Last week I had to call my auto insurance provider to update my address – seeing as I moved back in December I thought it was about time!

After making the necessary adjustments, my agent asks me if I’m interested in a life policy, and she starts telling me how I should do this being a non-smoker in good health and in my 20s..yadda yadda.

I let her finish and then inform her that I likely don’t qualify as I am a skydiver…here’s how the conversation panned out from that point:

Agent: Oh really….hmm…. that’s an interesting hobby.

SDC: Yeah, I really like it (because honestly, what else was I going to say?)

Agent: How often do you really do it? It can’t be a frequent thing, right?

SDC: I’ve jumped 100 times in less than a year.

Agent: Oh…well, wow. That’s a lot.

SDC: In the grand scheme of things, it’s really not. There are people out there who jump 3, 4, 10 times that amount.

Agent: So then technically, we can say you do it rarely, for a skydiver.

SDC: I dunno if I’d go that far…it’s rare in the winter, if that counts for anything.

Agent: Well, just for shits and giggles (yes, she really used those words) let’s send this in for a quote and see what they come back with. Given that this is really the only thing you have against you, it might go through…never know.

And to my surprise, it did! The cost difference really isn’t that much, either. I’m even covered if I die skydiving. Heck yeah!

So to all my fellow 20-something, non-smoking, in overall general good health skydiving friends out there, check with your insurance provider, you may be able to get a good option to cover you in the event of the unspeakable. Your loved ones will be thankful you did.

Blue ones!

-Ashley

Winter skydiving adventures this February have been slow – as in, non-existent. It’s either been too cold or cloudy or snowy/rainy to get out there, so I continue to reminisce on the adventures that were had during the Florida trip.

As I mentioned, once the weather turned sour on the Everglades boogie, we headed up to Orlando in hopes of getting some tunnel time. But lack of slots and, more appropriately, lack of funds, kept us from testing it out ourselves. On the positive side, we did have an opportunity to watch a couple freeflyers tackle sitfly issues that we’re currently trying to master: fall rate matching and relativity.

In the short amount of time we watched we were able to pick up some pointers from these two. It’s amazing what watching a couple of siflyers in the act can do to help improve your form in the sky.

(They have similar issues as she is significantly shorter and smaller than her partner)

Rick’s been tinkering with different leg positioning to catch more air and I’m working on staying as straight up and down as possible. It’s amazing what small adjustments can do. By putting my legs down just a little I help my fall rate (of course, the addition of a weight belt has helped too) – and with shoulders back and down the backsliding nearly disappears!

By the time we left Z-hills a couple days later we were feeling great about the improvement!

Now, if only we can get back in the sky soon to keep working on it. How’s the winter jumping been treating you this year?

Blue Skies!

Ashley

Last week the Jan/Feb issue of Blue Skies Magazine came out. This is an event I look forward to each month as it helps me keep up on what’s going on around the skydiving community.

It’s thanks to Blue Skies that I found the Everglades Boogie in the first place – had it not been for their calendar we never would have had the fabulous experience in Florida a few weeks back.

Anyway, I’m getting away from my point here…

One of the columns I enjoy reading is Jump a Random Stranger which is always the back page of the magazine. They ask a number of fun questions to get you acquainted with the skydiver (or BASE jumper) of the month.

A question they always ask pertains to the jumpers’ favorite skydiving songs. This is something that’s close to my heart. When I started skydiving there were a few songs that I always listened to before jumping and as I’ve grown in the sport, I’ve added to this playlist. Yes, there is actually an iPod playlist called skydiving on my Nano.

So today I’m using Blue Skies Magazine as an inspiration to talk about my favorite skydiving songs. Below is my list, with explanations for the one’s that aren’t so obvious.

1. Pocket Full of Sunshine; Natasha Bedingfield – This song was on my brother’s tandem video. This was before I started skydiving and every time I heard it my blood started pumping a little harder.
2. Major Tom (Coming Home); Peter Schilling – The first song I heard after my tandem skydive in Miami. Sure, it’s about space travel, but the lyrics hit home and it stuck. Was always a song I listened to before AFF jumps.
3. Jai Ho; A. R. Rahman – No good reason, it was just on my iPod playlist during AFF training.
4. The Adventure; Angels & Airwaves
5. Untouched; The Veronica’s – AFF #2, I found myself singing this on the plane ride to altitude. It calmed my nerves. Over time, it pumped me up. Been on the playlist ever since.
6. Come Clarity; In Flames – this was one of the songs that came up on Danger’s playlist every weekend at Cleveland Parachute. Lots of memories in these lyrics.
7. Welcome to the World; Kevin Rudolf – it just fits.
8. Streetlight; Derby – I used this when editing a video and now I can’t listen to it without thinking of skydiving.
9. What I’ve Done; Linkin Park – another one that Danger used when editing videos.
10. Free Falling; Tom Petty – duh!

