PERALADA - PER DINAR

Notice is herewith given to those who have told either Bruno, Keith or me that they will be here on 22 December in the early p.m.: we meet at the OBRA SOCIAL in PERALADA for lunch. 14:00 h! Pepito's wife Tarsi is in charge of serving us the very best the region has to offer at the restaurant which is across from the Peralada castle.

No, OBRA SOCIAL is not the castle itself - it's the place across the street! A somewhat more humble setting than what you see above.

See you there! BTW: if you should drive from Empuriabrava, Keith and Redy are looking for a ride!

From the Jurassic Director ...

Bruno Brokken is the director of the 3-hour movie that will premiere on December 22nd ... And Bruno is also the art direcor for JURASSIC PARK 07. Acting in this capacity, he's only recently brought the logo in line with what will be the overriding theme of the event.

Are people still wearing frap hats these days? Probably not - but then they always said that the frap hat's only purpose was to make the corpse look good! As you can tell, it does serve this purpose enduringly well. Together with the Kroops goggles.

The Eagle Has Landed!

WELCOME BACK, EAGLE!

Breaking news! The eagle has landed: Redy "the Eagle" Redfern arrived in Empuriabrava in the late afternoon of today. Mister Hughes, PI, has pulled it off, has managed to get in touch with Redy over the phone, has told him about JURASSIC PARK 07, has invited him, ... and here's Redy! In town and ready to party! At over three weeks out!

Keith must have given "the Eagle" the wrong dates. Or is it that Redy missed us all so much he just couldn't wait?

News at this point are still sketchy, but reliable sources tell us that Redy already had a few beers at some of the joints he used to hang out at ... over 15 years ago.

Stay tuned for extensive coverage on Redy's first night in town.

Yasmin McQuerry - Yahoo

This lady (on the left of the picture) has a search engine named after her. Yasmin McQuerry - maiden name: Gaddo - went down in CPCB history as Yahoo. Back in the late 80s, way before anyone around here knew what a search engine was. Did they already exist?

Yahoo was the soul of the entire operation for two years. She was the voice you heard over the PA system, on the phone and in the bar ... Very frequently you heard this voice say: "It's so nnniiiiiiiiiccceee!"

She came here as an AFF student - "not an easy one," Mitch said - graduated, but only after a few repeats of levels 1 through 7, and kept on jumping at the CPCB until her money ran out. That was when she asked us for a job. Just kidding, Yahoo!

She actually became as proficient a skydiver as all of us had expected. Whoever said she didn't have any talent, they were proven dead wrong by Yahoo's steady progress. She actually left quite an impression on the DZ - at least on some of her landings. Just kidding again!

And she was the best receptionist/manifestor/executive secretary/dog nurse this parachute center ever had. Because YAHOO was NICE to everyone! Even to an injured (hit by a truck) doberman - I forgot its name - she picked up and brought back to health: with tender loving care and a vet bill in the hundreds of thousands. Fortunately enough, she/we paid in pesetas back then.

She left us to go to the States: Eloy, Arizona. Upward mobility it's called! Skydive Arizona was the #1 DZ in the world at the time - much bigger than the CPCB (but Skydive Empuriabrava tells me that the gap has narrowed since - that it's virtually a toss-up as to who's #1 now). And Yahoo still lives - and skis - in the States. We got a hold of her recently. That's what she wrote back:

It is so nice to hear from you! 'Jurassic Park' sounds good. Makes me feel old though ... Time flies when you are having fun, I guess. Anyway, tell me more about the reunion.
Yasmin, AKA YAHOO ... I am famous!

I wish I could have heard her say it: "It's so niiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiicccccccccccceee!" And maybe we will again be able take in her unbeatable acoustics on December 22. Jaume and I are already rehearsing the old war song for the occasion: "Gaddo ... Bobo ... Gaddo ... Bobo ..." In Yahoo's honor!

The picture shows the McQuerries, Yahoo with daughter and son, on a ski trip. You guys could ski around here too! And skydive! And it's much nicer than Aberdeen, Scotland. Wouldn't it be NICE? And we'll bring "FreeBag" down as well! Just kidding, Yahoo!

