Skydive Spaceland-Atlanta Celebrates Third Birthday
by Scott Latinis
Out of all the jumpers, staff and organizers in Rockmart, Georgia, at Skydive Spaceland– Atlanta’s Third Birthday Boogie April 27-29, the MVP was Mother Nature herself! Granted, she was in a bit of a fog Friday morning, but she was just letting jumpers fill out waivers and get gear checks without missing any loads. When the fog burned off before noon, the Caravan and the King Air fired up and jumping started, not ending until the sun was on the horizon Sunday evening.
The jumpers kept organizers James Englund, Scott Franklin, Louis French, Scott Latinis, Tex Leos, Laura Wagner and Anthony Zerbonia busy putting up fun skydives the entire boogie. Guru Khalsa was in attendance shooting his typically awesome photos and video, and DZ Managers Kevin Purdy and Deloria Norman made the DZ a fun place to skydive and make friends during the weekend, as well as the previous three years.
Several jumps had everyone buzzing! Skydive Spaceland’s founder, Steve Boyd, made his 4,500th jump (an awesome headdown jump with Leos, Wagner and Khalsa) on the 45th anniversary of his first skydive. Performance Designs rep Beau Riebe and Zerbonia made Riebe’s pre-second XRW jump, and David Rose made his 3,000th jump, which included Leos making a belly jump (a rare sight, indeed!). All the while, tandem students arrived in droves.
“It was a fantastic weekend for Spaceland Atlanta; it’s awesome to see this beautiful place keep growing,” said Boyd. “We’re looking forward to another great year with our extended sky family!” The Performance Designs Tour made one of its much-appreciated stops at the boogie. Riebe answered questions, handed out demo canopies and made some great belly, freefly and XRW jumps. On Saturday evening, the boogiegoers enjoyed a raffle of great prizes donated by Aerodyne Research, Bev Suits, Fluid Wings, Larsen and Brusgaard, Ouragan Suits, RigSleeve, Tony Suits, United Parachute Technologies and Velocity Sports Equipment, as well as a birthday cake in honor of the drop zone’s milestone.
Scott Latinis | D-10514
Spring, Texas