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we had. As the plane made its first pass over the crowd, Mikey Lovemore scored the most on-brand exit of the day with a perfectly executed backwards roll, even remembering to tuck, pinch his nose and hold his mask on. Textbook boat entry drills.
After a safe gap went Kayleigh Garbett and then, with the plane still flying along its jump-run, Dan‘ Badger’ Griffiths. The plane turned quickly to make a second run so the two remaining jumpers – myself and Ally – wouldn’ t exit too far from our target. We left the aircraft at a relatively leisurely 4,000 feet, so I took the time to barrel roll before deploying first my parachute and then the Union Jack flag I carried.
The other jumpers popped bright red smoke canisters to add to the spectacle, while I opted to be the one with the banner. Putting the British into BSAC. Ally quickly caught up to me, flying his canopy around and getting some beautiful shots. I ignored him as I focused on my landing pattern in the strong winds and not hitting the dry bit … or the crowd.
I love landing in water, especially when it’ s as warm as Spring Lakes, which was a tropical 24 ° C in July. My safety boat arrived sharply to lend a hand getting my skydiving rig off, which proved timely as the flag had
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Splash down – Andy finally puts his snorkel to good use
wrapped itself around my legs on entry. Then I swapped parachute for fins and bolted to the shore.
I had landed a little further from the crowd than I’ d planned and knew that the main event was over. Although everyone waited patiently on shore for me to exit, I knew the sight of some bloke snorkelling was unlikely to hold their attention. I powered back as fast as my fins would carry me. Breathing hard through my tube and with quads burning I surfaced, gasping my opening line to the cheering crowd:“ The hardest bit of that was the snorkel back here!” The Scoob & Snork Fest is a small but growing event in the diving calendar. They always
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bring sunshine, warm waters, enthusiastic crowds and good tunes. I think more small and local diving festivals might be the way forward to bring the community together and introduce new blood. A big thank you to Diverstime for hosting us, BSAC for backing the project and Fourth Element for kitting the skydivers out with gear. We’ ll be back next year – with something even bigger. �
For more information on snorkelling with BSAC go to bsac. com / snorkelling Looking to introduce snokelling into your club? Find out more at bsac. com / snorkellinginstructor
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PHOTO: ALLAN HEWITT |
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Andy celebrates with Mary Tetley |
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PHOTO: PAT HOLLIDAY |
Ally Milne wins on accuracy as he touches the giant SMB |