Pit Rütimann

Pit has been located! He lives back in his native Switzerland. In a mid-size village - or maybe 4,000 residents constitute more of a "small town" in Helvetia - in "Mättmi". In any case, Mettmenstetten, as anyone not in command of the Zurich dialect would call the place, is not far from where he left to come to the Costa Brava. Was it in 1986?
Two decades later: "de Pit" has celebrated his 50th birthday (picture on the left) a while back, he is married, he has kids, and he has many commitments! That's why he had to send us an e-mail last night:
"I won't be able to make it for this event of events. Too much resistance - too many obstacles!"
Pit pledges, however, to attend THE LOST WORLD - "provided the lead time is increased somewhat for that".
And he's absolutely right: here we are inviting people to travel to Spain from all corners of the globe - at only four weeks out, and with Christmas just around the corner.
In the name of my fellow organizers - who are still true nomades (Bruno is actually off in Florida right now) - I apologize for the short notice given this time.
From us Pit wanted to know a few things too: "Do you still skydive? Or is it golf already? Do you still have sex?" Possible answers: "No golf, please!" & "We should still have a few more years left!" & "Some of us do, some don't!" "Once every now and then!" & "Hardly ever!" & "We stopped years ago!" ... You pick them, Pit

The Other José Luis!

Have you seen this man as of lately? He does have his own website (click here and don't skip the flash) which dates back to the last job he pulled off. But since July 3, 2001, he has disappeared from the face of the earth.

He goes by the nick of "Don Pepe", is of rather short stature - he wouldn't have been picked as a center in the NBA - has a moustache (at least when he was last seen), and he hides his male pattern baldness beneath a hat - or with a Kojak-style hairdo.

As you can see on the photo, Don Pepe could be heavily armed ... Or are these just radios, cell phones, etc. dangling from his holster?

What we have heard - from sources who prefer to remain anonymous - is that Don Pepe could have been working on major real estates deals in and around Marbella as recently as 2006. Prior to the "Operation Malaya" breaking wide open!

In any case, we all want to get in touch with José Luis Bahón to invite him to JUARASSIC PARK 07. He, too, was here almost from day one. And having this party without him simply wouldn't be the same. His stamina was - and most likely still is - phenomenal: if someone happened to get him wet after midnight, he became virtually unstoppable ... Which led to another nickname: Gremlin!

He also brought us the Bulgarian Women National Parachute Team to Empuriabrava. But that turned out to be an utterly selfish act: he got married to the prettiest one!

Don Pepe, wherever you are, it's time to come out of hiding!

Huck Confirms!

Just got off the phone with the maker of "Charly's Angels", the round reserves designed and manufactured by Charles "Huck" von Sury for what must have been the biggest first-jump operation in all of Europe in the early 80s: the Paracentrum Texel.

He confirmed his attendance. And that of wife Fränzi as well. They will fly into Girona from Basel, Switzerland, on Ryanair (low-cost). Check for a Ryanair point of departure close to you on http://www.ryanair.com/

About his life Huck tells us: "I spend Tuesday through Thursday in Zurich - and Friday through Monday in Greppen, Lucerne. During the summer, on Tuesdays and Thursdays, I'm in Speck-Fehraltdorf, a DZ, all depending on weather, from 16:00 h until sunset plus one or two beers."

We all wish we could be as organized as Huck! Looking forward to see you again!

PEPITO FOREVER!

I had a longer phone conversation with Pepito earlier today. Aside from shooting the breeze - and that extensively - I pointed out that we couldn't find any decent pictures of him anywhere on the Web. I guess we talked for an hour ... And shortly thereafter I received these:
On one you see Pepito (yellow tie) with the assembled "Who's Who" of politics in Andalusia. Even the president of the "Junta de Andalucía", the autonomous regional government, among the many people listening to him.

Most people would probably ask: "Who's the guy with the pink tie Pepito is talking to?" Well, it's Chavez! El Presidente! And - very important to point out in view of recent diplomatic incidents between Spain and Venezuela - not HUGO but MANUEL. But then, I'm sure Pepito must have a picture with Hugo too.

The other shows Pepito with an anonymous tuna. PEPITO FOREVER!

