The skysurfing event at the 2000 X-Games, took place about 30 miles north of San Francisco, in Sonoma, California. The competition actually took place before the rest of the games. The reason, producers didn’t want lose jump and competitions days due to poor weather, like previous years. They also started early, to ensure a finished production of the skysurfing event so it could be the lead-in event for the X-Games on ABC’s ‘Wide World of Sports,’ which broadcasts to 99.4 million households in the U.S.

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Five years when skysurfing entered the games, it was treated like all other sports with live coverage. As it began to evolve, more time was dedicated to the event. Instead of turning around shot footage of the skydives in two hours … producers now have four days to put it together. Let’s face it, with today’s technology to visually watch the skydivers in many different capacities, is not only intriguing, but also aesthetically fascinating to the eye. Not only can we watch the perspective from the aerial photographers, but cameras are also mounted on planes, with the ability to capture the entire skydive.

Competition
This year’s competition also made history with the prizes. In addition to the medals, the first place team received $75,400. A team consists of a skysurfer and a camera flyer (aerial photographer). The Skysurfer rides a specially designed board during freefall, sliding, spinning, twisting and yes, surfing through the sky. The Camera flyer records the performance with a helmet-mounted camcorder but also contributes to the performance interactively –and the team’s overall score–through his or her own creative and athletic skills.

All skydives are tightly choreographed, and rehearsed with literally hundreds of jumps. The skysurfer interacts with the camera flyer in the air, which is also necessary for medalling at the event. As the sport continues to progress, technique, speed, creativity, and making it enjoyable to watch are key to winning. The performance begins as soon as they leave the plane at 13,000 feet. For the first 50 seconds of a 70 second freefall, they’re “on,” moving vertically at about 110-140 mph and horizontally at up to 50 mph, surfing the ultimate wave… the sky.

Looks Easy? Is it Expensive?
Pro Skysurfing is THE most difficult to learn and THE most expensive of all the “extreme” sports. In fact, it’s just about one of the most expensive sports anywhere. Just to equip a team for competition costs $14-20,000 for one season’s worth of custom built gear. The ‘learning curve,’ is extremely steep!

The top pro teams make an average of 500 jumps a year, 10 jumps a day when training. With each jump allowing only ONE-minute max of training time, that’s 10 minutes of training per day! Imagine trying to master a new sport, only practicing one minute each hour!

In the grand scheme of things, skysurfing is a very small aspect of skydiving. It is much more popular in Europe, than here in the states. In fact, during the National Skydiving Competition, in October, only two skysurfing teams registered, while other categories had dozens of competitors. Even though skysurfing represents a very small part of the skydiving community … it is nice to have the sport covered in the national spotlight, and leading off the X-Games!

You start to want more advantages in your corner, so you can send that route, stick that crux and overall enhance your performance on the rock. Let’s look at footgear.

Rock shoes, or boots, come in three basic designs, each fabricated with a specific type of climbing in mind. When you’re first investigating shoes and aren’t really quite sure what you need, start by asking yourself what type of climbing are you going to do? Are you going to be edging out on a lot of small holds, climbing a steep, near vertical slab, working routes in a gym, crack-climbing, what?

As a beginner, you might want to start with a normal camber shoe. The camber is the curve of the arch of your foot. A normal camber will keep the arches raised just a hair and toes pointed upward. Think of a tennis shoe with a more pointed toe. This allows for comfort and usually gives starters an enhanced feeling of security and as we all know, climbing is as much a mind game as it is a workout.

A curved camber points the toes downwards and raises the arches, giving an increased edge on small holds and increasing your sensitivity, making this a more performance edged shoe. The cost of increased performance is decreased comfort and, as anyone who has worn climbing shoes can tell you, they’re not all that comfortable to begin with.

Another option is a stiff soled edging shoe, for use on small, crimpy holds that require a hard platform from which you can rest your weight. These shoes offer the advantage of taking some of the consternation out of your footwork.

