Project 19 Eve! + The Whole Shebang

It’s the Eve of Project 19! Tomorrow, it all begins! Let’s be real. It already kinda started a few days ago as ladies started rolling into Eloy. And the all-out record attempts won’t start until Tuesday. So even though this is the Eve in namesake, it’s blurry. FYI. This blog is going to be written in a confusing mix of time frames, as I wrote part of it before hand, part of it during, and part of it afterwards. Buckle up.

Where to start?

My brain is tired, so let’s run through some numbers. 100 women are slotted on the formation (2 women of the original 102 slotted couldn’t make it last minute). We have 6 days to break the record. I wish I knew the exact number of women on the bench but I’d guess from 1-2 dozen? (Pretty sure that someone told me later that the bench had 20 women.) I arrived in Eloy Saturday afternoon and did 2 warm-up jumps. Winds gusted today from 15-24 most of the day. I’ve already eaten 4 sushi rolls since being here at lunch at the newest sushi place in Eloy. (By the end of the event, I’d eaten at W&Z Sushi 5 times. The last time we took our food to go and the owner heckled me for not eating it there and drinking saki. Oh no. They already know me as that lady who drinks a lot of saki.) We had a 3ish hour briefing Sunday. My slot number started B-20 (closing a pod behind a bridge line), exiting as the second to last diver out of Right Trial (aka, in my mind, riot trail. because the ladies on it were a freaking riot). We have women from numerous countries here: the US, the UK, New Zealand, France, I think Brazil and Australia and plenty more. My breakoff wave is 7k-5k. This whole production has been 2+ years in the making (almost 2 exactly for me). I drove 12ish hours down from NorCal and I’m ready for 6 days of awesomeness.

The amount of “Hello! So good so see you! How have you been!?” conversations have been countless. So many of my friends from all across the country are all here and we’re going to try to break a world record together. I’ve already laughed so hard my face hurt a couple times. The hangar is bursting with women and it’s awesome. I’m so freaking proud to be here.

The Briefing

We had the most extensive briefing I’ve ever been to today (Sunday). However! I think it was great. We’re not doing something trivial; we want to do it right and we want to do everything we can to achieve it. This briefing was serious and it left nothing to the imagination. There will be no discrepancies about what is “on level” or the exit frame vs the stadium frame. We were given very clear expectations for how we’ll walk, brief, debrief, break-off and land. The organizers have put so much thought into every facet of this record; it builds a lot of trust in them to see it all written out plainly. It was long, but I’d say worth it. As someone who likes as much info as I can get, I found it valuable. There was a tiny part of my brain piping up, saying, “This is too much!” but that part was probably the part that needed to pee and hadn’t had enough snacks. Also, we took intermission breaks where we got swag.

Swag

Dudettes! We got the coolest swag!! I felt like a rock star or some kinda VIP going through the swag line. Water bottles. Rash guards. Jackets. Buffs. P19 stickers. It was awesome. While at the event, the organizers informed us there would be a photographer there to take our portraits (which I started calling glamour shots). Literally. I felt like a freaking VIP the whole week.

I have to say, that initially I didn’t like the Project 19 colors. Why? I’m not a huge fan of purple. Gold also is just kinda meh to me. But over the week, I found out that the purple, white and gold are the original colors of the suffragettes representing loyalty purity and light/life. Honestly, after realizing that these colors ran way deeper than just this event, I was way more stoked for them.

The Week – The Record

Monday

Monday served as warm-up day, for the outer 60. The inner 40 jumped all day, solidifying in the sky what they warmed up in the tunnel in Abu Dhabi. The outer 60 did some 20ish way jumps and a lot of tunnel time, flying with our pods. My pod, #tallpod, really got some quality time together. I’m not kidding when I call us #tallpod, either. With the exception of Leslie, I think I was the shortest tall person (coming in at 5’9″). Maggie, Sophie, Penelope, and Tilda are tall ladies! When we tried to shape out our pod in the tunnel, we had space problems because we all have such large wingspans. But I loved it! Hanging out with tall ladies is the best.

Also, just flying with my pod, before we had to start the record attempts, built so much confidence. I cannot overstate the value of getting to know the women around me, build confidence in our flying, and finding a rapport with them. Not only was flying in the tunnel together valuable, but we had such fun. We also roasted our arms. Flying static in the tunnel, specifically holding a pod shape for 1 minute at a time, for 15 minutes, sucks. But we had fun.

Tuesday

Tuesday, we began 100ways. However, we worked through it very incrementally. The first jump, only the inner 40 had permission to touch. Next, we added another layer (first stingers on the bridgelines and pods). Again, we added another layer on the 3rd jump, then including the 2nd stingers. Following that, pod closers gained permission to touch. I think by the end of the day, the entire 100way had permission to touch? (But I might be remembering that wrong. Perhaps, the outer whackers still sat patiently on the outside at the end of the first day.)

