Don Cross - Chief Instructor, AFF Instructor, Tandem Master and Drop Zone Operator
Since doing his first jump in 1985, Don Cross has achieved much in the sport of skydiving. Of most recent note, he was awarded the AUSTRALIAN SPORTS MEDAL 2000 by the Prime Minister Mr John Howard, and the Governor General Sir William Dean. When Don isn’t jumping out of planes you’ll find him flying them. You just can’t keep his feet on the ground.
In 1999 he was awarded the Diploma of Excellence in Formation Skydiving from the Federal Aeronautique Internationale – the International Skydiving Federation. His 8 Way team holds the current Australian Record for the maximum number of formations scored, a record made at the World Championships in 1999. A veteran of competition Don has won 8 National Skydiving Championships in his time, the most recent being 2007. Don hopes to take his skydiving team to the World Championships in 2008.
As well as being a regular competitor at State, National and International Competitions and an all round great guy to know, Don is also a highly qualified Coach and Instructor with an Associate Diploma in Vocational Training.
1988 - Military Freefall Instructor
1990 - APF Static Line Instructor
1991 - APF AFF Instructor
1992 - Level 2 Coaching Accreditation
1995 - Instructor A Rating
1997 - AFF Instructor Examiner
2001 - Tandem Instructor Examiner
2002 - Victorian Instructor Panel Chair
Louise Cross - AFF Instructor, Drop Zone Safety Officer and Drop Zone Operator
Louise has completed 1500 jumps since 1987. She has been an active instructor at several drop zones, and came to Victoria with Don Cross to run Skydive Nagambie.
Louise has been competing at State and National Level since the beginning of her skydiving career, and was a member of Australia's largest women's freefall formations in 1990 and 1992. She was also a member of the largest mixed freefall formation in the country in 1993. After just 3 years of skydiving, Louise became the Victorian Intermediate runner up State Champion!
Since 1991, she has focused on teaching and coaching others in the sport of skydiving. With her impeccable safety record, Louise is also the Drop Zone Safety Operator for all disciplines. With the friendliest manner on the microphone, you will find Louise at manifest most weekends, getting people organised to get in the plane and go jumping!
1991 - APF AFF Instructor
1994 - Level 2 Coaching Accreditation
1997 - Instructor B Rating
2000 - Drop Zone Safety Officer (all disciplines)
2000 - Australian Canopy Relative Work Crest
Carsten Boeving - AFF Instructor, Brel Tutor, 8-way Champ!
Carsten has been jumping for 5 years, enjoying 4-way and 8-way competitions around Australia. He loves to compete in skydiving teams - he continually professes, "the camaraderie experienced in a good team is not matched by anything!"
Carsten loves introducing AFF students into the world of skydiving, and hopes to convert all of them into 4-way champions.
Timmy "Kiwi" Buhler - Packer, Camera Boy, Maintenance and Office Mule
Timmy has been jumping for 2 years and is absolutely loving it. At 300 jumps his energy and enthusiasm is infectious and regularly gets the jumpers excited! He hopes to one day gain his AFF and Tandem ratings and further pursue his full-time jumping career.
Well done Timmy!
Steph Bensley - AFF Instructor
Steph started skydiving at the age of 16 and now has close to 2000 jumps. She participated in the 81 way Australian record in 1999, and completed her AFF instructor rating in 2000.
Steph has spent a lot of time jumping at various locations in the States, building up skills and has competed in teams around Australia. Most recently Steph competed at the Nationals in Sydney with her team Fournication, and has since joined Nexgen, Australia's premiere 8-way team.
Andrew Daniels - IB , AFF, Tandem
Ever since 'Danny' Daniel's first leap, jumping has been his drug of choice (apart from a few quite beers after a good days jumping). For Danny, the initial adrenalin rush of throwing yourself out of a plane has changed to either the rush of competition, the joy of the constant new experiences/places/sights and the satisfaction and pleasure of introducing new people to 'our world'.
He can't name any one jump as the best (they are all good) but the rush/experience and awe of exiting between smoking volcanoes in Indonesia, jumping over the ocean off Thailand, seeing Kangaroo Valley full of fog; looking like a big bowl of milk cascading over the lip of the escarpment, night jumps into the Royal Easter Show, jumping into the National Stadium in Singapore (flying beside (below) skyscrapers and hearing 80000 people all screaming at once), demos into Adelaide GP, Phillip Island 500 GP, etc are but some of the memorable ones. However, really even the simple satisfaction/pleasure of sharing in the high of a first jumpers buzz is what keeps Danny, and all of us coming back.
