Diamond Quest Camp Journal
Three instructors, 24 jumpers and two cameramen participated at the second DQ camp in Sweden.
We made 516 jumps including 35 camera jumps.
Instructors: Bryan Welch, USA, Chuck Strong, USA and Topi Astikainen, Finland.
From Sweden: Mikael Andersson, Thomas Biehl, Magnus Brolin, John Cargill-Ek, Christina Eriksson,
Magnus Falk, Michel Gascoin, Jens Grahn, Yvette Holman, Mattias Karlberg, Percy Kristersson,
Rolf Larsson, Karin Lien, Lars-Magnus Lundmark, Björn Mellström, Stefan Nilsson, Anders Nordqvist,
Sven Pettersson (video), Jonas Torstensson, John Warburton, Lennart Vestbom and Magnus Örn (video).
Norway: Ragnar Lie.
Finland: Mari Heikkilä, Mauri Hujanen and Pasi Pirttikoski.
The DQ CF-camp at Gryttjom this year was a success and it was well organized. Gryttjom is home to the Stockholm Parachute Club, located 120 km north of Stockholm. The Americans brought 19 Prodigies from Flight Concept International. The Swedish jumpers are used to jumping PD Lightnings so it meant that several of the jumpers had to get used to flying the Prodigies and learn different techniques.
The main goal of the CF-camp was to increase everybody's knowledge of Canopy Formation flying and offset formations. After a week with many safety briefings and more than 30 jumps with the Prodigies, we reached and exceeded our goals. In the beginning we did smaller formations and most of the new jumpers got their 4-way stack awards. By the middle of the week we were doing larger offset formations and successfully completed two 10-way kites!
Although the three CF-ladies, Yvette Holman, Karin Lien and Christina Eriksson, did everything right they were unable to set a Swedish record for women. They did some basic jumps with Bryan and Chuck in the beginning and they were really close to the record. Completion of the record was only centimeters away, but it was not to be. Yvette, later on did a successful two point 8-way and she also docked as number 15 in a 16-way diamond. I like when the girls make CF jumps, it change the perception that CF skydivers are just maniacs and macho guys.
The Finns also participated, this time with three jumpers from the Häme Parachute Club. Pasi Pirttikoski showed us that he is a world class CReW-star. As usual he flew perfect echelon, and was ready to dock his row 4 right wing slot. He docks the difficult position with elegance, a pull on the right front riser, check to the left to make sure everything is OK … he then pulls out his pocket camera and snaps off some nice shots!!!
Ragnar Lie, from Tønsberg PC is the first jumper from Norway to joins us. When he started, he only had about 10 CF-jumps, but he learned an progressed quickly. He was on two beautiful 10-ways and did several 15-ways towards the end of the camp! Considering the Norwegian record is a 11-way plane, Ragnar had an incredible camp!
The CF-camp paricipants were happy with the coaches and the camp. Makkara, the DZ restaurant, had super service and all the instructors said they want to be back next year. I think the CF-world will be talking about the Swedish CF-jumpers soon and I believe a few of them soon will take part of the big record attempts in the US and Europe. The performance of Magnus Falk and Mikael Andersson shows they are quite capable.
//Lennart Vestbom