2008 Skyfest and Rodriguez Boogie, Fantastic Fun
// June 10th, 2008 // Comments Off // Skydiving
While I can’t say last week was perfect; after getting horribly ill and rebounding with the same celerity I flew into action at [Skydive Carolina](http://skydivecarolina.com) on Thursday and enjoyed myself thoroughly in social skydiving activities.
Photography Video Montage
A Heat Wave to Remember
The heat was magnificent in its ability to melt us all. With a high reaching 103’ on Saturday (at least by my altimeters function), how we all lasted day after day is a real wonder. It did slow me down though I wasn’t readily willing to repack as quickly or even don my flight suits (hey I got a new free fly suit too!) since you turn into a human sprinkler if you did. We still managed to enjoy each others company with eager smiles.
A Coordinated Effort
The event coordinators really did amazing keeping everything running so smoothly. We even had an expected visit by the FAA (man those suits walk real upright), but the show went on with only mild delays.
One day we had two Casa’s, one Twin Otter, and a helicopter all in motion. James La Barrie really handled it tactically and no issues means he did a stupendous job.
Funny enough the only thing really squawked on was how Outback really screwed us on our meal plan serving us up some real airplane fare for the price of steaks. If that was the only beef (/sarcasm) then I’d say it was a success.
Do You Know Howie?
A profound shout goes out to our friend Howie. A man who would have rather been left be had his own fan club after him; you can many times hear, ‘Do you know Howie?’ shouted onboard a plane.
During our sunset tracking dive we put ourselves over some tricky terrain and the flank Howie was on was in the deep of it and not going to make it home. After a rough landing Howie sustained a few broken bones (tib/fib/fingers), and a fractured hip. Can you believe he called 911 for himself? What a guy!
The dropzone being what it is with the local family we were quite a buzz over our friend. From the latest intel we understand that he is doing the best he can and we send our well wishes and speedy recovery.
Rodriguez Family Reunion
Thus completes my, Pelargo Rodriguez, first year as a family member. We celebrated in style and brought on board a slew of new family after many jumps with initiates. As always Shaggy manned a deadly liquid cooled tequila machine which caused personal malfunctions everywhere, haha.
Welcome new brothers (and bumpy brothers), may your lives be long, your sombreros be shade casting, and your tequila glass cold.
Good Festival
If I heard right we’ll see these guys again next year under hopefully cooler early June circumstances. We met a lot of new people and got to hang with a lot of those we just don’t see enough of these days.
Always looking for new recruits to come jump with us so if you need the right motivation let me know!