So 23 years, 4000+ jumps (900 Military) and a lot of life later the young, dumb fellow nervously approaching the Cessna C180 aircraft for his first jump with a round parachute on his back and a reserve on his chest, is now a older, greyer bloke (with more modern gear) but inside....... nothing has really changed at all.
Jonny D - Packer, Camera Boy, AFF Instructor, Tandem Master, Office Mule.
Jonny boy has clocked up 1200 jumps in his 3 years of jumping around Drop Zones in South Africa, New Zealand and Oz, and now lives at Skydive Nagambie. He digs freeflying and can’t say no to bigway tracking dives.
When not racing the pilots down to the bar on sunset loads, he’ll either be practicing his aerial photography, packing, refuelling aircraft, answering phones, or working behind the bar keeping skydivers and the like smiling.
His philosophy – ‘Don’t worry, be happy… and try to wear a suit for the least days in a lifetime as possible!’.
Kim Foster - AKA Skud - Tandem Master, AFF instructor
The party boy of the drop zone, Skud has 4000 jumps as a tandem Master and an AFF instructor. On his way there, he has been part of the world record nudie way attempt. A serious skydiver, Skud is the drop zone load pig. When not jumping, you will find him at the Karaoke machine blaring out Brittany Spears tunes to the dismay of the local Nagambie community or chasing people around the DZ with glow sticks... yes Skuddy, "it's all about the sticks!"
Jill Grantham - Manifest, Freefly Champion
Jill has been involved in all the facets of the sport. From freeflying, CRW (Canopy Relative Work), skysurfing to manifesting and packing. She has spent time in Arizona working on her skills in the wind tunnel. She hopes to start a freefly team with one of the DZ's resident orphans some day, whilst still maintaining her skillfully refined manifesting abilities.
Marty Hanley - Tandem Master
Marty is no stranger to the sky. He has been leaping from planes for over 20 years now and has written 6 books on skydiving. Cheque books that is!
Marty has just returned from Europe where he was working as a Tandem Master. When not jumping, Marty can often be seen overhead in his microlight.
David Kinton - Tandem Master, AFF instructor, IB
Dave has accumulated 1400 jumps and has been skydiving for quite some time at a number of drop zones in Australia. He has a strong passion for education in skydiving and student progression. Being quite the socialite, Dave (single) is trying to perfect the art of square pole dancing with the help of his favourite Queensland bear, Bundy.
Dave's runs the bloodline of a skydiving family, his father John being President of POPS.
Warren "The Silver Foxxx" Keogh - Tandem Master, Freeflyer!
Wokka as we also like to call him has been jumping for over 10 years and has accumulated over 1300 jumps. He loves to freefly and takes particular pride in showing Tandem students their first ever jump.
His notable feats include "honche flying", which is a new form of freeflying on one's "honches", and of course the well known "shimmy carve".
Wokka has incrementally been adding to his ratings, with a hope to one day gain his freefly tutor endoresment.
Emma Pearce - Packer, Camera Girl, Office Mule
Emma "Innit" Pearce has been jumping for over 2 years in the UK, New Zealand and Australia, clocking up over 200 jumps. She loves hanging off the doors of Cessna 182s and has a habit of losing shoes in freefall. Her latest escapade involved wingsuiting over the lakes of Nagambie at our latest ABC Camp.
Em hopes to gain her AFF rating and jump for many years to come!
Theresa “T” Malin - Tandem Master, Camera Flyer, Brel Tutor, ID
26 year old Theresa has accumulated 1500 jumps over her 10 years in the sport and has recently received her Tandem Mistress rating. T is Victoria’s only female Tandem Master! Her most memorable jump was docking with her brother on his first tandem jump.
What she loves about jumping: Always new skills to learn, having new experiences, freeflying and hanging out with mates. She is the resident party chic, continually showing the boys how it’s done.
Mitch McMartin - AFF instructor, Camera Flyer
Mitch is another one of our resident Camera Flyers who has 3500 jumps. His favourite discipline of skydiving is canopy formation “CRW” and taking that perfect photo! He has represented Australia at a number of world meets and successfully competed in various National and State Championships. His best jump was being involved in the U.S CRW record attempt in 2002, Lake Wales, Florida, doing 50 way diamond jumps. Mitch is also a teacher of Aerial Photography… yes Master.