There are more, but so as to not lose your interest I’ll stick with a lit of 10. There’s a lot of hard rock that makes me think of skydiving, mainly from the music that was playing at the DZ when I was a student, but this is a good start.

Now it’s your turn – tell me, what are your favorite skydiving songs, and why?

Blue ones!

Ashley

One night I dreamt that I had been talking with a friend after skydiving, and he said to me “I knew you’d cut away before your 100th.” The next day, it came true…

A couple weeks back, during the Everglades Boogie at Skydive AirAdventures, I experienced my first cut away. It was an enlightening experience in a number of ways…let me explain.

(And yes, for the record, I already purchased my owed case of beer.)

Friday evening we signed up for a high altitude jump first thing the next morning – after which we jumped on the sunset load to finish out the day.

The weather was beautiful – nothing quite like a sunset Skyvan load – though the wind had picked up slightly.

Naturally, this makes me a little nervous about making it back to the DZ, given that I’m under a canopy that’s proving to be too large for my exit weight. And I was right – the skydive was immensely fun, a 4-way horny gorilla – but I didn’t quite make it back to the LZ. I landed just shy of the target…in the camping area. A fellow skydiver who was firing up his grill about 10 feet from my landing spot gave me a ride back. Nice guy!

So I took this frustration and headed straight to the Aerodyne tent to ask them for a smaller, demo canopy to use on the high altitude jump in the morning.

Given the fact that there was a higher probability of my landing off on a high altitude, I didn’t want to increase those odds by flying my canopy in the higher winds that were expected for the morning.

I worked with the rep, Les, to decide on a canopy to fly. We settled on a Pilot since I was familiar with them as a student.

As he was installing the demo I asked who packed it last and if I should repack the canopy. His words: “This is a brand new canopy and I packed it myself so that should be the least of you worries.”

Perfect! So I was good to go for the morning.

That day I was nervous. Mainly because I was doing a high altitude at an unfamiliar DZ in a little bit of wind – I really didn’t want to land in the sugar cane!

But the jump went well – I was a little late out the door, but was able to hold a sit for 60 seconds or so. It was good practice.

And then, I deployed. Almost instantly (read: as soon as the bag was out of the container) I could feel that something was amiss. Looking up I said to myself  (literally, aloud) “I’ve seen videos of this shit before.” There were countless line twists above my head and I was spinning to the left.

Reaching up and attempting to spread the risers I realized the situation was too far out of hand, the lines weren’t budging. At just under 2,000 feet, I didn’t want to waste anymore time so I reached for the cutaway pillow and chopped.

Before I could even grasp onto that silver handle my reserve was above my head. Thank you RSL.

Now safetly under a crisp, white canopy, I gathered myself, stuck my cut away handle in my teeth (I wasn’t about to be the girl who lost her handles) and steered myself back to the DZ.

I thought for sure with this situation I was going to end up in a sugar cane field somewhere, but with the breeze that had picked up even more, I made it back. Though when I got there, I wasn’t penetrating the wind at ALL, so I had to pick from one of three options:

1) land on the packing tend

2) land on top of the skyvan

3) gracefully set myself down on the tarmac between the two

I went for the latter and prepared to PLF like it was my job. The winds helped set me down on my feet and luckily there were plenty of people nearby who rushed over to pluck my canopy out of the air before it touched the concrete.

As expected, Les was there to meet me after the cut away – though not quite with the message I had anticipated. He briefly interrogated me on why I cut away his canopy (to which I responded “because I wanted to live”), then, with clear frustration, he headed off to “find it.”

Lucky for everyone, both the canopy and freebag landed at the edge of the airport and were retrieved unharmed.

I was then approached by two Performance Designs reps who had no idea I was testing out a canopy, but wanted to see if I was alright and inquire about the malfunction. I instantly gained a lot of respect for PD. Throughout the weekend I talked with Karl about accuracy and tips for packing to ensure that things like this don’t happen in the future.

Feeling rather exhilerated, I disregarded the attitude the Aerodyne rep presented, and headed over to meet Rick. The extra adrenaline rush was really starting to hit me. The event seemed so clear (though now it’s rather fuzzy – wish I would have worn the GoPro on that jump after all) and I was feeling like I could do anything. Hell, I just saved my own life!

