Would you ever try skysurfing?

[Douva 0]

Please elaborate on your answer and share any experience you've had with skysurfing.

--Douva

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[cderham 0]

I believe I would puke or be so disoriented after the rotations

Chris

[ACMESkydiver 0]

I'd give it a shot in another 400 jumps or so...just to impress some hot guy that thinks it's cool.

~Jaye
Do not believe that possibly you can escape the reward of your action.

[Girlfalldown 0]

Never tried it myself but I certainly would!

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(Do not, I repeat DO NOT, take my posts seriously.)

[sabr190 0]

Douva, I think you know my answer. I have about the same desire to jump a skyboard as I do to jump a circa 1950's round Wait, you've done both

"The needs of the many out weigh the needs of the few, or the one" - rehmwa

[catfishhunter 2]

I was the kid that pushed the merry-go-round! Spin me around 5-6 times real fast and I can't even stand up Then there is the added risk. Just way to much shit to go wrong to outweigh the rewards... at least for me....it is some cool shit though... just not something I ever plan to try

MAKE EVERY DAY COUNT
Life is Short and we never know how long we are going to have. We must live life to the fullest EVERY DAY. Everything we do should have a greater purpose.

[chopchop 0]

Where is the more neutral answer? I have no big desire but no negative feelings about it either...


In other words.. I'd do it if I felt like it but it is very low on my priority list of things to do.. like painting the house only it'd probably be alot more fun.

chopchop
gotta go... Plaything needs a spanking..

Lotsa Pictures

[idlewild70 0]

i think it looks wicked cool. ive just got to get in the jumps first, then i think im going to try skysurfing and wingsuits. as you can see by my number of jumps, it wont be for a while.

-Fish


Blue skies, Soft landings

[meltdown 0]

I was thinking about trying it in another 100 jumps or so, but this nutty guy at my DZ kept doing these "groundsurf" landings last weekend that looked pretty whack...so I dunno. Oh wait - never mind.

[mailin 0]

If/when I get there... yep, its on my 'to do' list.


Jen

Arianna Frances

[Brains 2]

I voted for number 3

Douva, i'll make you a deal, AFTER nationals, you strap a camera on your head and some wings, and i'll put on that beginner board Should make for some "interesting" video.

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Spin me around 5-6 times real fast and I can't even stand up

LOL, you should see his face after doing a head down helicopter for 20 or so too many rotations.

Never look down on someone, unless they are going down on you.

[jlmiracle 7]

I thought I had interest in skysurfing once, then I talked to a competitive skysurfer and she explained all the bad stuff that can happen so I said no thanks. I don't really like spinning anyway.

Judy

Be kinder than necessary because everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.

[Douva 0]

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I was thinking about trying it in another 100 jumps or so, but this nutty guy at my DZ kept doing these "groundsurf" landings last weekend that looked pretty whack...so I dunno. Oh wait - never mind.

Those "groundsurf" landings rocked, and you know it. Okay, that last one wasn't very pretty (If you're going to surf the board in crosswind, make sure BOTH bindings have released before landing), but the rest were cool.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[Vallerina 2]

I don't have much of an interest in trying it myself, but one of the coolest jumps I saw from the ground was a skysurfer who surrounded his board in glow sticks and did a night jump!

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[Douva 0]

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I don't have much of an interest in trying it myself, but one of the coolest jumps I saw from the ground was a skysurfer who surrounded his board in glow sticks and did a night jump!

Oh yeah? I did that a few weeks ago. They said they could see me from the moment I left the door until I touched down on the ground. It was another of those jumps that was probably more fun to see than do--being upside down and spinning at night is REALLY disorienting. You don't realize how much you use your eyes for orientation in skydiving.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[gremlin 0]

I want to try it but my nasty girlfriend wont let me.

I'm drunk, you're drunk, lets go back to mine....

[Vallerina 2]

Did you happen to be at SDC? (Sorry for the thread hijack.)

There's a thin line between Saturday night and Sunday morning

[heltzer 0]

Here's a question for you.

Almost everyone who wants to jump with a skysurfer is affraid to be hit by the board in freefall. However, in all your skysurfing jumps, how often has the lurker hit YOU...including your cameraflyer goring you in the ribs with his helmet?

[Oh, and SBS, stay out of this! ]

[Douva 0]

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Did you happen to be at SDC? (Sorry for the thread hijack.)

No, this was at Skydive San Marcos in Texas.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[Douva 0]

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Here's a question for you.

