2010 Recent Photos & Happenings
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Summer Tandem Skydives & More!
One of our pilots Eric Lighfoot, goes through his dirtdive for a 3-way skydive with Sylvie & Al.
Frank swoops Will's canopy... and little kyle "hangs around" in a tandem harness.
Will McCarthy lends a helping hand to Simon Gelinas on landing, and Eric displays his many talents with
balancing a ball. Serge helps with some packing while Simon swoops the grass outside the hanger!
Congrats to New Freefall Student Robyn!
Robyn, (photo on the left) is all smiles as she checks out her gear before going up for her graduation jump.
Two thumbs up from Ashley as she completes another tandem skydive with Arno. Simon & Kate's pup
Ripcord cools off with with a Tim Horton's Ice cap... and always cheerful Frank takes up another
happy tandem passenger.
Rick Powell congratualtes his customer for successfully completing his Tandem Skydive...and a few more
thumbs up from the guy enjoying his ride with Frank.
Handshakes, Hugs and Cheers!!
Great landing... great skydive and happy group pic after a couple of more exciting tandems...
Photo on the end is pilot Eric signaling Simon through the plane window.
Everything is A-Ok!!
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Girls, Girls, Girls...
Who says skydiving is a male sport? At Skydive Gan we have a good number of regular
female jumpers who are just as passionate about the sport as any of their male friends!!
And you can find them here almost every weekend...
The last weekend in June turned out to be a “ GIRLS WEEKEND ”, with some familiar faces and visits from ‘ole
friends! In the photos from left to right is; Michelle one of our new packers, Robin, Shelley and Kate, who is also
one of our regular packers. Then Deb and Robin are shown together as well as our new FF Grad, Marilyn with
her friend. The photo on the end is the always beautiful smile of Samantha. A really terrific bunch of ladies!!
The girls had fun getting together for some pics before going up for their jump. Long time Gan jumper
and past instructor, Robin Saunders has moved back into the neighborhood and is now a mother of two
with (Kallie & Kyle), she took some time out to get in a jump with the gals. Also visiting, and a brand
NEW MOM herself with the addition of her son (Harrison), Shelley Reimer also trained at Skydive Gan
many years ago, and was excited to join Deb Lovegrove, Kate Searle and Robin for a skydive!! We all
had a really great time jumping together again… Thanks Will for the photos and a reminder of
all the fantastic gals we have at the DZ ;o)
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Congratulations to our New Students!!
Photos above are some of our recent graduates from the freefall program; all decked out in his
FS suit is last years grad and one of our pilots, Eric Lightfoot. Then our mother and daughter team,
Marilyn Hill and Mary Guest, and beside them is Tyler Turnbull from
out to all
Eric grabs a photo of Skydive Gan's other pilot John while sitting in the plane, and takes a group
shot of the mother and daughter team with their instructors Mitch and Will before they take off for
another jump. Will McCarthy
snaps some pics inside the plane during the ride up...and happened
to catch Mitch singing or yawning...we're not quite sure(?) on the way up to altitude :)
Student Mary Guest goes through her freefall sequence with instructor Will McCarthy taking photos.
Mary, back on the ground is happy with her jump, and Deb is photographed with Kate & Simon's dog
Ripcord and freinds before they go up on a skydive. Deb also tried to snap some pics of the guys
swooping the field and sort of caught both Will and Mitch on their way down. When Tom McCarthy
heard there were photos being taken he decided to land out in the bowl...to avoid any flash bulbs...LOL
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Brittany's Tandem Pictorial
Plane and freefall photos of tandem passenger Brittany Sheldrick were taken by Will McCarthy, with some
photos done by Frank Hamel. Photos on the right are Dave caught on camera before he leaps out of the plane!
Will captures Tandem Master Rick Powell as he takes Brittany on her tandem jump over Skydive Gananoque.
Brittany snaps photos of her altimeter and the local landscape and airport around Skydive Gan, and
then turns her camera on herself and Rick for a close-up while under canopy!!
Was a perfect day for a tandem, and as shown in many of Brittany's photos, Skydive Gan truly
has some fantastic scenery. Back on the ground she poses with Serge and a friend.