Thankfully, Thomas was available for a rush repack, so we headed up to the rigging loft. While I was waiting, Les came back to me with my canopy in hand (my personal canopy, not the cutaway). He proceeded to blame me for cutting away a canopy he seemed to believe was landable.

What gets me more than anything is that the thought never crossed my mind to be upset with Aerodyne – and yet that’s exactly how they approached me.

I was completely taken aback by the disrespect and lack of concern for my safety that he displayed, so were other onlookers.

Jokes began to fly that I cut away a perfectly good Aerodyne canopy because I knew I had a better PD reserve to use. Which of course, was not the case. Funny, none the less.

After spending time talking with lots of different folks about the incident, it’s uncertain the exact cause of the malfunction – precisely where a helmet cam would have come in handy. From body position to a bad pack job, it could be any number of things, or a combination of these factors. Regardless, as the pilot of that canopy I had a decision to make, and chopping was the right one for me. Even with some of the doubt I’ve encountered along the way, I look back with confidence and say “I had to cut that canopy away.”

One thing I’ve learned by talking to others is that other skydivers will always question your malfunction and doubt your decision to cut away. But the truth is, I was there and they were not – and in the end I learned that I can do it and it’s nothing to sweat. When you’re in that moment and you have to pull that handle, you just do it. Nothing else exists but that moment as you release your main from the container.

Though some of it is fuzzy, I look back on certain details of the malfunction with great clarity – the feel of the cut away pillow, the sound of the main releasing. I look back on the incident with an odd fondness as I walked away a more confident and knowledgable skydiver.

Blue Skies!

Ashley

After the Everglades Boogie we had about 2 1/2 days of rain. This was a good chance for us to experience some things in Florida we might not have otherwise.

On the way from Clewiston to Fort Lauderdale, we stopped at a place that offers air boat rides to see the alligators. Instead of taking the ride we walked around their exhibit and saw a bunch of different animals.

From there we decided to head up to Orlando to get some tunnel time. On the way the skies cleared a bit so we swung by Skydive Sebastian in hopes that they were jumping. It was pretty dead there – must be everyone had gone to the boogie down south.

(The deserted Skydive Sebastian)

We arrived in Orlando that evening to find there were no tunnel slots left. We watched some tunnel newbies and a couple freeflyers working on their relative sit. This was actually very educational for us, as I was able to see what the smaller of the pair was doing, while Rick picked up some tips on how to slow his fall rate a bit.

The next day due to lack of funds for sufficient tunnel time, we went over to DeLand in hopes of jumping. Two days spent in DeLand were a bust – aside from the PD factory tour which was pretty nifty. We also met some great people who worked in the skydiving industry. Though we didn’t get to jump, it was a good little visit!

(Picking oranges at Skydive DeLand – waiting for the skies to clear)

The next day we checked the weather and Skydive City in Zephyrhills seemed to be our best bet for jumping. So we got in the car and made the 2 hour drive. By the time we got there, the skies had cleared and the Pac was going up!

This was my first jump back after the cut away at the Everglades Boogie, and needless to say I was more than a little nervous. There were all sorts of thoughts running through my head and I continued to doubt my pack job (even though it wasn’t my pack job that I had to chop).

We jumped with a guy named Pat who was also a freeflyer. After getting my rig stuck on the door at exit, I was pretty much out of the skydive. It was a good solo sit, though!

The second jump was the sunset load where Rick and I worked on our relative sit, again.

We woke up on day two a Skydive City to a thick layer of clouds. I was bumming because I was two jumps away from my 100th, which I really wanted to get on this trip.

Well lucky for me the clouds broke up and the day ended up being perfect. I think it was the nicest day we had the entire vacation.

Pictures like this sure make me miss 70s and sunny!

Our first jump was a two way relative sit. We decided to do a train exit as that seems to help keep us together. On this jump, it proved highly successful. When we got back to the ground we were both extremely excited – we’re starting to get it! Between my posture and putting my legs down and Rick finding the trick to getting bigger our fall rate is getting there. And though it’s hard to tell with this wide angle GoPro, we were pretty close, too.

The next jump was my 100th. Aaron, a former Cleveland Parachuter himself, went up with us to get some stills and video, so we made it a 3-way freefly – or, did our best to, anyhow.

We didn’t stay quite as relative as we would have liked, but it was a fun skydive regardless. I did cork out once which is uncharacteristic of my recent sitflys, but I was back in the game quick.

Thanks Aaron, for capturing this jump for me!

If I can ever figure out how, I’ll post Aaron’s video here or on my YouTube channel. Stay tuned. For now, you get the jump from Rick’s perspective.

