Freestyle skydiving

Freestyle skydiving is a competitive skydiving discipline where one member of a two-person team performs acrobatic manoeuvres in free fall while the other one films the performance from a close distance using a helmet mounted camera.

Freestyle was first performed by Deanna Kent and others for her husband Norman Kent's 1989 film "From Wings Came Flight". It became a competitive skydiving discipline in the early 1990s and became an official FAI sport in 1996.

History

Sky Diving Introduction to Sky Diving and history

The first successful parachute jump was made from a hot air balloon in 1797 and, from that point, the military developed parachuting as a means of evacuating staff from emergencies on board airplanes and balloons. Later, parachuting was used as a method of deploying ground troops in war zones.

These days, sky diving is the recreational form of parachuting and can involve a period of freefall, wherein aerial acrobatics and formation maneuvers may be performed before deployment of the actual chute. Competition sky diving began in the 1930s and was recognised as an official sport in 1951.

Sky diving is done from a plane or sometimes a helicopter which takes off from a small airbase known as a drop zone. Skydivers usually exit the aircraft at an altitude of 4,000 metres (13,000 ft) and freefall for a time before opening their chute to slow their descent to a safe landing speed.

The Art and Technique of Freestyle Skydiving

The first thing that you need to remember about freestyle skydiving is safety. The first and foremost thing that you need to have is altitude awareness. At first you need to be aware of certain freestyle moves. They could make you dizzy and or disoriented. You want to make sure you're aware of how far the ground is from your feet the entire time. While performing freestyle you need to increase your margins of safety. Set a minimum altitude for stopping all freestyle maneuvers, which is at least 500 feet higher than your usual break off altitude. This gives you time to recover your stability and orientation if anything should happen. If you're already stable, then use these few extra seconds to look around and enjoy the scenery. Then you can attend to the business of breaking off and pulling without feeling rushed. Before you start doing your freestyle moves you should make a habit of taking a good look at the ground.

See also

• Freeflying
• Skydiving
• Parachute
• Drop zone

External links

• Artistic Events - FAI international parachuting commission (Freestyle Skydiving, Sky surfing & Free flying)
• Freestyle Skydiving - winddance.com
• Introduction to Sky Diving and history
• Skydiving Fatalities Query Engine
• Skydiving Fatalities
• How skydiving works