Wednesday & Thursday

100ways, bay-bee! We aimed to fly 100ways with permission for everyone to dock. We flew well, but we didn’t make it close to a 100way formation. Tuesday, we brought in total discipline, buoyed by inspirational words from Dan BC (My Hero). We flew calm. We flew chill. But Tuesday and Wednesday, we lost a little magic. So we sort of just blundered through a few days of 100ways. However! I must note, that even though we weren’t close to a 100way, we still had calm, predictable skydives. The base didn’t spin. People were relatively near where they were expected to be. The whole experience felt far away from the jumps of the 200ways. This experience just felt wholistic, composed. The whole thing felt orchestrated and well choreographed, with the cadence, predictability, and rhythm of an event organized by a few people with a clear, well-considered vision.

However, the “bad” news hit Thursday at the end of the day, after we sat on the ground waiting for the winds to calm down. We needed to slice down the record. For success. We were released on Thanksgiving afternoon, not knowing who was in the formation, who was out, and where we all would end up.

I had Thanksgiving Dinner at The Prop with a bunch of Project 19 fellow friends and I couldn’t have asked for better. The food tasted fine. The wine surely never surpassed mediocre. I only managed to chat with my parents briefly on the wifi connection outside The Prop. But every aspect made for a great Thanksgiving. I love this holiday, because, for me, it’s about appreciating what you have and the people you have in your life. I got to do just that over very average turkey dinner with some very lovely people, while I was in Eloy on a mission do accomplish a very big thing.

Friday

The 72way. That morning, we showed up, aiming to knock out a world record on jump 1. The night before, we received an email with the 72way formation. The powers that be moved me from 2nd to last diver and a pod closer in #tallpod to a floating exit for left hand first stinger on the bridge line opposite my old position. Little did I know, I had been moved into #successpod.

Ladies, we succeeded in one try. First jump of the day, despite my nerves, we got a record. We held that formation for 9 seconds. (I think that was the agreed-upon number.) It was SO SOLID. Then we ascended again with 80 ladies, to knock out another record. Again, we did it in one jump. (Despite me having a whole series of off-level wiggles and sorting it all out so Hannah could dock on me.) Then the rest of the day, we kept attempting to get an 88way record.

Saturday

The last day. The final day. We left it down to the wire. Saturday, we rolled out the 100ways again. #successpod grew from two 1st hand stingers on the 72way, to two lines of two stingers on the 80way, to eventually being a pod with two ladies docking on us. Before I moved over to this pod, I couldn’t tell you if a whole pod ever built behind this bridge line. Once #successpod became a thing, we brought our business-professional attitude and our British(ish) accents to the whole thing which just upped our game. I mean. I don’t want to brag, but we crushed it. By the end, we were the only full pod behind a bridgeline with whackers. Behind other bridgelines, were resorted to 3 lady whacker lines instead of pods. Because pods are hard! But #successpod brought our A game and flew our sexy butts off.

By now, I’m sure y’all have seen that we had an unofficial record of a 97way. I am sad to say that I celebrated in the landing area, certain that we’d made it. I was so sure. The formation flew so well. It felt so complete.

The Party

Was. Awesome.
So. The party after the 200way attempts stood in my mind as the standard. However! This party surpassed it. Not even because we went so hard, or anything. But because the party encompassed so much quality time with so many badass ladies. If you can imagine a party where all your best shredder friends that you’ve spent the last couple years getting to know and traveling across the US with to learn how to bigway were there, this was that. It was so much positive lady power. It was so much dancing and fun. It was a small amount of hanger because the tacos were a smidge late. But the party rocked. My only regret is I didn’t get more pictures. I did wear my pull-up cord denim jacket, so that was great.

Women’s Records

I’ve heard people go back and forth on women’s records. Are they worth it? Are they useful? Is it just a consolation prize for not getting on the co-ed records? But I whole-heartedly believe in the value of women’s records. Carving out space for women to grow and improve and achieve together changes the community in a good way. This process to Project 19 wasn’t just about getting a record; it had so many sub-goals, so many missions.

First, this particular record attempt stood to remind people of the hard-fought battle for women’s suffrage. We talked about that a lot at the record. I have always taken for granted that I can vote (and I always do vote) so I didn’t consider the fight for the 19th Amendment. I cannot imagine a world where my voice doesn’t matter, especially in light of recent elections. How different (and awful) a world that would be.

The media coverage around this record spans is vast. There have been so many news outlets covering it. So much press, so much media. I hope that little girls see videos of this record and decide to go out and do something daring. I was lucky to have parents that believed I could do anything, and probably do it better than the boys. I never questioned whether I was capable of playing soccer on the boys’ team in high school, as we had no girls’ team. Of course I deserved to be a starter. I was so lucky to be raised that way. But many other little girls aren’t. I hope media coverage of women doing difficult, exciting things like breaking world records wiggles its way into the brains of girls out there. I hope they’re inspired to go out and do big things.

