With just over 700 jumps and 10 years in the sport, I've become one of the senior female jumpers at Orange.  When I started at Orange we had a large population of senior female jumpers, but most of them have moved away. The few remaining are on staff.  

When I see women sitting at the student table, I make a point of introducing myself and try to help guide them as they enter a sport full of testosterone.  I think the best advice I have to offer is to be a skydiver first.  If you want to succeed in the sport, focus on getting your license.

Don't start out as a contestant in the drop zone dating game or get sucked into drop zone drama.  Focus on what brought you here - skydiving! Orange has a few the nicest men you'll ever meet, but I've seen so many girls come and go.  Broken hearts and breakups, often lead to resentment and awkwardness.  No one wants to deal with that when they are coming to the drop zone to have fun. 

Both Matt and I believe in giving back to the sport.  We've been there to help newly licensed skydivers gain confidence.  We've had the opportunity to watch them grow into instructors, videographers, mentors, and competitors. It's awesome! 

In 2013, our SIS event got rained out.  It was a bummer because we had paid for organizers and we ended up sitting on the ground.  This year, the weather looked promising!

This year, a few new girls volunteered to organize the event and they were bringing in an organizer. Awesome!  I was very excited about this because it meant I didn't need to be there at 8:00 in the morning! I love their enthusiasm and energy, but I don't like to show up at the DZ before 10.

My responsibilities were limited to picking out some awesome SIS socks (and doing whatever else they asked me to do). I was absolutely thrilled when I found these super cool socks at Target They were a little trickier to work with because they came in packs of two.  

Since they didn't have labels, I made some and added a hand cut SIS sticker to each pair.  I used pull up cords to make little sock packages. A few weeks before the event, I dropped them off at the DZ.  I'm really happy with how they turned out!