Overall Skydive City was one of the best experiences of the trip. We got to jump with some great people and had incredible weather. And I’ll definitely agree that they’re the friendliest dropzone around!

If you’re in the Tampa area, Skydive City in Zephyrhills is a must. If you drop by, give Aaron my best!

Blue ones!

Ashley

Being back in the cold and snowy weather of the Midwest has me pining for the sun, warmth and blue skies of Florida. I can’t help but day dream of the times spent in Ft. Myers, DeLand, Sebastian, Zephyrhills, and Clewiston.

Which is where I will begin my journey – the Everglades Boogie at Skydive AirAdventures.

This was the main event for us: the reason we chose Florida this time of the year as opposed to Arizona or Puerto Rico where other jump buddies were traveling this winter.

The Everglades Boogie caught our eye for a number of reasons: the high altitude jump, the skyvan, the Pitts biplane, and of course, the affordability of traveling to this state.

We kept our budget low by stocking groceries in a cooler and sleeping in our car most nights. Luckily our “midsize” rental ended up being a Dodge Journey.

Fold the back seats down and you’ve got the perfect sleeping arrangements… well, close to perfect, anyhow.

After spending our first day in Ft. Myers, walking along the beach, eating some mediocre seafood and watching the sunset over the Gulf, we headed to Clewiston for our first night around the bonfire.

(Sunset over Ft. Myers Beach)

To our surprise there was only one other group camping out that night – a couple guys who are regulars at Skydive AirAdventures. The following few nights were spent around the bonfire with these fellas.

Here’s video evidence that the times spent around the fire were quite entertaining:

Thanks to Rick and Lisa for the 8 kegs provided after hours. Oh the things free beer will entice you to do…

Anyway, back to the skydiving.

There are a lot of individual stories to tell from this event, but I’ll give you the basic rundown before we go into any specifics.

The first two days were beautiful, a little breezy, but nothing to worry about. The LZ was large enough where I didn’t have to worry too much about off landings. In fact, I only landed off once – into the packing area on the last jump of day 2. This made me think that it’s time to seriously start considering downsizing my canopy. With an exit weight of 135, it gets difficult to make it back to the dropzone on breezy days under my Triathlon 160. But that’s a topic for another day.

Thursday was the first day of the boogie and it was a little slower than anticipated, but by the end of the day the Super Otter was turning loads. To my surprise though, I couldn’t for the life of me get anyone other than Rick to jump on the sunset load. So I ended the day with four. Here’s a video compilation of these jumps.

I edited in a little commentary and music (Angels & Airwaves, one of my favorites!) for your enjoyment as this one is a little lengthy.

As you can see, we’re really working as a team to stay close and relative in our sit. Needless to say this trip gave us a great chance to practice … by the time we got to Zhills we were seeing incredible improvement!

Friday was another beautiful day. The skyvan showed up from DeLand too so our last three jumps were from a tailgate. It’s pretty fun to watch a huge plane poop out people like that.

The GoPro didn’t want to cooperate on Friday, but here are a couple of our skyvan jumps that day: another 2-way sit and a 4-way horny gorilla exit that looks pretty cool. Rick also had a close call with a swooper as you’ll notice at the end of the video. But it’s all good and everyone is okay.

Saturday was our last day at Skydive AirAdventures and the day we took part in a high altitude jump – and my first chop. Both of these will be discussed in greater detail later.

What I do want to take time to mention is how incredible the experience was at Skydive AirAdventures. The Everglades Boogie was run very smoothly, and though I’m sure it seemed like a madhouse to DOZs Rick and Lisa, they pulled it off successfully. There were a number of vendors there doing demos and selling their stuff including Performance Designs, EG Suits, Aerodyne, and more. I was incredibly impressed with the reps at PD…that’s all I’ll say on that for now.

Aside from the boogie, the atmosphere at this DZ is incredible. The regulars were welcoming and Rick and Lisa made us feel right at home. After my cut away Rick was quick to take me aside and make sure I was okay. Thomas is an incredible rigger who took the time to thoroughly check out my rig and repack my reserve as well.

This is definitely a DZ I’ll be visiting again in the near future.

The last evening there was spent around the bonfire, watching Jeff carve a block of ice into a closing pin shot luge. Not only is this guy an incredible wing suiter, he’s also an ice sculptor. Talents abound in the skydiving world!

(The finished product, ready for ice cold shots!)

We also met some fellow mid-westerners out of Missouri who we’re hoping to connect with again soon. If you’re reading, great meeting you Susan!

Thanks to everyone for making this an incredible boogie weekend. I was able to meet fellow skydivers and make some new friends. Can’t wait to get back in the air with y’all again soon.

