|
Cliff Dobson
 started jumping June 10, 1962, in Alliance, Nebraska. His father, Park Dobson Jr., was his pilot for the first 65 jumps and Charles Jensen was his Jumpmaster. Since then Cliff has accumulated over 8,000 jumps. Cliff’s formative skydiving years were with "Shorty" and "Mike" Janousek at the Lincoln Sport Parachute Club in Lincoln, NE while he was attending the University of Nebraska (Go Big Red!). He held club offices as President and Vice President several times and was the Area Safety Officer for Nebraska and Western Iowa. Cliff was also a recipient of the Ken Sisler Memorial Award. Cliff moved to Tampa, Florida in February 1978, and took over student training at Z-Hills from 1978-1980, and was team captain of the "Z" ten-way speed team. During that time, Cliff joined the Budweiser Skydiving Demo team and became the team captain for the next ten years for both demo and competition teams. Cliff was a member of seven US Parachute Teams, six of which won Overall Champion titles. He has numerous World and National medals and Overall Championships in CRW. Cliff has also won medals in 4-way RW and Accuracy at the US Nationals. Cliff holds ratings from Static Line Jumpmaster to AFF I/E and Tandem I/E, S&TA, pilot and rigger. Cliff was a member of USPA's first AFF Certification Class in Deland and in the first class of Tandem Instructors certified by Strong Enterprises. Cliff's most memorable tandem jump was with Prince Abdullah of Jordan (now King Abdullah) over Amman. Cliff has over 1,700 jumps as an AFF JM/I and over 1,300 jumps as a Tandem Instructor. In addition to his son--Cliffer, Cliff has a daughter--Michelle, with over 3,200 jumps. Recently, his two grandsons each made their first jumps. He also has three younger brothers who have or are jumping along with one nephew who is currently jumping and his two sisters that made tandems with Cliff. Cliff has owned and operated Skydive Tampa Bay since 1980.
Michelle Dobson
My first skydive was on my 16th birthday, with Skydive Tampa Bay, over 20  years ago on August 7th. I packed parachutes since I was 13 years old to prove my commitment to this sport and to gain knowledge just by being around it. I knew ever since I was a small child that I would jump from an airplane someday. I planned on it. Lucky enough, for me, my father is the owner; (Cliff Dobson) getting permission wasn’t as hard for me as most kids would have to deal with. It was one of the greatest birthday presents I ever received. I started to do freefall photography about 2 years after my first jump. It was the easiest way that I could afford to stay in my hobby. Getting paid to do the one thing you love the most is EVERYONE'S dream! I haven't stopped doing videos & pictures. I find it very rewarding seeing that gleam in a new person's eyes when "they get it". Most people will never understand how beautiful every jump can be. The view is incredible, the adrenaline is wonderful, & the feeling is out of this world! I've never found anything else here on the ground that gives back so much, besides love. I have over 3,200 jumps. I love clouds, hot-air balloons, helicopters, jumps over Hawaii, and playing with my new & old friends while I am up there. When my feet are on the ground, I am an Orthodontic Assistant, a licensed Realtor, and a back-up singer in a local band. I live for the weekends…(More Skydiving! Yahoo!)
Lori Dobson  Skydiving! Talk about a lifestyle change… My first Jump was in October of 1997, just the typical “something I’ve always wanted to do”. Little did I know that that one decision was to radically alter my life in so many ways… Graduating AFF in January of 1998, I gleefully “jumped” into the world and culture of this fascinating, exhilarating sport. Paying for jumps? No problem – I just married the DZO, Cliff Dobson, in 2001 and have been happily pursuing both of my passions ever since. Adding video photography has only added to my skydiving bliss and I’ve now accumulated over 1,600 jumps and added a couple of 2008 Nationals medals to go along with them. There is absolutely nothing else to be found to equal the incredible fun, camaraderie and cheerful insanity of this amazing activity, which I plan to enjoy as long as I can toddle from the step of the plane.
George Kingston I made my first jump in September of 1989 at Skydive Tampa Bay. As
 with most, I was immediately addicted. But, unfortunately, life got in the way of living and I only got to jump every now and then. That all changed in 2003 when I decided that it was time to work less and play more, a lot more. I thought, "what better way to do that than to jump out of a plane all day". So I started showing up early at the DZ and putting my name on every load. Since then, I've done a lot of freeflying and shooting video. I later went on to acquire my Coach, AFF instructor, Tandem instructor, and Pro ratings. Now I spend my time having more fun than any one person should be allowed to have. Whether it's falling out of the sky riding a blow-up whale, hanging upside down from the wing of the plane like batman, doing tandems, shooting video or the never ending quest to break the sound barrier on my canopy, I'm with my best friends, doing what I love.
Doug Kirk
Doug Started his skydiving career here at skydive Tampa in 1994 when his
 sister gave him a skydive for his Birthday. Most every weekend since 94 Doug has been jumping. Doug soon became the Video guy filming Tandem skydives and honing his flying skills. Doug Became a Tandem Instructor in 2000 and progressed quickly to become an AFF instructor and is now the Safety and Training Advisor for Skydive Tampa. Doug is also the resident BB-Q man and usually has a part in the evening entertainment. You can always go to Youtube.com and see many happy faces jumping Tandem with Doug. If you come to spend the weekend here to jump and have a crazy time Doug is the go to guy. as of 2009 Doug has accumulated 4000 skydives more than 2500 are Tandems with some people going on to jump on their own and others becoming Instructors themselves. As with any of the staff here at Skydive Tampa Doug is happy to stop an answer any questions you might have. Safety is the priority here at skydive Tampa and Doug will demonstrate that fact on any given day.
Cliffer Dobson
Cliff Jr., better known as Cliffer, was basically born into the sport of
 skydiving July 3, 1965. At the age of twelve, he began packing his dad's parachute (under close supervision of course). By the time he made his first skydive on July 4, 1981, he had already accumulated nearly 5,000 pack-jobs. Cliffer's first jump at Tampa Bay Parachute Ranch was achieved through a special waiver from the USPA. At that time Ken Coleman's freefall program, now known as the Accelerated Freefall program, was not yet approved. Cliffer's jump was known as a "Harness Hold" skydive and was supervised by instructors Cliff Dobson (his father) and Alfred Boger. Within three years after graduating from the program Cliffer had acquired his Static-line Jumpmaster rating and went on to become the first AFF graduate to become an Accelerated Freefall Jumpmaster. (According to then Course Director, Paul Sitter).Cliffer has won numerous National Championships and World Championship medals in CRW and was a member of the US Parachute Team from 1983 to 1993. He also has multiple World Records from all three CRW events. His competition years, especially those as a member of the Budweiser team with his father and fellow teammate Bill Hazlett, will remain some of the most memorable skydives of his life. Cliffer currently holds ratings as an AFF Instructor, an FAA certified Senior Rigger, has been a Safety and Training Advisor and is a licensed private pilot. Cliffer has also accumulated more than 6,900 skydives and 83 hours of freefall. He has made more than 850 jumps as an AFF/JM/I, and nearly 2,400 tandem skydives with only one malfunction (He didn't pack that one.) And most notably for Cliffer, he was able to surpass his goal of 5,000 skydives with no malfunctions. Cliffer is currently retired and pursuing other challenges with his wife Tish & their sons. He still checks in and helps maintain the website for us.
|