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Kate's Soccer Team in France
Best of Luck to Skydive Gan member Kate Searle, show in this photo with her
Soccer team representing Canada in a tournament taking place in France. We are
all routing for ya, so bring home the trophy girls!!!!
Gan Gang Fun Jumps!
Terry Darling does a sit fly jump with Will and Simon on camera. Frank exits the plane in a back to earth
as Simon snaps a pic, and big smiles were caught on the load with Ray, Michelle and pilot Eric
Photo on the left is Ashley on her way up to do a tandem jump with Will McCarthy and both Ray & Michelle are
photographed by Simon in freefall. Photo on the end shows Mary climbing into the 206 for one of her last tandems
before signing up for the freefall program -- with Simon and Tom McCarthy waiting to get into the plane for a leap!
A pair of blue reflective skydiving goggles lend themselves to some real cool snap shots taken by Serge
Blouin and Simon Gelinas. A photo of Simon is also captured coming in for a landing under canopy.
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Victoria Day Weekend @ Skydive Gan - May 2010
Ryan's 100th Skydive!!!
As tradition goes…once you’ve reached 100 skydives you MUST get PIED!!
Over the Victoria 3-Day Weekend we had gorgeous weather and 2 planes to jump out of!! Ryan MacLaurin’s
also completed his 100th skydive by doing a “Mr. Bill” jump with one of Skydive Gan’s instructors, Frank
Hamel (see the photos on the end). After his crazy backward fall to earth, we managed to surprise him with
a little whip crème and chocolate sauce pie…at least it was tasty :) CONGRATS RYAN on Jump # 100!!
With the great weather we managed to get in a bunch of fun jumps, as shown above with Joel and
Simon sit flying over Gan with Frank on Camera. Rachelle then joined in and the 3 of them practiced
their train exits out of the Cessna 182. Simon also gets a chance to show his skills at back flying.
The start of the season has been kind with lots of blue skies for jumping. In the photos above are;
Al Nadeau, Rachelle Laforge, Will McCarthy on his head and Terry Darling in a sit over the great landscape
of Skydive Gan. The photo on the end shows Will and Arno with Nadine completing a tag team 3-way.
Some more fun pics of Simon and Kate turning points while Sit Flying and Scott Stevens
and the boys exercising a little freefly fun! Frank Hamel also caught these great shots of both the
plane while exiting and Vlad Alexeenko under canopy with a cool sun reflection!
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Skydive Gan exhibits at The Guy Show 2010 in Ottawa!
The Guy Show returned to Ottawa this May at Lansdowne Park and
Skydive Gan set-up at booth at the event to promote the Drop Zone.
Extreme Rush Adventures supplied an indoor Rock Climbing wall that visitors were able to try
and the first participant
to have his head shaven at “The Great Shave-Off” scaled the climbing
wall alongside his brave hairdresser to initiate the kick-off of the event! Sylvie is all straped up and
ready to try out the climbing wall. Michelle & Nadine greeted visitors and manned the booth on Saturday.
“The Great Shave-Off” was an event held at The Guy Show on Saturday - where participants
had their heads shaven completely BALD in support of breast cancer research.
Photos above show some of the “shavees” and Deb & Michelle in the Skydive Gan booth with some
visitors. Other exhibitors at the show included Harley Davidson, Yamaha Motors, BRP, Wilderness
Tours and JED the Mechanical Bull - check out the photos below of both Deb & Sylvie going for a ride!
Dave MacLaurin is photographed in the Skydive Gan booth talking with an eager visitor. Door prizes
provided by the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation for the Shave-Off included some really
cool
"Pink"
appliances, and some great gift certificates. Skydive Gan generously donated 2 FREE Tandem Skydives
as part of the fantastic door prizes for the participants, who BTW raised close to $10,000 in pledges last
weekend for Breast Cancer. The lucky winners will be coming out to the DZ this summer to do a jump!!
Many thanks to the Skydive Gan jumpers; Michelle Matte-Stotyn, Nadine Jobes, Dave MacLaurin and
Sylvie Gareau who helped out at our booth this year. They are all *superstars* at promoting the DZ!!
Michelle was also kind enough to donate her time for booth duty at “The Guy Show” in Kingston a
couple of weekends ago…THANKS a bunch guys!!
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Jump 5000th in Pink - A Double Congratulatory Jump!!