Second, Project 19 (in my opinion, as this entire blog is just my opinions) had the goal of increasing women in the sport, increasing the number of women in freeflying. This was such a success. Well, for one thing, I probably wouldn’t have pursued freeflying with such focus if Project 19 didn’t exist. But the clear, defined goal of setting a world record was so tempting that it sucked me in. So many women took advantage of the camps and the training marketed specifically to them. So many of us have come so far in the years that led up to this. You can just see it, purely in increase of number of women on the 200way attempts this year.

Additionally, not only did Project 19 grow more lady freeflyers, but it strengthened our network. This is important. This is so important. I cannot overstate how much more appealing bigway camps are, when I know that I will have friendly faces there. Planning travel, lodging, sharing cars becomes so much easier when you have a dozen ladies you can call that are also probably going to these camps. I know that for future record cycles and events, I will be calling Maggie/Michelle/Kate/Swati/Kiara/so-many-more-ladies (just as an example! There are so many more ladies that I didn’t list). I know ladies from all over the country, all over the world, that I now consider friends. Having this network makes attending events easier and more fun. I believe these connections will keep women in the sport.

Other Thoughts

Shirley Chisholm

I picked my quote for my Project 19 poster from Shirley Chisholm. She was the first African American woman in Congress (1968) and the first woman and African American to seek the nomination for president of the United States from one of the two major political parties (1972). Dudes. This was before women could get credit cards and loans in their own name; they needed a dude to co-sign. She was a badass. [Read more about her here] I thought it was important to both choose a quote that both thumbs its nose at the patriarchy, and was from a woman in politics who was a trail blazer. I really didn’t want to quote a man and I really wanted to not just choose your average girl-boss white lady. So I hope that someone gets curious about Shirley and reads up on her, when they read the quote and think “I wonder who this Ms. Chisholm is?”

Inner 40

Am I jealous that I didn’t get to go to Abu Dhabi? Absolutely. It looked so damn cool. I super wish that I’d been invited. I wish I’d had the guts to email an organizer to ask if there was any room left. Do I think I probably had the skills to deserve to be there? I think perhaps. Did I have the connections? I think probably not. Could I have even fit it in my nuts-busy schedule this summer? Idk. I was barely finishing up my massive roadtrip to the midwest about the time it happened. Honestly, it’s probably for the best it wasn’t on the table, so I had fewer hard decisions to make. Is my ego and pride a smidge hurt that I wasn’t in the inner 40? Sure. Should it be? No. I wasn’t really a STRONG flyer at the beginning of the year. I had the best flying day of my life when I tried out for the VWR at Sebastian this spring. I had hit-or-miss flying at a lot of tryouts after that. I’ve been consistently improving all year, however, I’m not sure I would even now characterize myself as a STRONG flyer. So, did I deserve to be invited to the inner 40 and to Abu Dhabi? Probably not, or at least, not until this summer, which was much too late.

Collaboration Cooperation Ego

I try not to dip too much into gender stereotypes (because so often, they work against people instead of for people) but here we go. I believe that these record attempts went so well because of the collaboration, the cooperation of the women at this record. Also, I believe that this collaboration and cooperation stems from humility, a lack of ego, that so many women brought with them. There was so much “I’m just happy to be here” attitude. There was probably plenty of imposter syndrome. There was a lot of gratitude to have this opportunity and a lot of women knowing how hard they worked to get here.

There was just something so refreshingly humble about the way we worked together. Was break-off not great? Was the dock presentation not great? Did exit go awry? Were you close under canopy on landing? Throughout the record when anything like this happened, everyone was willing (and eager) to take ownership over their faults. The conversations that followed often sounded like “I’m so sorry. How can I help?” or “What can I do differently?” or “Okay, definitely, I’ll try to do that for you. Can you help me by doing xyz as well?” Even when things didn’t go wrong, women were constantly checking in with their pod and their exit peeps and others, asking how we could do better. It was refreshing. I don’t really have the words to say how good it felt. We felt like a team.

What Now?

I DON’T KNOW! I’m not sure what to do with my time now. No big way camps planned for next year. Will I be doing the head-up record stuff? Probably not chasing it hard. My head-up flying needs polishing. It’s pretty meh. So maybe I’ll put on some head-up camps at home, for my own practice and entertainment. This weekend, if the weather permits, I’m going to be trying out some VFS blocks I’d like to propose to the competition committee to help beef up the number of all head down points available to the Intermediate and Advanced dive pool. Next week, I’m hosting an MFS camp for peeps at Tracy who are trying to figure out how to get better at freeflying but still aren’t that strong on their head. It’ll be neat I hope.

Oh also, pilot lessons. Because I’m going to learn to fly an airplane. So I can fly hammerheads and loop-dee-loops and rolls and 1/2 cubans and all that upside-down nonsense. And maybe bullying people into a west coast VFS team next year. If you’re in the VFS market, hit me up 🙂