructor Course. This course takes 6 days and includes class room work, ground preparations and in-air evaluations. Both candidates came well prepared and did a great job. Congratulations to Emiel and Stefan for your successful performance during the course! You deserved your Instructor Rating and have fun with your future students.

We are pleased to be back at Skydive Nuggets, in the beautiful town of Leutkirch Germany in order to run a USPA Coach Rating Course. Thanks to the helping hands of the Skydive Nuggets staff and the good preparation of the course candidates, we were able to complete the course during  the planned 3 days and congratulate all four participants for their successful achievement. We therefore present the new USPA Coaches: Andrei, Fransiszka, Richard and Stefan! Congratulations and well done!