Annual Santa Maria Air Show Returns After Having To Cancel Last Year
The United States Army’s parachute team, the Golden Knights, is getting ready for the Thunder Over The Valley Air Show at the Santa Maria Museum of Flight this weekend.
Kenneth Severin is one of fourteen parachuters on the Golden Knights. He says “you can see the smoke in the sky” when soaring through the sky.
Severin describes the high-adrenaline job as one that requires a great deal of focus, because “in the moment and that moment all that matters is what you’re doing.”
Mike Geddry is the event director and works to help orchestrate the big jump that the Golden Knights will take – 12-thousand feet above ground.
Geddry says the air show is a way to honor our service men and women. He told KCOY 12’s Cory James that last year’s federal sequestration budget cuts “meant no money for the teams to come out because [the government] pays for the teams to be here.”
The Radison Hotel, located less than a mile from where all the action will take place, tells Central Coast News that they are almost booked for the weekend and credit some of that to the return of the air show.
Geddry says that is a good sign for the local economy, especially after having “a large boost of international visitors that schedule their vacation time just to see our show” over the years.