If you’re ever in South Florida, I highly recommend heading over to Clewiston for a jump or two at Skydive AirAdventures. The staff will take good care of you.

I’ll leave you with a few pictures from the first few days of our trip – in Ft. Myers and around the Everglades Boogie. (All photos below by Ashley Mead)

(Looking out over the Gulf in Ft. Myers)

(Attempting to feed the Heron – notice the shirt!)

(This little guy kept dive bombing for food)

(Sharing a sunset at Ft. Myers Beach)

(The PD tent during the boogie)

(Jet rides were available)

(Last night at the bonfire)

Blue skies!

Ashley

Hard to believe 9 days has come and gone so quickly.

Florida was amazing! We visited 4 dropzones, one boogie, one wind tunnel, jumped 3 different aircraft, one high altitude, experienced one cut away, met countless amazing jumpers, logged a 100th skydive and bought lots and LOTS of beer.

With that said, there’s much catching up to be done so stay tuned. There are lots of pictures and video of these events to come.

Until then…

Blue ones!

Ashley

Today I want to visit one aspect of the sport of skydiving that I’m no stranger to: off landings.

Upon making Canton Air Sports my home when I was still on student status, I quickly gained a reputation for landing off. At the time, we attributed most of it to the fact that I was flying student gear and huge canopies (read: 292 square feet – and for someone who tops out at 135 lbs exit weight, that’s a whole lot of canopy over my head to take me where it wants to).

Since then I’ve managed to land off at almost every DZ I’ve visited: in a soy bean field at Start skydiving (when they were in Lebanon), earning me my current nickname; frequent landings at the end of the runway and in surrounding fields at CAS; finding a pumpkin patch and cow-filled fields with bad spots at Skydive Pennsylvania…I’ll save my ego and stop here.

This weekend of winter jumping was no exception. The winds aloft were tamer than they have been, so when I landed on target during jump #1 at Skydive PA I anticipated a smooth day of canopy piloting.

The spot was a little long, so on the next jump we asked the pilot to adjust and drop us right above the runway. Well, for any of you who are familiar with this DZ, we were dropped PAST the runway over the outlet malls. On top of that my foot got caught on the step as I was exiting, so I was 2-3 seconds late in coming off the plane. My jump was basically a solo sitfly.

Before dumping, I did my best to track back toward the DZ, subsequently losing more altitude and pulling lower than I would have liked. It was those first moments under canopy, as I’m collapsing my slider, where I realized there was no way in hell I was going to make it back.

Luckily, the long runway is lined on both sides with narrow strips of grass, perfect for landing. The only problem was, if I wanted to land in an ideal patch, I was going to have to do so downwind. Yikes!

These are not my favorite types of landings, but I came in slower and softer than anticipated and slid out the landing safely.

The walk back SUCKED…but I guess that’s what I get for pulling low, knowing where I was positioned.

The video below will give you a glimpse at just how far we were away. The DZ is at the opposite end of the runway….I landed in the green patch on the left, just past the hangars…You’ll also get to see part of the train the my freefly partner did with our buddy Tom who’s a newbie freeflyer. Hi first 2-man train. You owe BEER for this one, bud!

(Video by Richard Simenc)

Lesson learned: if you’re off target, pull a little higher to either scout out a new landing area or try to make it back with the wind. This is what my fellow jumpers did, and they all made it back.

But, it’s not a complete day of winter skydiving at Grove without an off landing, right?

Let’s just hope this trend doesn’t continue while on my Florida trip… I can deal with a field full of cows, alligators not so much!

On that note, I should mention that this will be my last post for a while – about 2 weeks to be exact. I’ll do my best to keep everyone posted on what is going on in Florida at the Everglades boogie, at Deland and more on my Twitter feed: @theskydivechick. Follow me for updates!

Until next time…

Blue skies!

Ashley

Welcome to part 2 of my interview with Norman Kent. As I mentioned Wednesday, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Norman and picking his brain on everything from skydiving to photography to travel. He’s led an interesting life and I’m so grateful he was willing to share it with us right here on the blog. So let’s dive right in, shall we?

SDC: Looking at your career, you’ve done some pretty amazing things – from shooting movies to world records – what are some of the most memorable moments that you’ve had?

NK: Well, this is really hard because there’s so many and they were so different. I have a loving memory of each one in it’s own way. Some of them are memories of personal growth and challenges. Some of them are experiences because the uniqueness of a location. Some of them even involve dangers or unknown situations that bring back memories from growing up in Mexico City.