Josep-Lluís Guerrero, the one and only PEPITO

That we didn't find anything in terms of imagery for Josep-Lluís Guerrero on the worldwide Web is nothing short of a paradigm shift. Pepito regularly had his picture taken with the likes of Fidel Castro - yes, "el comandante" himself - the very honorable Jordi Pujol, President of Catalonia, HM Juan Carlos I, King of Spain, etc. He also made sure that all of us got to see these pictures, too. And now suddenly we draw a blank ... Well, not quite: I did find one - click here - of Pepito posing with Spanish top model Ester Cañadas and former Moto GP pilot Sete Gibernau ... Pepito's on the very left! His current boss is on the right. It was taken at the recent Nautical Salon in Barcelona, and that can only mean: Pepito is back in business. Congratulations!

Pepito was instrumental in getting all of us - the Yankees and the Swiss - fully integrated into the Catalan and Spanish lifestyles ... Without him, we probably still wouldn't know that a "Pepito" is some sort of a sandwich ... Or that you squash tomato on your bread, put olive oil on it instead of butter ... And he did much more for us. Whenever we faced a problem, every other day, we turned to him - as a friend, as the director of the local tourist office, and as the guy who knew everybody there was to know in the corridors of power from Castelló to Madrid - passing through Barcelona (remember: at one point he had his picture taken with most of them). We all hope that Pepito will join us on the 22nd!

Client #1: Prof. Dr. Peter Gantzer

So we had us an aircraft - we had hired the Pilatus Porter PH-MEN from Texel - we had a pilot, a few skydiving instructors, a ground crew, we had whatever was needed to get the CENTRO de PARACAIDISMO COSTA BRAVA going ... And on day one, when we opened the doors to the world, we were able to welcome client #1: Prof. Dr. Peter Gantzer, an experienced skydiver from Germany we had met years earlier in Zephyrhills, USA. He showed up with three of his friends (I believe the team was called "Gorillas") and made it onto the first load of the day #1 in the CPCB history.

Looking at Peter's website - http://www.gantzer.de/ - I guess he's still as avid a skydiver as he was back then.

It would be an honor to have you here for JURASSIC PARK 07, Peter! And given your political background and your parliamentary career, you could bring a new meaning to the term "Party Animal" ...

Jaume Comas Espigulé

After we had met Amparo, she introduced us to Jaume Comas ... who became the second Catalan to join our team!

Jaume always showed up a little later. A habit he has managed to preserve through today.

Did I find a single JPG of him anywhere on the Web? No, I guess he still prefers anonymity ... But Jaume does get ample mention in the online BOE, official government publications and mercantile registers, as an administrator of the limited companies JIP Aviació and CENTRO de PARACAIDISMO COSTA BRAVA. And I just discovered: he has merged the two in 2003! Click here!

Prior to turning administrator and manager - he got his MBA a few years back - Jaume was the PILOT SUPREME who, on a good day, got more take-offs and landings in than most airline pilots do in a year. He started off flying a Cessna 207, then a Cessna 185, then a PC 6 (Jaume learned that from one of the best: Swiss aviator Noldi Widmer, who had flown these A/C in the Libyan desert), then the DHC 6, then ... At heart, I am sure, he's still a pilot first, even if he's currently spending much more time on an office chair than in the left seat.

Jaume has pledged to come and play with us during JURASSIC PARK 07.

Amparo Pagés Pinsach

The very first person we met at what was called the "Aeródromo de Ampuria Brava" back then. Castillian was the dominant language in 1985.

Amparo worked the tower and the "C" office at this fairly dormant aeronautical facility. Let's put it like this: flow control was not a major problem. A single Morane Saulnier Rallye A/C took off or landed at the most sporadic of intervals ... Hardly ever more than four times between sunrise and sunset.

That this should change - and change dramatically - in the months after we started working with Amparo was her merit as well. She was certainly overqualified to simply announce the active runway and provide info on the ground winds. Heck, Amparo was a flying legend! Click here for an article on her achievements in Spain's leading newspaper EL PAIS!

I couldn't find a photo of Amparo on the Web. But the "Whirly Girls" logo marks her style, and it stands for all the lofty aspirations which she helped us to fulfill.

She now owns and operates a classy B&B just a few kilometers from here. Check it out: http://www.cannavata.com/

Ian Head, a.k.a. the "London Tanner"

Much before Ian Head took up skydiving and ended up becoming a pro at it here in Spain, and way prior to his career as a manager of public houses from Zephyrhills ("Odyssee") to Amsterdam ("Hard Rock Café"), he was a craftsman working with leather. He even had his own book published on the topic (Blanford Press, 1979).

