Safety Day

Our Safety Day t-shirts, free to first 50 attendees

Safety Day at Skydive Snohomish is unlike any other I have attended. Being a member of USPA for twenty years now, I've gone to quite a few, but nobody does it like this! The big day yesterday started with registration at 8:30 am, and we left home at 7:00 to get there in time (more than an hour's drive), so that we could be one of the lucky registrants to get a free USPA t-shirt, as shown above by two good-looking young men.

The breakfast spread

The US Parachute Association encourages the Safety & Training Advisors at each Drop Zone to organize a day at the beginning of the season dedicated to learning more about our sport and getting current on the latest technology and information. This is the first one I have attended at Skydive Snohomish, and I could not have been more impressed.

First of all, jump operations were suspended for most of the day (until 5:00 pm), while those who attended were treated to breakfast, lunch, and dinner at no cost, and if you attended all five of the hour-long safety briefings, you were eligible to participate in the drawings. Tyson and Elaine Harvey (the owners) gave away such things as 3 free skydives, reserve repacks, video and stills of your skydive, and other such items, totaling almost $7,000 in value. (Also, the skydives and tandem jumps that were not made yesterday during the picture-perfect day must have cost them at least that much.)

Tyson presenting the Ches Judy Safety Award to Sonya

More than 90 people showed up, and after we signed in, we were given a card with five different events to attend: Equipment, Aircraft, The Skydive, Emergencies, and Canopy Control. Each presenter gave the same talk five times, while we made our way to each area in rotation. I had never met the Cessna pilot Dieter before, and his talk was really interesting and informative. It also made me feel very safe, knowing that someone with his expertise is flying. He is an aeronautical engineer in his "real" life and provided helpful information to deal with any type of aircraft emergency.

Dieter, Rocket Scientist, giving his presentation at Safety Day

Smart Guy had his name drawn for a prize, and he generously let me choose a hooded sweatshirt for myself that I am wearing as I write this. One really good thing that came from yesterday is the camaraderie that was built among the jumpers and staff, as well as some really good information to help us all be better skydivers. I won't miss another one of these Safety Days!

Thank you, Tyson and Elaine Harvey for the wonderful day, thank you to all who attended, and thank you very much, Skydive Snohomish staff! I will be a safer skydiver because of what I learned yesterday.
:-)