So I can describe some of the flavors of the things that were right up at the top. Like for instance going to the Olympics and being a part of the team that presented skydiving to the Olympics. This was important to me for several reasons. I was part of a team that was responsible for doing the live air transmission around the world. This was very consistent with what I wanted to do from day one, to share something magical with everyone. What an ultimate thing to do to tap my signal and spread it around the world. Also, one of my photos was chosen by Time magazine to depict the opening ceremonies of the Olympics. And of course just the experience of being there, being a part of the Olympics and the ceremony.

Another experience that stands out was going to the North Pole, and being a part of the first expedition that landed there. I’ve done other expeditions like into the jungles of Venezuela, but this one was right at the top because of it’s uniqueness. The place looks like a different planet.

Other experiences include being the 2nd most person who has jumped with the falcon, second only to the trainer of course. This was a privilege to be with a flying creature, when we pretend to fly, but to witness this is fascinating. This is one experience I could talk for hours about, the mechanics of all the things we had to do, when the falcon attacked my parachute – there was so much that went into this. All I can think when I get to do things like this is “what a privilege.”

Of course, all of these experiences have in common that I was able to shoot it, share it and bring it back. So it was really rewarding that way.

Among my experiences I had the opportunity to work on some very rewarding projects. For example the movie Get Smart because I designed a lot of the scene and was trusted to do a lot of it on my own. There wasn’t a need for much supervision and I was trusted to get the shot I thought was best, and I was even asked for recommendations from the director of photography, and it was very rewarding.

In fact, before the movie was released, there was a 5 minute movie teaser available through iTunes. My sequence was picked to be the representation of the film – the movie teaser was my entire segment. That’s when you really know that you have the skill and knowledge it takes.

As far as huge accomplishments, it’s films like Willing to Fly where it was my own project where I learned personal lessons along the way. Designing a movie, creating it and putting it all out on my own. Those are huge accomplishments for me.

SDC: Tell us, what’s a little known fact about Norman Kent?

NK: One of the things that’s been the most special in my career is that one of my scenes from Willing to Fly was chosen for a big screen movie. One of the agents I was working with called me up one day and said there was a director who wanted to see the raw film of a specific scene from Willing to Fly. Upon further discussion it was revealed that this director was Steven Spielberg. Among all the footage that he viewed, one of my scenes that was shot from a camera strapped to the strut of a Cessna 182 – which is kind of crude compared to Hollywood where they would bring in special helicopters to shoot such footage – mine was chosen as the background for superimposed images of the flying pterodactyls at the end of Jurassic Park 3.

That’s the kind of stuff to me that’s incredible. It’s a personal accomplishment because I created this on my own and on it’s own it survived, on it’s own it got found, and on it’s own it got picked for no other reason than your creation. And you don’t have the credit for it because it was purchased as a piece of stock film, but when you look at Willing to Fly you can see the shot and when you look at Jurassic Park 3 you can see the shot. I’m fascinated by the process of how this happened and when I look at it I can say “it’s mine!” So when people look at my resume and see the collection of movies I’ve participated in and they see Jurassic Park 3 they ask “well what does that have to do with skydiving?” Well, it doesn’t but I’m proud of it just the same.

SDC: So in skydiving, or photography, or just life in general, what’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever been given?

NK: The best piece of advice I’ve been given, I’d say is, be in the moment, live the moment, embrace the moment. Not missing the moment by having your mind somewhere else.

Skydiving is a clear example of this as an automatic process. Your fear, which is natural, is expressed by checking your gear, checking your handles before you exit, and this is preventive, to make sure you’ve done everything you can. Then you leave the door and there’s a destiny awaiting one minute later: a malfunction, a possible accident, possible death, whatever. But what happens is, you leave that in the door. Even if the thought is there, you exit and all the sudden you’re all about the jump. And that destiny comes later and in most cases it’s just what we predicted and that’s why we do it because it’s not really that crazy, we just have control over it like we said earlier. Then you have this glorious parachute ride… but that is a great representation of being in the moment. You’re not thinking about anything else. You’re only thinking about things related to that place and time.

Often, I’ve made the mistake, and I think many people make the mistake, of not doing that with things in life whether it’s photography or skydiving or anything else and not being in the moment and not being in the beauty that surrounds us and in the love the surrounds us in our friends and our mates. Quite often we focus on wanting more. Anytime I find myself doing that, and part of the messages in my films are to have new eyes. See things as new every time, experience things in a new light every time. Being in the moment and being in appreciation of the moment, even when they are bad moments, that’s definitely the best advice I’ve been given because it applies to every part of life.

SDC: You mentioned earlier that you’ve been spending some time in the tunnel practicing your skills. What advice do you have for skydivers who want to improve their technique?

