FallingIllini.org

Even though it’s summer, we’re still bringing out new people to jump. I’d like to congratulate Meng Liang and Georgios Tsekenis who did Accelerated Freefall (AFF) and Radhika Rangarajan who made a tandem on Sunday. I’d also like to give a shout to Rachel Hillmer who obtained her A-License, and is now ready to start jumping in big-ways! Way to go, guys!

Radhika Rangarajan and Instructor Todd Morman

Meng Liang comes in for a landing.

Meng Liang

Georgios Tsekenis

On Sunday I graduated from the U of I, and so I’m retiring as President of the Falling Illini. The past year has been great, all you guys are awesome, and thanks for all the jumps. I’m leaving the club in good hands, though, as Daniel Bedford is going to be fearlessly leading many trips into the sky next year. I will be around for most of the summer, before I move to Colorado (strangely, Brad Schlesinger, the FI President before me, also moved to Colorado after he graduated), and we’ll be jumping as much as possible. We won’t be sending out weekly emails until the fall, but if you’d like to come and jump with us during the summer, send an email to Daniel (bedford2@uiuc.edu), and he’ll get you off the ground.

As my final act as President, I’d like to congratulate some new jumpers that came out and jumped on Mother’s Day this past Sunday. Tomoaki Hayamizu, Tomoki Yamaguchi, and So Nagaoka made tandem jumps, and Ho-Sung Chung went through the static-line first jump course. Way to go, guys!

School is out and so is the sun. I’m sure there are some people out there who would like to make a jump or three this weekend, now that finals are over, so let me know your name, number, type of jump you want to make and if can drive and we’ll get you in the beautiful blue yonder.

Nick Escobar wrote a terrific article about the Falling Illini in last Wednesday’s DI. If you missed it, you can check out the online version.

We had several first time jumpers out last week, so I’d like to congratulate Leah Goldberg, Michael Jacobson, Kristen Rocha, Kyle Branyik, David Pirszel, Lance Stafford, and Heather Barrow for coming out and jumping with us. They all had a blast.

We also had a special treat last Sunday. Jeffrey Steinkamp ‘73, who was the VP of the Falling Illini from 1971 to 1973 came out to the dropzone to hang out with some of the current jumpers. The equipment has changed a lot in the past 34 years, but he was glad to see we were still out there in the sky having fun.

David Pirszel, Kristen Rocha, and Kyle Branyik

Lance Stafford and Heather Barrow

Aaron VanDevender, Jeffrey Steinkamp, Justin Tobin, and Laura Thompson

We’re going jumping this weekend. Everyone may have exams and such, but skydiving is way more fun, so if you’d like to go send me your name, number, type of jump you’d like to do and if you have a car.

The April Showers contest was a huge success, despite some high winds on a few days. A lot of people came out and made a ton of jumps, but the undisputed champion is Dave Barron, who made 15 jumps during the month of April and was awarded $150. Congratulations Dave!

I’d also like to congratulate Daniel Bedford, who finally got his A-License. You can see his check dive here.

We also had a lot of first timers come out and jump with us recently, so lets give it up for John Koval, Sangmee Lee, Matt Hoffman, Matthew Feery, Daniel Gonzalez, Matt Brusich, Blake Sullivan, Erin Houlihan, Jason Ruzic, Audrey Bauer, Kevin Kamien, Bethany Cluskey, Arina Ivanova, Brett Jaros, Sneha Kumar, Jared Young, Kyle McKay, Amil Patel, Stacey Millsap, Fumitaka Sugiguchi, Stephen Moser, Thomas Janicke, Matt Perry, and James Holtman.