A normal shoe sole is soft, an advantage when you have to smear, get more surface area on a hold, or are crack climbing. This type of sole will roll out on you if you bring all of your weight to bear on it while standing on a narrow hold. An edging shoe, however, will hold firm and steady, in the grand scheme of things, and allow for more reliable weight distribution on the sole.

Shoe selection can become complicated, what with lined or unlined lasts, slip-on or tie-in, high rand or low … remember, keep it simple. Get a comfortable shoe that you feel good in. It has to be tight, sometimes up to two sizes smaller than normal, but outside that, don’t worry about the rest.

As you progress in your climbing, you’ll come to understand the differences and nuances of the rock, and you will start to realize what you want from your shoe. Until then, stay easy, climb hard and enjoy yourself.

Quincy is a small town nestled between corn and soybean fields, on the bank of the Mississippi River. Once a year, approximately 6-thousand skydivers converge on the town and make about 65-thousand jumps in 10 days. The freefall convention attracts skydivers from around the world, due to the best and most unusual aircrafts brought in for skydiving. To skydivers, Quincy means, skydiving, fun and partying! Think of it as a big playground for skydivers!

Boeing 727 Jet
The 727 remains one of the top attractions at the convention. The jet shuttles 180 skydivers to 14,000 feet in less than 5 minutes. Jumpers sit on the floor, in rows facing the back of the plane.

The exit is out of the rear of the aircraft. The narrow ramp has plywood covering the four exit stairs that are not removable. It slants down and out … take a couple steps near or on the ramp and you are in the air. The exit speed is 150 mph.

Biplane
The biplane inverts and fly’s upside while the skydiver is holding on to the top wing. A camera is mounted near the pilot’s head, capturing these cool photos. The skydiver lets go of the wing, jumping feet first to earth. This is one of my favorite jump planes.

Bell 412 Helicopter
Everybody says the ride is better than the jump. The chopper takes skydivers on an extreme ride, before the jump. The exit is from a zero airspeed hover, which means you get that rollercoaster, falling sensation. The helicopter takes 13 skydivers at a time … and is also one of the popular rides at the convention.

Hot Air Balloons
These are larger than standard balloons, carrying 8 skydivers. These are spectacular jumps at sunrise or sunset. Obviously there is zero airspeed, which makes for a different kind of skydive. When you leave the balloon, it’s so quiet, you can talk to fellow jumpers, before you pick up speed!

There are many more types of aircraft including:
C-54 WWII military transport
B-17 Flying Fortress
B-24 Liberator

Statistics:

The 2000 World Freefall convention had no fatalities with 64-thousand skydives. 54 countries were represented, along with all 50 U.S. states. It’s the largest skydiving event in the world, and everyone is already anticipating next year!

Picture this if you will: you are hanging by a crimp, cranked down. The next move up is to another evil little crimp; above the crimp, an easy hold; one move away from an easy hold, a nice, beautiful jug. The crimp is slick, your arms are tired and you want to kick your friends for talking you into this mess, because they’re on the ground belaying and laughing at you as your legs go Elvis.

But wait, what is this you spy; a shelf, or small ledge, so to speak. Just out of your reach, above and to the right. Your arms are busy, so is your left foot, but what’s this? You have two feet! Yea!! You raise your right foot up, swinging your body up to a horizontal position with the ground, and pray your fingers don’t play out. You slam your right heel on top of the shelf, and bam, instant leverage.

Moving quickly, you are now able to free your right hand for the nice jug, which allows you to pull yourself into a more upright position. Feet stable, arms cooling down, friends shutting up, you have just hooked your way out of trouble.

Granted, this is an extreme example. Heel hooks really only enable you to gain a foothold where none exist by stepping up your foot practically on the same level as your head.

Heeling can also provide you with a brief respite, allowing one arm then the other to relax and fight the pump. As with any maneuver you are unfamiliar with, practice in a gym or easy boulder with a friend before you go out.