NK: My advice is two-fold. For skydivers who are looking to physically improve in the sport and to advance as rapidly as possible is to spend time in the wind tunnel. These days, a wind tunnel is very crucial for that. The amount of time you can spend doing something repetitively it records itself into your motor skills and into your mind very differently and improves your rate of progress.

With that, pay attention. The tunnel is not skydiving. Think of the tunnel as a tool to help you with skydiving. Keep your mind open to the goal and where the tunnel or any other device or teaching helps you or hurts you. You may think that a certain type of training is going to help you, but you need to pay attention to how it works for you for your specific needs.

And engage, engage, engage. I often see people who want everything handed to them ready to go. For example, people who want to learn photography think that there’s a secret to it. The most common two questions I get are 1) what settings do you use and 2) what lens? And my answer is, all of them. I use every single lens depending on what I’m trying to create. It’s not as if there are secret settings on a specific lens that will get you the perfect picture every time. It’s like asking an artist, what color do you use. Haha.

So you really have to open your mind and engage that way and gain your individuality in the sport by doing so. Design something for you, that works for you, for your own hunger for your own purpose. And if you decide you just want to be a casual camera flyer or you just want to be a weekend skydiver, embrace that. Instead of tormenting yourself, which is the same as embracing the moment and being in the moment, and have fun with the fact that you make three jumps a month or a year. And then you go “this is the kind of skydiver I am, and I am a skydiver. And my skill level is consistent with that, and the friends I can jump with are consistent with that.” And go be fascinated about it. And that’s the biggest thing I can give people.

SDC: So do you still do video work for the average Joe skydiver?

NK: Yeah, you know, I do. And I need to make it more clear on my website but there are a lot of different things that I do.

For instance, I intentionally went to boogies and did that on my own because there was this misconception that “oh there’s Norman Kent and you can’t talk to him because he’s unapproachable and of course he won’t wanna jump with us so don’t invite him.” And then I’m going like, “hey will someone invite me on a jump please.”

And then I’m thinking, well who can I go with? And then I ask people “hey can I jump with you guys” and they get all nervous and the jump goes like hell. It’s like dude, you know, I’m a skydiver can be in skydiving please? Invite me! So I had to go to the convention and places like that where people are there to experience rides, like the specialty aircraft and helicopters and a jet. So I became a ride, like hey, come ride me, lets go have fun. So I’d go on these jumps and take pictures and stuff.

But yeah, that was what I wanted to do and I do do that. So when someone asks me “hey would you go up and take my picture?”

“Well yeah!”

Sometimes it’s not even a photography thing, people just want to make a jump together. And that’s my motivation for going to boogies. I’m a skydiver. And I’d hate to all the sudden not fit in because I got too famous. I’m a jumper just like you and I just happen to have a passion that’s gotten me a certain status but that doesn’t stop me from being just like you.

SDC: Well that’s good to know because my freefly partner and I are going to be in Florida next week and we’d love to have some more pictures from you .

Of course, we all remember this little gem from the Work Stinks Boogie.

SDC: Well I really appreciate you chatting with me for almost two hours now. Thanks for talking with us, Norman.

NK: Yeah, it’s a pleasure. And this was a lot of fun!

I’ve come away from this interview with a great new perspective on not only the world of skydiving, but life in general. As he spoke about “breeds of people” when discussing who has inspired him throughout his skydiving career, I couldn’t help but think that he’s one of those exact people – the type of person who is out, chasing his dream, using photography as his motivation in skydiving, being motivated to share this sport with skydivers and non-skydivers alike, all the while staying true to who he is. He’s truly living his passions. Norman has done some incredible things in his life, but all the while he’s remained humble – hell, he was willing to sit down and talk to me for a couple hours, so what does that tell you.

If you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend “Willing to Fly,” a film that was created from beginning to end in Norman’s head. Check out his web site for more on his career and to take a look at all the photography he has to share. After all, that’s his goal – to share this experience with skydivers and non-skydivers alike.

Thanks again, Norman. You’re quite the inspiration.

Blue Skies!

Ashley

In keeping with my semi-weekly column of Hear it from the Expert, I am proud to say we have quite the expert here to inspire us today.

Last week I was blessed with the opportunity to sit down and chat with renowned photographer Norman Kent. He allowed me to pick his brain for a couple hours and he enlightened me with some of the incredible stories of his life as a skydiver and photographer.

*NormanKent.com

This interview really only scratches the surface of our discussion, which I’m sure only minutely touches on the life that he’s led, but I wanted to share with everyone some of the amazing things that were shared with me through the eyes of this accomplished individual.

