Well, I’m back from my skydiving adventure at the Memorial Day Boogie at Emerald Coast Skydiving Center.  Just like last year, the staff was friendly and helpful, and I managed to get eight jumps on the beach.  There’s nothing like landing in front of the Flora-Bama bar and getting a round of cheers and applause from a bunch of bikers!

I should have video of some of the jumps next week, and I’ll post them asap.

Some skydivers were not so lucky over the weekend; Michael Fournier, the French skydiver I’ve written about before, was planning to make his record-setting freefall over Canada from 130,000 feet.  Unfortunately, the attempt never got off the ground; an unexplained electrical discharge disconnected the high-altitude balloon from the gondola before takeoff, and it drifted to the ground 40 km away.

This malfunction put an end to this attempt to set the world-record freefall; the cost of the failure is estimated at 600,000 euros, but Fournier is hoping to try again in August.