Warwick Skydivers raise over £55,000

Over the weekend of the 6th to 8th March, the Skydiving Club successfully raised £57,374.63 for over one hundred charities and deserving causes worldwide.

Despite a dramatic three fold increase in funds raised in comparison with last year, about one fifth of the participants had to walk back empty-handed and wait for their turn in Term Three due to bad weather conditions on the last day of the event.

The Great Warwick Jump has become the largest society fundraising event in the University of Warwick since its establishment in 2008.

It was set up by the Skydiving Club Chairmen Robert Smith and Nick Ellison. It aims to give 250 students and staff members the opportunity to perform a daring skydive, whilst raising funds for charities and causes of the participant’s choice.

Amongst the 230 odd participants who managed to raise the required funds, the largest total was raised by staff member Charlotte Lewis, who reached a staggering total of £1981.79.

The skydiving was offered in two categories: tandem skydives and static line skydives.

The tandem skydive proved to be the most popular choice since it only required a 15 minute briefing prior to the jump, in contrast to an eight hour programme for the static line skydive.

Static line skydivers were given the freedom to skydive on their own and manually control their parachute from an altitude of 4000 ft, whilst tandem skydivers jumped with an experienced instructor strapped to their back – with a one-minute freefall of 13,500 ft before opening the parachute.

During the weekend all 186 tandem skydivers accomplished their jumps and 137 of those took place on one single day.

The intensity of the jump has broken the record for both the skydive zone where the jumps took place, and, more importantly, the UK record. This is thought to be exceptional due to the short amount of daylight time available for a skydive in March.

Nick Ellison, one of the Chairmen, described this as a “real achievement, not only for us, but also for the skydiving centre.”

Oliver Choi, an second year EPAIS student, described the Great Warwick Jump as a “once in a lifetime experience”. Enthusiastic about his experience, he said, “I thought it was one of the best organised events I’ve been to… Everyone should do it”.

Weather conditions on the last day of the event prevented any further skydives, meaning static line skydivers who spent the previous day training will have to wait for an opportunity in Term Three.

Francesca Morgante, a second year student, was one of the students who did not complete a static line jump. She said she was disappointed, but commented, “There’s nothing they can do about the weather”.

Ellison, said the club have arranged for those who were unable to jump, to complete the skydive the second weekend of Term Three. “It was very unfortunate they weren’t able to jump.

“It was a difficult decision to say ‘Sorry guys, it’s not happening’, but weather conditions were terrible, it started snowing… they should all get to jump over the coming weeks.”

Ellison is proud of the event, saying “It’s really amazing that our event has brought together around 1.5 per cent of the university population to raise two-thirds of the total charitable donations made by Warwick students this year… We’re so grateful to all of our participants who worked so hard to achieve this.”