“Flock Yeah!” is a 4-day canopy skill camp held in Empuriabrava, Spain. The organizers focus mainly on building up skills on high performance canopies, safety precautions, communication, flight planning, and flocking maneuvers. Furthermore, all organizers have a tremendous amount of experience under canopy. Therefore, safety always comes first. The name of the event is related to its most prominent sponsor, NZ Aerosports. Flock Yeah! will be held September 15- 18, 2020 at Skydive Empuriabrava.

This year’s load organizers are Pete Allum (Flight 1), Bjorn Magne Bryn (Team One Call), Mike Burdon and Timothy Parrant. As a team, this crew has a background in aviation, paragliding/speed, BASE, and weather. These characteristics make the event stand out amongst the others in the industry. Additionally, if you sum up the experience of all those canopy pilots, you will get more than 50 thousand jumps!

Flock Yeah! 2019 from Juan Arenas Iglesias on Vimeo.

Core Values

Flock Yeah! is a very new project. Starting in 2019, this year will be the second edition. This canopy skill camp connects a significant number of flyers. As well as inspiring many more around the world. Timothy Parrant, the event organizer, says the core values of the event are based on:

Open-mindedness – unlocking the potential

Teamwork – within a high skill environment

Creativity – exploring new and unique expression through flocking

“The project was mainly driven from wanting to increase love and respect for canopy flight.  Also its in loving memory of Michael Vaughan. He was my mentor and canopy coach and who is the reason why I never gave up on myself and am still skydiving today”. – Timothy Parrant

Who are we looking for?

Flock Yeah! is looking for canopy pilots who are chasing a new challenge and are flying a high performance wing. The average wing load of the group is between 2.2 to 2.9. Expectations for the 2020 event are to have smaller groups to fly tighter and be more dynamic. NZ Aerosports sponsor the event, but that doesn’t mean only their canopies can flock in this event. Fly with us independently of the wind you have.

Even though Flock Yeah! is an advanced canopy skill camp event. Tim Parrant says that anyone interested in knowing what their canopy and themselves can do, should apply to the event. Although there are minimum requirements to join Flock Yeah!. The organization would love to keep your info for invitations to future events that connect better with your experience. 

If you like to be a ground support volunteer for the event, please apply through the email.

Perhaps you are looking for a new wing? Interested in getting as much relevant knowledge about canopies as possible? Read the extremely informative article Pete Allum wrote, How to Find the Correct Wing for Each Pilot.

Outcome

Expect to be shocked by how much more you can get out of your canopy. Previous attendees who had thousands of skydives spoke about how surprised they were of how much they didn’t know about their canopy capabilities.

Attendees will learn how to safely brief and prepare for the following:

• a flocking jump
• exit procedures and separation
• approaching formation
• flying techniques (more than the advanced pilot)
• flocking formations
• break off, and planned landings

Who is Timothy Parrant

Timothy Parrant, or Koala in the Sky, is a professional skydiver and canopy pilot that works at Skydive Empuriabrava. Tim has more than 5400 skydives, 1000+ paragliding hours, and also 220 BASE jumps. Flying a Leia 84 and 69 from NZ Aerosports. Working as an extreme sports photographer, and his primary income comes from skydiving. In the past, he would compete, but currently focuses on improving the safety of the sport through skydiving safety classes and media material. Most significant is his contribution is the Camera Flying Manual, which now is worldwide recognized in the skydiving community.

Keep coming back

Indeed this event looks quite awesome. Although I was thinking about participating this year, I am not flying a very high performance wing currently. And so, many people like myself will need to wait for the next event. The good news about it is that there are always another event on the horizon. Don’t rush anything and try to do a safe progression when talking about canopy.

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