One of the women I had met at Skydive Orange, Jennifer, was planning a trip to Florida.  She invited me along.  Jennifer was very generous.  All I needed to purchase was my airfare!  She said I would be doing her a favor by coming along.  She had already reserved a car and hotel room.  Without Jennifer's generosity, I wouldn't have been able to go on the trip!  Our destination:  Florida!

During this trip, I made my first visit to Z-Hills!  They are having their Annual Easter Boogie March 18-27th!  I was a little overwhelmed by the number of people attending, but I did get an opportunity to do a recurrency jump. Since it had been over three months, I wasn't sure what sort of jump I should do.  Prior to jumping, my instructor, Laura Song, did a complete retraining session with me and a recurrency briefing.  I brought along my computer so she could watch my last skydive with Nick.  Although I did just fine, we agreed to do a CAT C-1 jump with two instructors.  The second instructor was named Paul.

Laura picked out a jumpsuit for me, a helmet, and an altimeter and we got ready to go.  Things move fast at Skydive City.  They have multiple airplanes and I didn't have to wait long before we got on a load.  As we were walking to the plane, the other instructor commented on the jumpsuit.  "Hmmm...no grippers." Oops...Laura had given me a suit without the grippers they use to hold on to their AFF student.

On the climb to altitude, I went over the jump in my head. I was starting to get used to the dive flow.  The top priority was always - altitude awareness and pulling on time.  The jump went smoothly.  Here's what Laura wrote in my log book: 

3/19/05: Jump 9 - Z-Hills, FL - AFF: Level 3 Recurr (Equivalent CAT C 1)  - Complete retrain/recurrency briefing.  Excellent setup and count, good exit after very slight delay.  Great COA, 3 practice touches, forward movement.  Released, kept heading really well!  Locked on @ 6K, both jm's close by.  Solo wave off & Successful pull! Excellent pattern setup and good landing - slid in a bit, but you definitely could have stood up. Go to Level 4 or Cat D. Laura Song C-30407 / AFI 05

When Laura finished the debrief, Laura confided in me.  I was her FIRST AFF student!