In Ian's own words:
My first wife wanted a handbag and I couldn't afford it, so I thought, “Well, I’ll buy some leather and make one.” She was a dancer -- a proper dancer. Some of the women that she worked with saw her handbag and started asking: “Can your husband make me this? Can he make me that?”

As I became more involved, I decided I really wanted to learn more about it, so I took a saddlery course. You can see the saddlery influence in my implements. I use saddlery- and harness-grade leather, the best I can possibly find, and the actual construction is basically the same as I would use to construct a saddle, a harness or a tack.

Well, Ian has returned to his original line of work. And the "London Tanner" is very successful at it. Check it out (if you're older than 21):

http://www.thelondontanners.com/

Never mind the Christmas sales, Ian! Just whip on over for the party!

Charles "Huck" von Sury

Another man of the very first hour: "Huck" was part of the exploratory expedition which traveled to the Costa Brava in early fall of 1985. Right off the island of Texel, Netherlands, passing through his native Zurich, he arrived here in a vintage car - minus one side mirror. I had clipped that off with a hired moving truck at the Swiss-French border in Geneva. Maybe it was my poor driving, maybe my nerves: the 3.5 ton vehicle was loaded with skydiving equipment and furniture, all of which essentially to be smuggled from Switzerland to Spain. And there was no Schengen Treaty back then!

I do hope he has forgiven me by now. And the German proverbial "golden nose", even if it should have been earned, is forgotten as well.

I have seen Charles last year. Guess where? At a drop zone in Switzerland. He must still be one of the most active of us all, taking to the skies with his wife Fränzi whenever they get a chance.

So why not come for the party on the 22nd of December and stay for the entire Christmas boogie? An e-mail will be sent today. Hope to see you here, Huck & Fränzi!

Jeff "Umberto" Barbani

We just came across Jeff Barbani's current website (http://ultratones.com). He's certainly been a smart dresser in the past, but his involvement with "The Fabulous Ultratones" has him reach new heights in selecting his outfits. You simply must have a look at "Umberto" wearing a tux: black or white, depending on the occasion.

We also checked on the calendar of his band. There's a major gig at the San Diego Aerospace Museum on December 15, there's a wedding on December 30, nothing else is scheduled in between. Theoretically, at least, there would be plenty of time for Jeff to make it to Spain for JURASSIC PARK 07 on December 22. Now that we have an e-mail address as well, we'll just fire off an invitation. Right away!

We all know that Jeff was as great a musician as he was a skydiver. What we didn't know: he appeared in concerts alongside Willie Nelson, Arlo Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson, Marshall Tucker ... Just imagine he could join us and play his arm again! One more time! For old times' sake.

Mitch Decoteau

Skydiving and smokejumping legend Mitch Decoteau confirms his attendance of JURASSIC PARK 07. To be in Spain for the party, Mitch interrupts his retirement in the boonies of Arkansas. He will arrive in Barcelona on December 12.

After his final summer on the Alaskan fire fronts, he is now a happy pensioner with time on his hands and dollars in his pockets ...

LET'S BURN THEM!

WHO?

YOU! And we mean: YOU! EVERYBODY who was here - in Empuriabrava - at the CPCB from day one (from 1985 onward; or maybe even prior to '85), who has pulled the ripcord and received the medal ... or at least a T-shirt! Skydivers, pilots, EVERYBODY ...
WE want YOU! WE: Bruno Brokken, Keith Hughes and Roland Hilfiker. YOU: you know who!

BE THERE OR ELSE!

Hard to tell who came up with the name, either Bruno or Keith, but somehow it stuck: JURASSIC PARK!

JURASSIC PARK 07 is a "class reunion" of sorts. And the use of the name is definitely not sanctioned by Steven Spielberg or Michael Crichton.

JURASSIC PARK 07 is a party for people who were around in the early days (before/thereafter), who do not consider themselves fossils, and who know perfectly well that the world is not yet lost. Bruno actually believes THE LOST WORLD to be the perfect theme for the sequel edition, for the party after this one ...

But first things first! Mark the date of December 22, 2007, in red! In the afternoon of the Saturday in question we all meet at SKYDIVE EMPRURIABRAVA, the drop zone formerly known as CENTRO de PARACAIDISMO COSTA BRAVA (CPCB), and we set out on a journey into skydiving's past.