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.[1][2]

History

The first ever international skydiving competition was held in 1990 and was directed by World Freestyle Federation. In 1995 the sport gained much popularity across the world and had 62 teams from over 24 countries participating in this competition. This soon made way for World Cup of Skydiving in 1996. Freestyle was first performed by Deanna Kent and others for her husband Norman Kent's 1989 film "From Wings Came Flight".[3] It became a competitive skydiving discipline in the early 1990s and became an official FAI sport in 1996.

Indoor freestyle skydiving
Training in an indoor vertical wind tunnel
An indoor freestyle skydiving competitor

Indoor freestyle skydiving, also known as skydancing, is another form of the sport, made possible since the development of vertical wind tunnels in 1964.

Amy Watson was entered into the Guinness Book of World Records at age 11 by completing 44 360-degree horizontal spins in one minute.[4]

Indoor freestyle skydiving is typically set to music. At the Wind Games 2016, international competitors Leonid Volkov (Russian) took gold, Maja Kuczyńska (Poland) took Silver and Guillaume Boileau (Canadian) took bronze. Although the movements appear fluid and effortless, they require great strength and control. The competitions consist of low and high speed flow which means competitors can execute very different moves in the wind flow. The routines include gymnastic moves, balletic type Ts, somersaults, twists and splits.[5]

Competitions

A number of competitions based on indoor skydiving have emerged, such as the FAI World Cup of Indoor Skydiving[6] since 2015 and the Windoor Wind Games since 2014.[7][8] There are also efforts underway to bring Bodyflying to the Olympics.

See also

References
  1. Stuart, Dale. "The Art and Technique of Freestyle Skydiving." "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-11-14. Retrieved 2009-03-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) Retrieved 1 July 2000.
  2. Winddance"Winddance Home". Archived from the original on 2009-02-22. Retrieved 2009-03-06. Retrieved 6 Mar. 2009
  3. Trailer: From Wings Came Flight Retrieved Oct 15, 2012
  4. "Western Sydney indoor skydiver Amy Watson makes it into Guinness Book of World Records". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 3 January 2017.
  5. "Indoor Sky Dancing -- The Big Bang!". www.indoorskydiving.world. 17 February 2016.
  6. "Singaporean crowned junior freestyle champion at indoor skydiving World Cup". Channel NewsAsia. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
  7. "Skydivers compete in Wind Games 2017", BBC News, 2017-02-03, retrieved 2017-02-06
  8. Wong, Jonathan (2016-10-16). "Singapore teen Kyra Poh wins junior freestyle gold at Indoor Skydiving World Cup". The Straits Times. Retrieved 2017-02-06.
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