This year the US Nationals will be hosted by Skydive Chicago, so it is not surprising that the dropzone has turned into a real training center. Having the Nationals at their home dropzone inspired existing teams to start training (harder) again and other jumpers to put together a new team. It’s been a pleasure to see the bonding between all the jumpers, the fun they have and the progression they make. For me, there is one team that stands out the most and that is CYPRES sponsored four-way team Rhythm, the local heroes. Therefore, I would like to talk a little bit more about this very dedicated group of people.
6.00: Some of the team members meet in the hangar for the Insanity workout. 45 to 60 minutes of hardcore exercising. I usually join them for this workout and I can confirm that it really is INSANE.
8.15: The team meets in the hangar to prepare the jumps of the day. First of all they engineer, walk and creep the dives. Next they turn on their CYPRES, do gear checks, put on jumpsuits etc. Before they go up Steve grabs a last sandwich to get through the next hour.
9.00: Wheels are up for the first quad of the day. They are ready to train hard and have a lot of fun. Everything is going smooth until the whole team lands off and the dropzone truck needs to pick them up. Thiago jumps a Velo 96 but still manages to bring back half a cornfield in his canopy, a great opportunity for the packers to make some jokes about him.
10.30: Fifteen minute break for a short briefing and preparation of the next four skydives. Rob takes advantage of these few extra minutes to tease the packers while Thiago starts singing love songs. In the mean time, Steve grabs a sandwich and Janette watches it all with a big smile on her face.
10.45: Start of the second and third quad of the day, again with a fifteen minute break in between. Most team members start to run a little bit slower and are dripping in sweat. You can tell that they are getting a little bit tired, but you can still see the dedication on their faces. By now, Jason had to ‘almost’ cutaway five times (apparently his packers really suck, or could it have something to do with his body position?), and screwed up even more attempts to do a blind man. Steve is now taking sandwiches on the plane because he is so hungry, Thiago needs to go cry around the corner because Brazil just lost against The Netherlands in the World Cup and Janette…. She is still smiling.
13.00: Time for a well deserved lunch break. For everyone who can’t finish their lunch, Steve will take the leftovers. Rob is sick of listening to some of the packers complaining that they are hungry and decides to order a ‘packer pizza’ to make them shut up. Jason is now crying about little aches here and there so that Thiago wonders if we should call waaaaaaaambulance.
13.30: Start of the last quad of the day. They might be a little tired, but they always have energy left for a joke. So the whole team plans to have camera flyer Jason climb out the door before they decide to have a go around. For a minute, Jason is hanging on the camerastep with the rest of the team waving at him from inside the plane. According to the packers, a well deserved treat.
15.00: After the last jump has been made, the debriefing starts. The team finally gets to sit down (with or without a sandwich in their hand) and closely watches and analyzes the videos of the 16 jumps they just made.
16.00: After a hard day of work, everybody is ready to do their own thing. Thiago usually needs to do a little bit of work in the office, Jason is ready to jump in the pond and Steve feels like doing some funjumps with the local skydivers, (of course, only after he had a sandwich, or two) something that is highly appreciated by everyone, including myself.
19.00: Before sunset most team members hang out for a little while at the DZ pond. No need to say that Steve especially enjoys the food on the grill while talking with the others. Sometimes they will even drink a beer. Usually just one, because tomorrow there is a new training day …. starting at six.
This is what a general training day looks like, but next to all the hard training, the team does a whole lot of other things. This year Janette put together an 8-way team while Steve is jumping with another 4-way. On weekends that they are not training they organize ‘Team for a day’ for the local skydivers. If nothing else is going on, they will take the opportunity to organize interesting RW jumps for anyone who wants to participate. Anyway, they are always busy trying to improve either themselves or the sport in general. An attitude we could all learn from.
In my opinion there are three things that are absolutely certain:
1) They are on a mission
2) They love what they do
3) Steve likes to eat, … a lo
Finally I would like to share what people at the DZ think about the different team members:
1) Steve: smile, food, hungry, muscular, short shorts, goofy
2) Janette: awesome, smoothie, honest, hard core, work out, reserved, shy, good coach
3) Rob: coca cola, amazing, driven, helpful, cheeky, happy, goofier
4) Jason: sleeping beauty, Californian beach boy, high maintenance (according to Thiago, that all comes with the job), beef jerky, weight lifting
5) Thiago: quiet, nice, dedicated, friendly, sweet, pretty