Mission 100, 2.0

"Missed it by that much!"  Maxwell Smart


So close, and yet so far. Skydiving is the ultimate team sport. It doesn't matter how many stars you have on your team, if one person doesn't make their slot, it doesn't count. A year ago Martin Lemay brought together 100 of the best Canadian Skydivers he could find. His criteria was hardly stringent, but the simple fact is that there are not very many Canadian Skydivers to draw from to begin with. He went looking for 100 people who were willing to take a week out of their lives, who would ditch either family, or work, or both, who were willing to risk a week of hard work and frustration, a week of dealing with whatever problems the weather could throw at them, a week of heat, stress, storms, and logistical problems too numerous to mention, just to set a record that few who were not a part of it would take notice of. "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?" I lost track a decade ago of the number of times I've been asked that question. My only reply? "If you lack so much imagination that you have to ask the question, I don't think I could give you an answer that you would understand." 


Why give up a week of your life and and far more money than any normal person would merely to be able to say that you had been a part of the Largest Formation of Skydivers ever assembled over Canada? "Because we CAN!!!!!!" 

My mother understands it perfectly. There is no way my father ever would have. Too much imagination? Not enough? I don't know. I do know that for the second year in a row there are over 100 people who didn't need to have that question asked of them twice. Last year, on the last possible jump chance to set a new record, we lost one jumper to a premature deployment as soon as he went out the door, and we "Missed it by that much!." 


We were all disappointed, but Martin Lemay, the young man who had poured his heart and soul into the event, was crushed. But through his anguish after seeing victory snatched away to be replaced by defeat, he promised us all another chance.

Mission 100, 2.0
Skydive Nouvel Air, Farnham Quebec
July 11-15
I've brought all the booze I can carry, a serious party attitude, 2 cameras, 2 laptops, 2 coolers, a hot blonde, 4 pool noodles, and like the other 99 people attending, a fierce determination that this time we're going to see the job through, come what may. The current Canadian Record for Largest Skydiving Formation is 59 people and was set in June 2006 in the sky over Burnaby Ontario.

That is about to change.

Stay tuned. If past experience is any guide, the next 6 days should prove to be very entertaining.