"That was the best Skydive ever!"

Those were the first words out of Brian Forbes lips after every jump he did.

The freefall skills of the Winnipeg crew could, and are, debated on a
regular basis, but nobody who has ever met them would doubt their
enthusiasm. It's 4:30 in the afternoon and they left a few hours ago to
climb Pikachu Peak, having carefully timed it so they would be climbing a
near vertical rock face devoid of any protection from the sun in the hottest
part of the day. When you check in at the park gate you have to fill out a
waiver before they even let you attempt it, and tell you to bring a minimum
of 2-4 quarts of water for the climb, depending on the time of year. But
it's worth the effort. I made the climb last year with my niece and the view
is spectacular.

It's the last jumping day of my trip. A lot of people left yesterday, and
there are not a lot of Invaders left. The event goes on until Sunday, but
most of the excitement takes place in the first week. I'm sitting in the
Silver Streak after cracking a beer so that if anybody comes looking for me
to do a jump I'm grounded.

Today I survived the "Scott Miller Advanced Skills Canopy Control Course".
Or "Here's a bunch of things it would probably never occur to you to try
with your canopy". Note I didn't say stupid things you could do with your
canopy, but it would be very easy to do a bunch of what we were taught
stupidly. I've now got enough knowledge to go back to my home DZ and
practice what I've been taught and as long as I'm reeaaally careful,
everything will probably be fine.

My goal for the course was to improve my high-performance landing technique.
I managed to achieve that, and it seems that I had mostly figured it out by
myself. Mostly. There was one excellent slight downwind swoop that resulted
in me flaring a little high, sending me floating across the landing area at
a high rate of speed 5 feet off the grass, my legs running like I was Peter
Pan doing a low and over.

My favorite exercise was the last one. We'd do a 180 degree front riser
turn, resulting in a steep dive and large increase in speed, then you went
into half brakes for a couple of seconds to level it out, followed by
letting one toggle all the way up, and pulling all the way down on the
other. That last control input would swing you out horizontally beside the
canopy in a high speed flat turn. I've always wondered how people did that.
I'm just not sure I'll ever work up the nerve to do it close to the ground.

I leave in the morning, returning to reality, a truck buried in snow, a desk
buried in paperwork, bills to pay, customers to deal with. I'll leave behind
The Silver Streak, old friends, new friends, lots of brain cells, and of
course, far more money than I had intended to spend. You only get to go
around once, so you might as well enjoy the ride, right? 48 Jumps while most
of the rest of you were shoveling snow.

The Winnipeg crew will drop me off tomorrow morning to catch a flight back
to Ottawa, via Chicago. With any luck I'll miss my connection, and then I
can call Kelly and Phil to come fetch me at O'Hare airport. And we can start
planning our assault upon Summerfest 09.

Top 10 reasons to attend the Canadian Invasion:
1 - Sun
2 - Heat
3 - The Bent Prop Saloon
4- The Golden Corral all you can eat buffet (but only if you bring Paul)
5 - The Eden North Parachute School
6 - A videographer of minor note, but generous heart, who shall remain
nameless, we know who he is.
7- Turbines
8 - Kitty, who runs the local massage parlor
9 - Old friends, new friends.
10- The best reason of all: Is it snowing where you are? 'Cause it ain't
snowin' here!