Lookout girls, he is known to be a bit of a ladies man.
Patrick Nygren - Tandem Master, Videographer, National Team Cameraman (Sweden & Australia)
Patrick has over 5000 skydives and is a world-renowned cameraman. He has recently returned from the 2006 World Meet in Germany representing Australia, filming 8-way team ‘Deton8’. He has just returned to a full time instructor position here at Skydive Nagambie.
Welcome back Swede!
Shannon Straubinger - AFF Instructor, RW Tutor, TV Personality
Shanno has been jumping for 6 years and has recently become a Nagger's local. Over this time he has clocked up over 1000 jumps and has competed in and been successful at numerous State and National Championships in both 4 way and 8 way events.
He is passionate and enthusiastic about the development of students from their first jump onwards. This and his superior airskills has led to one fine AFF instructor.
Shanno loves checking out the world from 4,000ft under canopy whilst admiring a nice sunset. When he's not turning points at 14000', you can find him at the bar chatting about jumping over a couple of cold beers. Well done for recently acquiring your bobcat licence mate!
Phil Thamm - Master, AFF Instructor, IB, Rigger
An ex Army Red Beret Parachute Team member Phil has a vast amount of experience in the sport. He has over 4000 jumps to his name! Not only has he done a hell of a lot of skydives he is extremely qualified as an Army Jump Instructor, Rigger, Tandem Master and AFF Instructor B. Phil’s most memorable jump is skydiving with his brother Chris who is also in the Army.
Craig Vaughan - AFF Instructor, Instructor B, Coach.
Craig started jumping in 1991 and has since accumulated over 3000 jumps. His achievements include representing Australia in 8 way Formation Skydiving at the 2004 World Championships in Croatia and has recently returned from representing Australia with 8 way team ‘Deton8’ in the 2006 World Meet in Germany, as well as coming 2nd at the Nationals Meet in 2005 in 4 way formation skydiving. He most recently won the Victoria State Meet with his 4-way team, "C4".
Kim Williamson - AFF Instructor, Brel Tutor, Drop Zone Mum
Kim started jumping in October, 1998, and has since become the mum of Skydive Nagambie - looking after the Drop Zone orphans. Many delicious dinners and sweet wines after memorable skydives!
Kim's favourite jump was her 100th in Empuriabrava, Spain, and has continued jumping in many parts of the world. She was on the Australian 47-way Female Formation Record in 2003 and a part of the latest Victorian 8-way team, but more than anything, Kim loves teaching students and guiding them through the sport we love so much. A passionate AFF instructor and great mum!
Clayton Werner - Tandem Master, Freefly Extraordinaire
Clayton has been jumping for over 10 years in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia - clocking up over 1500 jumps. He loves freeflying and can't say no to a 2-way headdown jump at Sunset after a hard day's work.
He gained his Tandem rating with Wokka and the two have since been the resident jump pigs at Naggers!
Clayton is heading to the Tunnel in Eloy later this year to further perfect his flying.
Michael Wildniech - Packer A, Cameraboy, AFF Instructor
Michael started jumping in 2005 and since then has notched up 650 jumps. He has jumped at drop zones in Temora, Bridgewater, Torquay, Peris Valley USA and New Zealand.
Michael has recently acquired his AFF rating, and is keen to continue developing his freefall skills and progressing into a Tandem Master.
Mike Williamson - AFF instructor, Tandem Master, Rigger
Mikey has clocked over 1000 jumps in his time skydiving. He has competed at the Victorian Championships in the intermediate 4-way competition and has recently returned from Europe, being involved in the Irish Nationals record attempt.
An avid AFF instructor and Tandem Master, he is Nagambie’s resident rigger and gear maintainer, keeping us all safe in the air. Mike is married to fellow jumper Kim Williamson AKA ‘Mum’, who does a mighty fine job looking after everyone at the Drop Zone, including the occasional meal cooked for the gang on a Saturday night. What a team!
Mike hopes to compete at a World Meet, and is prepared to take anyone on who thinks they can beat him in Fooz.
Greasy Greg - Purveyor of fine culinary delights
Harden your arteries boys and girls! Greg has been catering for skydivers for 10 years. At one jump, his knowledge and dedication to the sport is huge due to the many drinks shared with skydivers around the bar.
He aspires to start his own home cooking show at the drop zone. Look out Jamie Oliver!
