We trust that everyone returned home safely from DeLand, and that all the Americans had a good Thanksgiving holiday.

We want to thank each of you for participating on the 2006 Kaleidoscope Dives.  We know it’s a significant commitment of time and resources to take part in this event, and we sincerely appreciate your support and great attitudes – as does everyone from SkyQuest, the National Skydiving League, and Skydive DeLand.

While we did not complete as many formations and transitions as planned for during the Kaleidoscope Dives this year, we did have three days of perfect weather. Cool!  We had a perfect safety record.  Thank you for being so aware!  And, we did make some great dives.  As a team, we learned a lot and improved a lot during the weekend – especially when working on that elusive 100-way Diamond.  It will be completed yet!

While we wait to receive our copies of the Kaleidoscope DVD, we can watch some of our dives on the SkyQuest website: http://www.skyquestflorida.com/2006_EventsKaleidoscope.html.  Also, Craig, Andrey, and Willy have (or will soon have) photos of the 2006 Kaleidoscope Dives up on their websites.  You can find these images by going directly to the following websites: Craig: www.craigob.com; Andrey: www.skyphoto.ru > “photo gallery” > “Kaleidoscope”;  Willy: www.skycam.be > “skydiving” > “Kaleidoscope.”  We encourage you to check out these photos to see what we accomplished, and to contact these great camera-flyers if you see an image that you want displayed on your wall.

When conducting our self-evaluation of this event, we tried to identify elements that may have contributed to some of the difficulties we experienced this year:  We increased the degree of difficulty for our dives; we had a larger turnover of team members than we’ve had for previous events; we had more aircraft flying in formation than usual; and we had to deal with some unexpectedly cold weather.  All of which did not help our dives.

On the flip side, there seemed to be lots of smiles on the DZ; there was an impressive learning curve during the event; we did make some very good dives; team members consistently showed up on time for the early calls, and we had an appreciative public audience for the first time for any SkyQuest / Kaleidoscope event – due to the pre-event publicity efforts by NSL.  And, most importantly, everyone played safely.  We had no safety-related incidents during the event.

In order to make the 2007 Kaleidoscope Dives better still, our Organizing Team would greatly appreciate hearing your input on this event.  If you have the time and inclination, could you please answer the few questions below, and/or add anything that you believe could be beneficial for future Kaleidoscope Dives?

Did you like the Dive Designs – formations and transitions?
Would you like easier dives that have multiple relatively-easy points?
Did you like the new venue at Skydive Deland?
Is four days the right length of time for this event?
Do you wish to see any changes in the communications for this event? (pre-event or during the event)
Please add any other comments that you believe would be constructive.

We thank all of you for participating in the 2006 Kaleidoscope Dives, and we hope to see you again next year!

BJ Worth, Kate Cooper, Larry Henderson, Rusty Vest, Roger Ponce, Mike Johnston