Photo on the left is the 4D jump team consisting of Don Gravelle, Don Campbell, Dean McDonald
and Deb
Lovegrove, posing with Chantal and little Alex after they successfully completed their 4-way for Dean’s 5000th
jump!!! Both Deb and Dean are photographed with Chantal... all wearing pink “Jump for the Cause” t-shirts and suit.
On April 11th we did a “Double Congratutory” jump with a previous Gan instructor; Dean McDonald. We celebrated both his
5000th jump as well as his wife Chantal’s success as a Breast Cancer survivor! We originally planned a 9-way formation in
the shape of a pink Breast Cancer
Ribbon…and everyone on the jump was going to wear something pink, but we had to change
the jump to a 4-way “D Jump”...with everyone on the jump
having a name that began with the letter “D” (Don, Don, Dean, Deb).
It was a great success and we send our CONGRATULATIONS to Dean for completing his 5000th jump and *BIG pink hugs*
to
Chantal for surviving her battle with Breast Cancer, she's one tough cookie...we LOVE you BOTH!!
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Opening weekend - tandems & fun jumps!
The opening weekend at the Drop Zone was fantastic!! We had unseasonably *Hot* weather and
enjoyed 3 days of great jumps in shorts and T-shirts :) It was sunny with awesome blue skies
and many came out to enjoy the weather and the jumping.
Dean McDonald came out with his family and friends to share in some fun jumps
and take
a friend for a tandem! As seen in the photos above Jen really enjoyed her jump with Dean!
Skydive Gan Instructor Francois took his girlfreind Annie for yet another tandem jump.
She must
enjoy
them as this may be her 5th tandem. Simon Gelinas joined them on the jump to snap a few photos.
Photo on the left is Annie’s perfect landing after her tandem jump, and the other pics
above are of
a cool tracking dive done by Arno and some of the guys over 1000 Islands Ontario.
Simon was
able to capture some of the terrific landscape and scenery we enjoy out at Skydive Gan!
One of our pilots Ron Taylor (pic on the left), snapped a photo of a visiting plane over the DZ,and
then had some fun chasing him away from “our airspace”!! Simon snaps a few pics of Kate
showing off her new freefly suit in a sit jump over Gan. A visitor from Sweden came down to
spend the weekend with us and get in a few jumps before his trip back home.
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Skydive Gan exhibits at the Great Outdoor Show in N.Y
We set-up a booth at the Great Outdoor Family Expo that was held in Watertown N.Y. in March.
The exhibition took place at the YMCA Fairgrounds close to the Fort Drum Military Base.
It was an excellent show, as we met many of our USA neighbours interested in trying a
skydive. In the photos above Deb Lovegrove had assistance from her friend Christina
Villeneuve who helped hand out flyers and answers any skydiving related questions.
A busy show with a variety of outdoor activities — there were exhibitors from hunting and fishing clubs,
scuba diving, a rock climbing wall, paddle sports, and the latest in ATV’s. There was even a large screen
video game set up by the US Army for everyone to play as added entertainment. The scuba diving club
set up a pool right next to our booth for people to try their equipment. I snapped a photo of a cool wild cat
that was on display in one of the Nature conservation booths. All in all a good show, and we look forward
to seeing our Fort Drum friends come out and do some skydives with us real soon!!
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Skydive Gan Year End Video Party!!
Skydive Gan and some of their friends got together for dinner and drinks over the winter at the ClockTower
Brew Pub in Ottawa, to watch some skydiving videos, world records and Year End tributes by Gan Videographer
Simon Gelinas…everyone had a great time viewing the past two season’s skydiving memories :-)
Simon did a GREAT job editing the double DVD footage of 2 season’s at Skydive Gan!
Thanks Simon for the terrific Videos!!
We reserved a private room downstairs at the Clocktower where we had access to a projection
screen and large screen TV!! A good bunch of viewers turned up for the dinner party and
it was good to see some familiar faces like, Dean, Chantal & Jen.
We also celebrated Ryan's Birthday with a surprise piece of cake and song!
Some of the Gan crew got together the following day for a
Fundraiser Volleyball Tournament
organized by Rina McNairn to raise money for - "Doctors Across Borders" Was a fun time!
The Star players included Michelle, Arno, Will, Nadine and of course Rina herself!