The Weyburn airport served as the temporary home for Skydive South Sask, a non-profit skydiving club based in Moose Jaw, for the last three months, and as their stay in Weyburn ended on Sunday, club members deemed the relocation was well worth it.
“It far exceeded our expectations,” said club member and instructor Sheldon Driedger, who noted when they first came at the start of May, they weren’t sure they would break even to cover their costs.
Instead, with the interest shown by Weyburn and area residents in skydiving, the club saw numbers that surpassed all of last year in Moose Jaw.
Two women who both had their very first skydiving experiences in a tandem jump on Sunday said they very much enjoyed it.
“It was amazing,” said Laura Knoblauch, who was there with her friend Kim Skjerdal. They said the preparation and help from the instructors was so thorough they had no fears in making the jump, and Knoblauch added she loved it so much she’d love to go up again right away.
The temporary relocation was needed as their home base at the Moose Jaw airport was being upgraded with repairs and construction, and to continue with their skydiving activities, they chose to fly out of Weyburn’s airport. The plan was initially to be in Weyburn for May and June, but they extended the stay through July as the work at the Moose Jaw airport was not yet completed.
Coun. Dick Michel, who is a member of the Weyburn airport board, said it was a huge benefit to the airport to have this group there for the past three months.
“We always like to see people with enthusiasm, and these people brought it, with all walks of life and all ages,” he said, noting he was really touched by one experience a couple of weekends ago.
He described seeing a family there from Moose Jaw, with a woman confined to a wheelchair who had skydiving on her bucket list. She’s 20 years old, he said, and seeing the care and professionalism the group had in taking her up for a skydive brought tears to his eyes.
“It was on her list to do. It just made my whole day,” said Coun. Michel, adding that for the City and for the airport, “It was enthusiasm we needed.”
He noted there were people who came in to stay overnight here to go skydiving, so there was some spinoff benefit to the city.
This past weekend was their last one in Weyburn for this year, said Driedger, noting the club had 209 tandem jumps as of Sunday.
Tandem skydives are where an inexperienced skydiver is paired with an experienced person, and they do the jump together.
There were also 16 students in the First Jump course who trained and had their first dives. The majority of these were from Weyburn and Regina.
Of those who came out for solo or tandem skydives, 75 participants listed Weyburn as their home city, and the majority of the other participants were from around the Weyburn area. A total of 140 people listed Zone 1 as their geographic SaskSport zone.
“We’ve had people from pretty much all over, including Saskatoon, Stoughton, Carlyle, quite a few from Regina, and last weekend we had people from Wawota. These are people who would never have come to Moose Jaw to jump,” said Driedger.
Asked if it was worth relocating to Weyburn for these past three months, he said, “Yes it was. It was more than worth it. It saved us, and will allow us to continue to operate for another couple of years. COVID hurt us bad last year.”
The club has preliminary plans to possibly come back to Weyburn for a week next June, and offer to do tandem jumps for that time.
Weyburn used to have a sport parachuting club in the 1990s, along with a number of locations around the province, but today Skydive South Sask is the only non-profit group left, and there is a for-profit business for skydiving based in Saskatoon.
Driedger didn’t think Weyburn would be able to form a club now, as the stringent rules and requirements by Transport Canada are very extensive and daunting.
