Watching your friends jump

out of an airplane, looking at them getting into sitfly position - then jumping out yourself... it's immense fun!

Veko had a lot of rain, so without further details, most of the week was spent in the bar. However, we did get a couple of jumps in on the Sunday.

Congrats to Kaja that finally flew the blue Vossasky!

One step closer

Haakon is learning how to rig the pilot during packing, by the end of the day he was due for the exam. Not rigging the pilot properly can mean the worst malfunction ever, so paying attention to detail is crucial.

Packing is hard work when you're a beginner - first of all you're dead worried about the lines not being perfectly stretched, then you loose count of the a/b/c/d lines when folding them into the canopy. Not to mention getting the canopy into the bag, lines still neat and firm. However, after a while you get the hang of it and 45 minutes turns to 15 minutes.

For the rest of us whom still think packing is hard work, God sent us professional packers.

The canopy sircle of friends

Haakon on his way to A-level

When I grew up most of my friends were into football, karate and handball. As I grew older some of them got into music, whilst others traded their football kit for a pint or two at the student bar. Seven years ago I attended the Extremesportsweek (Veko) in Voss for the first time. At that point I had tried bungee jumping a couple of times in London, and a tandem skydive in Voss. During these last 7 years several of my friends has been introduced to the world of canopy through Veko, including the 9 year old daughter of a friend of mine. She's now 14 and cannot wait to turn 16 - as she is keen to do a tandem skydive in Bømoen. The rest of us are on various levels in the world of basejumping, skydiving and paragliding. For many of us, Veko can take all credit for introducing us to the amazing element of air. Seems being from Haugesund with no tradition of skydiving at all is no problem, when the extremesports environment in Voss creates such good ambassadors. If more people from Haugesund continues to sign up for the AFF - maybe we should form a team: "The Jonathan Livingstone Seagull Team"...

Funsequence

is when a consequence is being converted into fun alternatives. Today a flat tire on the Porter meant helijumping! Birte got her first helijump and I (Tine) got my second. There is only one word that comes to mind when stepping off the helicopter whilst it hovers 4500 feet above ground: tranquility. Obviously there is also the kick. Pure fun in other words! A few years back I got my divers licence, never used it much (unfortunately) but there is one area I have applied it to: helijumping. Turns out, the dive step works wonderes on a helicopter, the exit is sweet and I find myself in stable fall position just after a few seconds. Perfect exit for novices! For those whom do not know what a dive step is: body straight, look forward, step off the pier - in this case the helicopter. Oh, and another thing to remember, although you may feel the exit altitude is somewhat low (for novices) - you need to leave approximately 10 seconds before pulling canopy in order to get a proper opening. Very important information!

Valerio, our handyman pilot, fixed the tire whilst the rest of us were working on our tan - and by the end of the day new AFF students were airborn and reborn - all with big smiles on their faces.

I was lucky to get on the last load of the day, all in all the day turned out really well.

In other words: another day of excellent Bømoen life!

Flying Chicks

We missed out on the fabulous Flying Chicks boogie in Østre Æra this weekend, and so we felt we needed a girls-and-their-canopys image from Voss as a band-aid.

The weather in Voss has been somewhat skydiving hostile lately, but today the sun came through and finally we were airborne. Tomorrows forecast is pretty good so hopefully there will be a good blog posting by the end of the day. Happy campers as usual in Bømoen:) Oh, and 5 girls are attending this weeks AFF, nice to see!

Follow Tori Pedersens AFF day-by-day

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenbladet is publishing Tori Pedersens day-by-day experience from her AFF course with Skydive Voss, Bømoen. Highly recommended reading! :) Click on image to get to the articles, most recent from top.

When rain, there's always the caf'

When sunshine and there's waiting around before getting airborne....when you just wanna be a famous Bømoen hangaround....when you're waiting for your friend to come down in a tandem...when the sky opens up with heavy rain and the jumping is cancelled....when you just realized you've gone all day without food....or if you just need that one good reason to visit Bømoen for the first time....

Landinga cafe! Excellent food, drinks, service and good coffee :) You probably would get a decent hug too, if you'd ask for one!