Day??? Getting Close

(Photo courtesy of Lisa Briggs)

Days are starting to run together a little - this must be day 5 or 6? I think its Friday. It's still hot. We've had lots of no-wind and light/variable crosswind landings. many women are wearing lots of lead and with the higher ground elevation that makes for much faster landings than many are used to. We all have designated landing areas spread out over a very large area. Some of the landing areas are full of big, hard clods of dirt and others are full of soft, deep, dirt which is hard to run in. The girls who are doing PLF's and/or taking a good slide are coming in dirty. The ones who think they can stand it up are coming to the debriefs with ice on their ankles. I'm pretty dirty right now.

Lets see - four jumps today? All to 18,000 feet - the second jump we did a go-around at 18,000 feet. Until the last jump today - each one was getting better and better. really, really good jumps today. Severla whackers have built completely, one held for 9 seconds!! Now, we just need everyone to have their best jump of the week...on the same jump. There was lots of energy and excitement thinking that the record might be broken today. We didn't get it - the last jump had some problems near the base which prevented sections from docking. This is pretty typical - lots of improvement followed by a backslide followed by more improvement and eventually a record. Emotions go up and down and strength goes up and down but every jump could be THE jump and so you have to control your mind, keep your game face on, and BE READY.



Lots more but another early call tomorrow....!
Brenda

Below: the Australian women's contingent at JFTC 2009
Follow more at http://www.youtube.com/jftc2009