Water Boogie & DZ Van

My goal this year (2021) is to get both myself and the old DZ van recurrent in time for Water Boogie on 9/11. It hasn't been started for 3 years now, it's been badly neglected. I rent an airplane hangar at Mid Valley just south of Los Lunas and live in a RV in Belen about 1.5 miles east of the DZ, the van sure would come in handy to haul my shit back and forth, but it doesn't have a tow hitch; it doesn't have near the capacity to tow my RV even if it did have one. I thought it was a shame to see it go to waste when I have a use for it, so I offered the Club $1,000 for it and as a sign of good faith, I added $500 to my account at the DZ. They wouldn't even give me the key to it so I can start working on getting it running again at least well enough to get it to Lee's for serious repairs, It may have to be towed there anyway. We already know it needs a new battery and the gas in it isn't going to be any good, it's also missing the side door; I'm the only one crazy enough to want to buy it.

The BOD had a meeting and decided they didn't want to sell it to me, but considered paying a lawyer $500 to come up with an agreement to rent it to me on a monthly basis instead, after I pay to get it running and legal again! Now I may be quite a bit Crazy, but I'm not insane, apparently they think I'm seriously out of my mind to counter with an offer like that. They must have thought I wanted the van pretty damned badly; I just want to see it get functional again for DZ events, like Water Boogie and be able to use it to haul shit to my hanger. Upon further reflection on Romans 8:28, I'm very glad they got stupid and didn't take me up on what I thought was a very generous offer; crazy even for me. $1,000 is enough to support my African Ministry for two months, I'm glad I didn't waste it on that van. It costs me $250.57 to insure it with USAA for 6 months, $500/year; I gave them the VIN when I insured my Goldwing. Since they want to keep it, I'm not able to register it, why should I be expected to pay the maintenance costs for a vehicle I don't own? I'm still willing to insure it and perhaps pay some of the costs to fix it, but I think a Free recurrency jump with video, is a fair trade to pay for anything more than the insurance. If they are trying to get income from it, they are better off donating it to a charity, they can probally get a $2,000 tax write off for it. If they go for my new plan (they're crazy if they don't), the Club and I will still have use of it for much less than the $1k I originally offered for it. It's mutually benifical and returns their "asset" to service; it sure as hell is more fair to me than buying it from them! Now I'm glad they Dishonored and insulted me just like my wife did in PA, sure it hurt, but in the end it actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise. That's true no matter what the BOD or anyone else who wrongfully judges me says or, does. I'm a slave to Righteousness, nothing can harm me.

What does bother me greatly that I saw since the last Water Boogie I attended, is the decline of the Club and the absence of several Skydivers who are still in the area, that were once very enthusiastic contributors to this Club. I understand why now, this BOD treats everybody like Shit. There's not much respect for anybody, all they care about is how much money they can make yet they have driven away most of the Instructional Staff and licensed Skydivers that are the source of their income by taking the Bode's saying of "No, fuck you, pay me" way too far and made it their business model. You can't disrespect people like that and expect them to throw money at you for insulting them. No wonder there's only a few of the jumpers from back when I was Vice President and a Tandem Instructor still around. The Club is nothing like what it was back in the day, we always struggled, but I never saw it in this bad of shape. It's being run into the ground and this van deal is a pretty good indicator as to why that's happening, it was a very poor business decision. You treat people like Shit by disrespecting them and don't invest in Instructors or gear to train students. This is a sport were we eat our young, students provide most of the profit and this club is now I'll equipped and poorly managed to keep them coming back. Visiting and experienced jumpers hardly have a chance to jump with such limited days and hours to jump in. Hell, a nail salon can't expect to survive when they are only open 4 days a month for half a day! In the best of times we were only open 8 days a month, but if one of those days was weathered out, it caused scheduling problems with students. It would be nice to have problems like that again. Packers like Steve Allard were kept busy enough to earn a meager living from packing on weekends, me and Rich took care of him, it was the right thing to do.

I've had $200 on my account for almost a year to get recurrent here and ended up going to Eloy for the holiday boogie to get recurrent and here I am uncurrent again because it's a pain in the ass for me to jump here because of all the bullshit. I added $500 more to my account as a sign of good faith on the van deal, but it's now my jump fund if I ever get the chance to use it.

I'm Crazy enough to do whatever I can to make Water Boogie a success, it and this club mean a lot to me, it truly pains me to see what's become of it. Local jumpers shouldn't have to go elsewhere to jump; treat them with a little respect and there's a chance you might earn some of them back as contributing members or at least regular customers. I suggest you kiss their asses a bit and offer discounted recurrency jumps to get them back in the sport, but don't bother if you're going to treat them just as shitty as you did to drive them away in the first place. If you want this club to grow, your going to have to invest in it and have a serious change of attitude in how you treat people. No business will succeed if it doesn't have customers. Just remember that this isn't a business, it's a Club, it won't be for much longer if you keep driving potential members away. Here's some advice from a real good friend of mine, some of you may have heard it before..

Love one another as I have loved you.

Rudy's advice for handling emergencies also applies here; "do what you can to improve your situation".

Too many experienced jumpers have Cutaway from this Dropzone and went to plan B; let's see what we can do to prevent them from landing out and help them find their free bag and main. I've done that a time or two in that old van.