funshineboogie.com

18 freeflyers, 3 world class coaches, a Dornier going to 15k and the climate of Seville for 5 days.... It was definately going to be fun.... Then, very unusual for Seville, it rained on Day 1... Day 2 proved that you don't need sunshine to have Funshine as the jumping started. It all cleared up by Day 3 and the event gathered pace hitting 12 jumps each for most on day 3. Splitting into 3 smaller groups, each with its own coach allowed for consistent, quality coaching input the whole day. Jimbo ran a head-up group, Mikey C took charge of a head-down group and Lovemore burned some skyholes with a tracking group. The variety allowed everyone to be in a group they were comfortable with, whilst the coaches provided tasks that challenged all flyers.                            

 The head-down group was completing 3 and 4 ways, flying tight slots and building some good points. Mike and Jim would take daily turns with the head-down group, and with the coach swap came new challenges. Jim encouraged the group to fly tight slot specific formations building points with very neat exits. When Mikey had the group, they were often heard chanting Woohooo out the door, flying some nice slot swapping moves and some high speed flocking, There was always a tracking group you could jump on, many chose to track all day as the groups were really coming together and flying nice. Lovemore loves tracking and it shows, his debriefs were always quality, very technical and progression when in Lovemore's group was always noticeable. Alot of the footage in this clip was captured by Alex Murphy, carving round groups at lightning speed. 

 There was a fair share of funny moments, some class wipeouts and some excellent burble hunting going on - particularly in the tracking groups. Iain Ayres did the most fantastic job doing a disappearing trick with a tube, leaving everyone clueless. Karma came around as the sky took revenge and removed one of Iain's shoes in a hoop jump to celebrate Chris Brooks' 600th. Sacha showed off her 4-way training in some class exit counting and Glenn and Dunc made an eagle look like an ugly duckling. The event was enjoyed by all, thanks to Skydive Spain we hit our 35 jump target in 3.5 days of jumping and the coaches did the most fantastic job. The first Funshine Boogie was mega and it will only get better.

 Around the group flying, 1-to-1 coaching was going on with anyone who wanted it. All 3 coaches made themselves available to help individuals progress their flying skills. There was coaching at all levels from basic head-up skills to high speed head-down flocking action as Mikey C put Dunc, Glenn and Brooksy through their paces. Jim Harris showed his patient nature time and again with his students as some of the more experienced head-up flyers turned themselves the other way up and practiced backsliding. This section of the video shows a variety of the 1-to-1 coaching that occurred and was the most challenging yet enjoyable part of the movie to put together. 

The head-up group, often lead by Lovemore were having fun building 2's and 3's ways points, completing slot swapping jumps, playing with tubes and developing their all round group flying techniques. Flying a 4 way head up in tight slots is harder than it looks, and with the feedback from Andy, the group progressed nicely. Flying some nice train exits, and the occasional bit of flat flying under the expert guidance of Sacha Chilton (champion ex-flat flyer), there was some real variety in the jumps keeping all challenged and amused...