Back in the beginning of the Lodi Sequentials, Robby Bigley, Mike Knight, MX Bill Halsey and the rest of the Lodi crew talked about one day doing 60-way Sequentials. The Lodi Sequentials themselves grew from 6 and 8-ways to 40-ways. But in 2009 the event took a massive blow with the tragic loss of Robby Bigley, one of the main organisers of the event.
#Live Bigz
From there Live Bigz was born. Alana Fulvio-Bigley, Robbie’s wife, took on events continuing in his footsteps offering free coaching from big names with a lot of experience to those newer to the sport and lower experienced jumpers. While Mike and MX continued with Sequential events, growing each time. The events moved from Lodi to Spaceland where Stephen Boyd got involved and as owner of Skydive Spaceland, was able to offer EPIC facilities and backing to help the events grow and become as AWESOME as they possibly could be!
Heading into this event it was looking like it would be the biggest so far, with over 100 people saying they would be there, it was looking like a giant leap for the event. The goal was to finally make the 60-way Sequentials a reality.
#Last minute surprise # 1
Fast forward to a couple of weeks out from the event, I start getting excited texts and emails about the formations that MX and Mike have planned. It turns out they found some of Robby Bigley’s formation drawings! He had already been planning 60-ways before he died and had already drawn the jumps! It would be like the old days! Robby designing the skydives again! Mike and MX started colour coding the points and would have the formation wear colour coded T shirts to help speed up the build and prevent people getting lost.
#Last minute surprise # 2
The next thing I hear we all need our FAI licenses. We were going to set some world records! Things started to get really exciting!
So, there we were, in the Skydive Spaceland aircraft hangar, dirt diving 60-way sequential skydives! It was really cool! The first part of the plan was to do a 2 point 60-way, while the remaining participants would burn through some points in preparation for phase 2 of the plan, 3 and 4 point 30-ways!
#60-ways
But first we had to accomplish phase 1, 60-ways. After getting literally within inches of the second point on a couple of attempts through Friday and Saturday, we decided to cut the outside 5-way pods down to 4-way pods in an effort to build the first point a little faster. A couple of attempts later we were all anxiously waiting on the Judges to decide if our final attempt from Saturday would be an official record or not. The points looked good, but did the judging panel have everything they needed for their official stamp of approval?
Yes they did!!! A New Sequential World Record 2-point 57-way!
#30-ways
That left the 30-ways. Through Sunday due to people’s commitments to the real world and work on Monday, we gradually lost participants throughout the day. This meant some careful planning to keep multiple 30-way groups going. It wasn’t until the very last jump on Sunday, after we were down to just one group that we were able to complete a 4 point 33-way which would be our final record of the weekend.
The best part is Robby Bigley dreamed up what we did. Sometimes life feels pretty ridiculous
#TEN Records!
In total our record tally included 10 records, 3 of them World Records. The first 60-way counted as a new Texas large formation record, even though we didn’t get the 2nd point. The 57-way was a State, National and World Sequential record as was the 33-way in both the 3 point and 4 point category.
Inside the Base: 4 point 33-way World Record
##Official record listings
1-point 60-way VFS, Head-down, General, Large formation – Texas State record,
2 point 57-way VFS, Head-down, Large Formation, Sequential – World, US-Open, and Texas State Records,
3-point and 4-point, 33-way VFS, Head-down, Large Formation, Sequential – World, US-Open, and Texas State Records.
#Connecting Bigz
What an event! Emotions ran high as everyone got to reconnect or connect for the first time with Robby Bigley; he was there in spirit, helping design the skydives, and keeping the atmosphere awesome and positive.
Massive thanks to MX Bill Halsey, Mike Knight, Donagene Jones and Stephen Boyd for putting this event together and for all those late nights of organizing slots!!! Big thanks to our Judges Randy Connell, Ori Kuper, and Rina Gallo who worked their asses off to come here on short notice and make sure we stayed within the rules and earned all our records. Thanks to Skydive Spaceland for being so EPIC and Thank you Alana Fulvio Bigley for bringing the Live Bigz to us all!!
