Diamond Quest Camp Journal
by Frank Matrone
Wow, we moved the camp back two weeks and it paid off we actually had good weather! Sorry about that you guys in TX. For the first camp of our season in the Northeast things went very well. We owe a lot of that success to our regulars who kept in practice by going to camps down South. In fact I think I can detect a slight Southern drawl when I talk to Dan Briggs.
Four new guys showed up and even though I said this was going to be a practice year and not a training year, these guys had too much enthusiasm to turn them down. Spoty is new to DQ but not to CRW. He is a member of a competitive 4 way rotation team from the UK. Oliver is from France, he has done some CRW but not much lately. He was anxious to get back into it. Collin is a Master Sergeant in the Army although he says his most strenuous activity is lifting a pen and paper. He had a little CRW experience. Ethan works for USPA in the license department. He had less than 50 total jumps and only a couple CRW.
The first jump Saturday we had 13 plus a camera. (Terry Ross btw hopes to get on the DQ video and will soon be seen at a few camps down south) We split the group and experience to two smaller groups, one formation completed but the other had some difficulties. After some slot swapping gentle coaching the second group was more successful. It got a little windy and bumpy but we got four jumps in and fun was had by all. It was apparent that Collin and Ethan needed more work on the basics and some individual attention.
Sunday we split into a 9 way and a 3 way (Dan left us Saturday night). Ted took Ethan and Collin to practice 3 stack rotation. They were able to learn more this way and it was less physically demanding. The nine way completed two diamonds with star bursts! Olivier docked a row 3 wing on the first dive and locked up the four way on the second. Spoty did two nice lock ups. The third and last dive of the day had no wraps or cut aways which is true for the whole weekend.
Everyone had a good weekend and learned something. I hope we have a few more like that!