I’m a little late, but I’ve been busy! I’ve been on the road in the midwest, only camping up in a given city for 2 nights at a stretch, fitting in work and a horticulture trade show, so forgive my tardiness on this post.
What a weekend! We’ll cut to the chase: 27 of us + our talented camera flyer set a WI head-up record this weekend! Unfortunately, we wanted a bigger record and I hate that we couldn’t set it with the original 33 or 34 people that we started the weekend with.
First HU Record/Record Attempt: Beer!
This is my very first head-up record and head-up record attempt! What a pleasing turn of events! I did buy beer; and because I was at Skydive Midwest, I bought Hamms. (I also bought something else less gross too.) So how did I end up there? Well, obviously for the party. I was gossiping with Kate Armstrong several months before the record, before the invites were out, and she asked if I was going. Well, no. Because 1. I had no idea it was going to happen 2. I certainly didn’t feel like I had the skills to pull this shenanigan off. But why let that get in the way of a good time? So, I obviously said, “Get me invited! I’m on board.”
Talking to Colin Conway a couple weeks before reassured my nerves and stresses quite a bit. Not that I felt like I definitely could do a head-up record, but I knew I would be safe, and I knew if I got cut, those lovely Chemtrails boys would let me down soft. I set my mind to “just happy to be here” mode and sent it.
We’ve been trying some head-up days at Tracy lately, so I’ve been feeling every-so-slightly more confident with my feets down. But not great. Those jumps just kept ending up sizzling towards the earth faster than I could fly stable. My standflying is a clown show. One leg down in stag? Fine. A-okay. Two legs straight down? I am about as stable as a flying pencil. So, I wouldn’t say my confidence levels were soaring, but I at least knew I wouldn’t be disoriented with my noggin up instead of down.
Slotting
Colin asked Richo and I how we felt about being in the base. Hard yes for Richo; he’s part of Team Never Let Go. However, I’m part of team Always Let Go. I am not to be trusted in a base. Too much pressure to perform every jump. No, no thank you. Gotta have really strong grip and hands. No, that’s not me. So I said, “Please slot me where you see fit, anywhere but the base.”
I was totally expecting to be an outside whacker-person, with no one else docking on me. I find it a bit of a relief to be there because if you have to get cut, if you’re doing something silly like flying a bit zany on the outside, you can do it without too much drama. However, if your flying turns uncontrollably zazzy farther in the formation, it’s a bit embarrassing. I still keep getting myself into goofy positions on challenging skydives and I wiggle myself into a cork, or some really ugly flying at the very least. So, I was hoping to be on the outside, so when I inevitably struggled to touch it, my friends could politely cut me, and I could politely agree, a bit to my own relief.
One of my favorite parts of events is the night that slotting comes out. You rarely know exactly who is showing up until that moment, and you probably don’t exactly know what the formation will look like. It’s really fun to see who’s going to be there, which unexpected friends from across the country will also be attending, people that I haven’t seen since the last boogie/nationals/record/try-out/whatever. That’s also the moment of truth, which is also the moment that the tea starts to spill. Gossiping about who is showing up, who is where, and how this is going to shake out seems to be a time-honored tradition of events. So, I swear both me and probably lots of other people going to WI felt their ears start burning all at once when the formation came out.
I was slotted as a left hand first stinger. Oh boy. Oh man. Oh boy. I began to have to actively try to not panic. Oh boy. That feels like a lot of responsibility. But I just kept thinking, “You know, it would be silly to like, cut yourself by asking to move farther out even if you’re not very confident. I might as well give it the old college try. Then it’s in their hands to decide whether I should be there.” So I did. And it went pretty dang well.
The First Jump
I spent time thinking over the weekend about the specialness of a first jump at one of these events. For me, the first jump induces some serious stress for me; I am a pretty nervous jumper, even when I’m current and jumping a lot. I put a lot of pressure on myself to be excellent. The first jump usually riddles with me with nerves. I usually do a lot of visualizing and breathing techniques to stay calm. (I know. Nerd.) But, if I don’t, it’s not always pretty, so I stick to my routine. I breathe. I visualize. But here’s the key point: The visualizing at this point is completely based on ideas in my brain, videos I’ve watched, other skydives where I’ve done something similar. But it’s all something that I’ve imagined, an scene that my brain is actually playing out like a movie on the back of my closed eyelids.
Every other jump after that, your visualizing will be based on the skydives that came before. If not exactly the same, often they verge on identical, in the way they look. (Obviously, ignore situations where huge changes in plane timing or slot occur on jump 2.) So that very first jump feels different. For the couples hours before that jump, anything else like it only exists in my imagination.
Anyway, that first jump, I was nervous. But I got out and I just zoomed on over there. I watched Frayer break in, calmly transition, and just flew over and touched it without hesitation or too much drama. Just like that. Then I stayed on. I continued just flying my slot, with a pretty quiet presented arm as well. Then my 2nd stinger docked right at the end. It just happened. I was in shock. I tracked away in the 2nd wave just baffled at how it had all gone down. Wow, I guess I have to try to do that the rest of the weekend.
And it wasn’t perfect; my levels could use some work. I’m sure I could have been faster/quieter/stronger. But it was damn good considering what I expected of myself. Then we kept chugging. My pod kept building most of the day Friday. I was super proud to be part of it! I thought we might have it a time or two Friday, but when we didn’t, I was sure we would get it first thing Saturday. Then as Saturday progressed, with a little bit of rain in the morning and clouds/overcast in the afternoon, we kept trying but sort of got a little loose. Everyone all seemed to kinda lose focus, or like we took turns which 1/5 of the skydive was getting goofy. But we did pull it off Sunday! The first couple were really close but finally, I think we got it on the 4th one. Then we attempted one more before we had to call it with the whole group but didn’t make it.
I was just so pleased.
Honestly, I just had such a great time. I initially decided to go because of the people I figured would be there, without any real expectation of being on the record. I just wanted to go see my friends and do feets-down jumps together. We did some really neat rips together! We did some very silly things! Head-up flying is just so much sillier than head-down. It’s so hard. The sky is full of banana peels and air gremlins. My dignity just takes a vacation when I’m sit-flying. The jumps were fun; they people were lovely. The DZ was the most excellent host and the Total Break Sequential folks also sharing the planes did great, getting at least their 2pt TBS, maybe the 3pt? Overall, the weekend left my heart so warm and happy and proud. It was a great start to my midwest-month. (I’m in SDC until the end of Summerfest!)
For better or worse, the whole experience has me pondering the feets-down world record coming about in 2024. Do I want to go on that merry-go-round again? Can anyone tell me if the CA try-outs will also just be Echelon events? Do I have to get invited to Echelon to even be allowed to try-out for the CA sector at the head-up stuff? (If you know, please divulge. I have asked a couple organizers so far with no real answer.) How is my bank account looking? Will it really make me a better flyer? Should I really let my appetite for checking off accomplishments drive me into another harebrained year full of try-outs and events across the nation? I don’t know. I did largely enjoy the “Year of the 200way, 2022” despite it’s financial cost and the pervasive drama at every turn. What a rush.
Anyway, to wrap this up.
- Had a great time
- Will obviously go back to SDMW because I love it there
- I’m in SDC now!
- Oh I did a podcast too because of this!
- We got a record
- Most importantly, I got to hang out with my friends. And I met some good dogs.