University of Portsmouth Skydive

Due to popular demand, we will now be offering another date for RAPS jump courses. This will be the 5/6th November. If you missed out on getting a place on our last jump courses, then get your name down as soon as possible! If you would like to book a place onto this jump course, or would like to find out more information about it, then please post in the forum section of the website, post in our facebook group or email us at committee@skydiveport.co.uk. Places will fill up fast, so don't miss out!

This year's RAPS jump courses have now been booked.

Dates are:

• 30/1/2nd october
• 7/8/9th october
• 21/22/23rd october

A fourth course will be booked in early november dependant on demand. If you are interested in booking onto one of these courses, please email us at committee@skydiveport.co.uk, or come and speak to us at this years freshers fayre on the 21st and 22nd of september. AFF courses can be booked at a time to suit you so contact us at the address above or at freshers fayre!

The APA will be running two student progression weeks during September - the first is the 5th to the 9th and the second is the 12th to 16th.

These courses are open to RAPS students and the aim is to get participants through to category 8. There will also be an introduction to FS for those that qualify during the week.

The courses run Monday to Friday inclusive (however read below), and are open to RAPS students who are currently in the programme at Nethers.

You must have refreshed at Nethers during the preceding weekend (Sat or Sunday will do). The course WILL NOT involve long refreshes on Monday morning.

The course will consist of additional ground lectures, extensive packing tutorage, and of course jumping! NB the packing will be mandatory, and you will be capable of achieving your BPA packing certificate during the course. Students who have attended this course in the past have rated it highly. Many have said it was the point where they saw “light at the end of the tunnel”.

During the week, the emphasis on jumping at Netheravon is heavily swung towards RAPS. Tandems, experts and AFF will be virtually non-existant. Also there will be an abundance of equipment available exclusively to you.

The cost of the course is £150 for the whole week, plus jump ticket costs as required. Students moving to free fall are reminded that they’ll need to upgrade to full BPA membership before their first free fall jump.

If you achieve Cat 8 on the course, jumping will continue with introduction to Formation Skydiving (FS1) dives.

Rick Boardman will be running another of his popular saftey weekends on the 10th and 11th of September.

This is aimed at post Cat 8 jumpers who are working towards their B licence and consists of classroom and practical sessions as well as some jumping.

The course runs Saturday 10th – Sunday 11th Sept, starting 0830 Sat morning. It is aimed at post cat 8 jumpers working on their ‘B’ license.

You must be current and (if a non Nethers jumper) have had briefings for the DZ as required during the preceding weekend (Sat or Sunday will do).

The course will consist of additional ground lectures and open forums in a dedicated classroom, extensive packing tutorage as required, and some specific jumps weather permitting. During these pre organised flights, the aircraft and your canopy will be the classroom, and some of your skills will be tested! The lectures will include all the briefings relevant to your B license. There will be much additional education regarding equipment. Weather permitting you will also experience a high hop ‘n pop (12000ft plus). Jumpers who have attended this course in the past have rated it very well highly!

This is the course where your instructor takes you beyond the “do as you’re told” world of being a student, and prepares you to take responsibility for yourself and others in the aircraft. And you’ll learn a massive amount about safety within the sport. Typically by the end of the weekend all the B license briefings are signed up for all candidates.

Former club member and world champion skydiver, Claire 'Sparky' Scott, will be running more tunnel camps aimed at people looking to gain, or who have recently acheived, their FS1 rating. I can say from personal experience that these are WELL worth doing! Here is the information sent out by Sparky: Former club member and world champion skydiver, Claire 'Sparky' Scott, will be running more tunnel camps aimed at people looking to gain, or who have recently acheived, their FS1 rating.

Last year I ran a number of FS1 camps dedicated to people working towards their FS1 or who have just scrapped through their FS1 and want to brush up on their 1on1 and 4-way skills. They were very popular and I have been repeatedly asked over the last months to run some more!

The aim of these camps are not only to further refine your 1on1 skills, but to also introduce you to the additional skills required for 4-way.

So the tunnel camp is split into 2 parts:
20mins of 1on1 (2 x 10min sessions) – working on individual skills such as basic body position, forward / backward movement, slow fall / fast fall, turns (using arms & legs), side slides, positional strength and grip taking 20mins of 4-way ( 2 x 10min sessions) – 3 students to 1 coach – giving you the experience of building different formations in a variety of different slots, working on communication, formation sets ups, grip management and key discipline

Time has been factored in to allow detailed briefs and de-briefs, so that you take your learning’s from the previous sessions into the next session allowing you to get the most out of the camp.

The following weekends are now available for booking a RAPS training course:

• Saturday 9th - Sunday 10th October 2010
• Saturday 16th - Sunday 17th October 2010
• Saturday 30th - Sunday 31st October 2010

Please contact any of the committee if you wish to book a course or have any questions.

Need more information about skydiving or want to sign up to the club? Perhaps you've just signed up to a training course?

The Skydive Club's information meeting is designed to answer any questions you may have about training, safety and to discuss the benefits of being a Skydive Portsmouth member!

The meeting will be from 18:30, upstairs in the Student Union and will be followed by our legendary Freshers' Pub Crawl!

Please check back later to see the confirmed room number for the intro evening.