Almost everyone who wants to jump with a skysurfer is affraid to be hit by the board in freefall. However, in all your skysurfing jumps, how often has the lurker hit YOU...including your cameraflyer goring you in the ribs with his helmet?

[Oh, and SBS, stay out of this! ]

I've never really been "hit," but I've had some people come in and try to dock on the board or one of my arms a little forcefully. In the videos you can see them drag me over like they're trying to flip me, but so far I've always managed to maintain my balance. So long as you don't try to dock on me while I'm doing flips or spins, there's not much chance of you getting hit. You need to be competent in your body flying skills to jump with a skysurfer, and you should definitely have a helmet and a Cypres, but our boards really aren't the swinging pendulums of death most skydivers seem to think they are.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

I put a couple of hundred jumps on a board in 1990 when there were not more than five people in the USA, possibly the world doing it (I have plenty of pics at home from that era). Me, Jerry (loftis), Patrick DeG., and one of two other europeans. I was absolutely the fist person in the eastern USA to jump a board. I stopped jumping it out of boredom and the lack of competition venue for it at the time. By the time the X-games came around I had long since tired of it. While fun, I didn't stay with it because it lacked the all-important social aspect which makes jumping fun for me. While artistic, it is still a solo event. I hate that I was not active on a board during the heyday of X-game/SSI competition, but I had other things going on in my life. These days, I find very little reason to strap in other than pure novelty. I still own two boards, but have not jumped them in over six years. With only one "real" competition a year these days, I don't see a lot of impetus for people to get involved. I compare it to Freestyle, Style and Accuracy, and even speed skydiving to a degree. A small cadre of diehard devotees, but that's it.

Chuck

[Douva 0]

If there were more competitions, training camps, etc., do you think people would be more inclined to take it up? Do you think you would have stuck with it longer? Just curious.

I don't have an M.D. or a law degree. I have bachelor's in kicking ass and taking names.

[Remster 30]

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I want to try it but my nasty girlfriend wont let me.

Whipped like the familly pig....


I dont have any interest in it for myself. I find it cool to look at but it lacks to social aspect that I enjoy in skydiving.

Remster

[Kramer 0]

If I were more educated on it, I'd love to try it (once I get to 200 jumps).

I think the thing is for a lot of us, we simply don't know anything about it, so (in a way) sort of fear it. If I could sit through a three-hour skysurfing seminar and really learn a lot about it, I'd probably be dying to try it when done.

The FAKE KRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMER!!!!!!!!!

[SkymonkeyONE 4]

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If there were more competitions, training camps, etc., do you think people would be more inclined to take it up? Do you think you would have stuck with it longer? Just curious.

Training camps? Nah. These days, the word "camp" means "come pay me money so that I can teach you what I know." While video debrief of a routine by a more experienced jumper might help, there is nothing you can do for a person on a board in freefall which merits a coach fee. An example is this: people don't pay for Style coaching. They simply show up somewhere a team is training and reap the benefits of training with world and national champions.

If there were more competitions, say on the regional level like at NSL meets, there would be cause for more people to get involved. In the Carolinas region of the NSL, the CaSL, we had freeflying competition as well as 4-way. Even as popular as freeflying is these days, those guys had an incredibly hard time getting enough people to show up to even quantify a meet. In the entirety of both Carolinas we have never had more than two people who regularly jumped boards, so regional comps would have then and would today still be a wash.

As fun as it is, I just don't think there is enough value added to the general skydiving experience for any large group of people to get into it. The Freestyle heyday of Michigan Sandberg, Tamara Koyn, and that butt-ugly chick Dale were over lickity-split. Likewise, they heyday of televised and otherwise competitive skysurfing were a flash in the pan. The bottom line here is that I believe ANY discipline which makes competition training repetitive WORK will eventually lose it's fan and participation base. Particularly those solo artistic events where one practices the same jump over and over and over. Once again, I really like skysurfing. It is challenging and entertaining when done for "fun." I would hate to do it over if all I had to look forward to was working on one routine over and over.

Have you noticed how few freefly "teams" (hardy har har) actually compete at all these days? As there is no "real" venue other than Nationals, they simply use a "good old boy" system of inviting each other onto "record" skydives, much the same as big-way RW. Max Cohn does not compete anymore; neither does Dave Brown. There are very few freefly teams that actually train together as a unit all season. Most teams which compete are throw-togethers that practice very-little prior to nationals. The top teams will always be those who train all year long, or most of it, but the fact remains that there are simply not a lot of people out there who care to compete in artistic events and least not with much serious dedication. People are fickle. These days, 4-way is all the rage and you know what? I am not interested in devoting my time to that again either.

Cheers,

Chuck