{"id":20002,"date":"2018-03-02T17:39:20","date_gmt":"2018-03-02T17:39:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/?p=20002"},"modified":"2023-10-29T14:36:14","modified_gmt":"2023-10-29T21:36:14","slug":"desk-dan-bc-march-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skydiveperris.com\/blog\/desk-dan-bc-march-2018\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Desk of Dan BC – March 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Dan<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Perris Newsletter | March 2018<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s truly amazing how skydiving has expanded, grown and continued to develop over the years. <\/span>The dream of flight has reached new heights and is still climbing.  <\/span>I\u2019ve been fortunate to have had a front row seat to much of this and I\u2019ve recently realized that the development cycle within each discipline has been much the same.   <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early days \u201csport parachuting\u201d was only about having the balls to jump from a plane and burning a hole in the sky. <\/span>It was more falling than flying. <\/span>It was all about being or getting \u201cstable\u201d on your belly.  <\/span>On your belly, you had the best chance of your very questionable parachute working and saving your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then one day someone came up with the crazy notion and thought, \u201cI think I can fly.\u00a0 <\/span>I think if there was another jumper in freefall with me I may be able to actually “hook up” with them.\u201d\u00a0 <\/span>After many unsuccessful jumps flying near and far from each other with marginal (at best) control, the first two people docked and Formation Skydiving was born (they called it Relative Work then).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Photo courtesy of International Skydiving Museum <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

As more people learned to do it and got better at it the groups grew and started doing different formations. <\/span>They began to see how fast they could get together, how many formations they could do on one jump. <\/span>It became a competition. <\/span>\u201cWe want to go bigger, faster than we\u2019ve ever done before!\u201d <\/span>(That doesn\u2019t sound like skydivers at all does it?) It evolved into 4way and 4way became the foundation for going bigger. <\/span>FS jumpers did the first 100way. <\/span>A new sport was off and running and after 60 years we still haven\u2019t found the limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FreeFlying was exactly the same. <\/span>I remember being on the plane every day with Omar and Olav watching them, jump after jump, completely unstable and out of control (They could hardly get to, much less stay on, their bellies. <\/span>What were they doing???)  <\/span>Finally one day they did it, they hooked up while flying on their heads and FreeFlying was born. <\/span>4way VFS started. <\/span>Sequential records are popping all over. <\/span>FFers broke the 100 ceiling with the first 108way.  <\/span>The scores go up, speeds increase, records keep falling. <\/span>Limits?  <\/span>I think not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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