Below is part 1 of the interview with Norman Kent. As I mentioned above, we chatted for quite some time and I wanted to capture as much as I could – after all, it’s not often that opportunities like this one come around!

SDC: Thanks for taking the time to do this interview, Norman. After having chatted with you briefly at the Work Stinks Boogie this year I remember saying to myself, “I’d love to sit down and pick that guy’s brain some day,” so this is a great opportunity to do that.

NK: Yeah, that’s awesome. It’s my pleasure to do this for you.

SDC: So let’s start out with the obvious question, when and how did you get your start in skydiving?

NK: I did my first jump on Aug 24, 1975. It was a static line jump. I think this is a very common story. It was meant to be a birthday gift to myself, and I was going to do it only once. Well, I was offered a 5 jump package for pretty cheap, and I refused. Like anything else the first jump was the most expensive, like two-thirds of the cost, and the other four were fairly inexpensive, but I refused because I figured I was only going to do it once. Then I jumped and it was instant love and I knew it was something I was going to do forever. The first thing I said to my friends when I landed was that I was going to do this for the rest of my life. And that’s how it all started.

SDC: Yeah, that seems to be a pretty typical story. Not many people go into their first jump already saying “this is something I’ll be doing for the rest of my life.” It’s a cool feeling when you get back on the ground and all you want is to do it again. So with all the traveling you do, where do you consider to be your home dropzone?

NK: My home dropzone is Earth, that’s the way I look at it. Though technically my home dropzone is Skydive Deland.  Because I had seen other DZs going for records and things like that, I realized that I didn’t want to be in one place only and get involved in the politics in that once place. As you stay in one place long enough you see and get involved in the politics of that place. So I thought, every place I go could be a new place and you always see all the good stuff from the outside and experience the awesome place for these short periods of time. I figured that’s sort of the world I wanted to live in, I really get to see all the good things about all the places I jump. That’s not really how I planned it, but that’s sort of how it played itself out, so that’s when I decided that my home dropzone was Earth.

SDC: I’ve noticed you do a lot of freefly photography for world records and stuff, do you consider that your favorite discipline?

NK: No. And let me clarify that.

When I first started skydiving I was already a photographer. I fell in love with photography the same way I fell in love with skydiving, with a specific event that inspired me. With no training and no schooling, I knew what I wanted, and I wanted to communicate the things I saw and experienced in life.

With skydiving, photography really became the priority for me. I always said if I had to choose one for some reason, if someone said to me, “you can’t have so much fun” and I had to choose [between skydiving and photography], I would pick photography.

With that said, my motivation in skydiving is photography. It’s the visual capturing of the sport. I also feel that it’s a sport that I love so much that provides very unique visuals. I feel very blessed to be able to see and capture light the way that I understand it. And I feel in a lot of ways that skydivers and non skydivers alike miss out on it and that’s what my motivation is, to communicate it. Meaning that skydivers are so focused on the jump, the grips, the formation, the skydiving elements of it, even though they’re enjoying and they understand what an amazing thing they’re doing, which is part of the turn on of it, they’re really missing out on how we look as far as people playing in the playground, Earth.

The second element is that the non-skydiver doesn’t really get to understand that unless they skydive, and then again they only get to understand it from a skydivers point of view. So to me the motivation is to show the world of skydiving to a non-skydiving audience in the form of beauty which they can understand – rather than in the form of “how many points did we have,” well they don’t really care, but they just want to look at it as “wow that’s amazing, that’s a lot of people, and wow look at the clouds, and wow where were you?” and that’s what they care about.

Because of that, I want to shoot everything in the sport - freeflying just happens to be one of the dynamic new elements of the sport, and it actually represents a problem for me in the sense that the sport has diversified and branched off in so many directions that it’s hard for me to keep up with all of it and that’s one of the biggest challenges for me. If I want to shoot all of it as far as the sport is concerned, then I need to do a little bit of all of it, and freefly is one of the most challenging things so I spend a little bit more time doing that. In fact I’m constantly training the in tunnels in order to get better and stay with the dynamics of the sport.

So yes, I do a lot of freefly because it is very dynamic and it’s challenging and I love it, but I love it just as much as any other part of the sport. I just spend more time doing it because I find belly flying really easy. I’ve done it for many years and also, physically speaking, it’s so much easier to do that I don’t need to spend so much time doing it and I can pick it up right away, even if I haven’t done it for a little bit. And the reason is because of the physics of it…for instance, in freeflying, you’re leading with your head, so any kind of head movement to point the camera in a different direction for composition, results in a change in direction in flight, or you must alter your body position drastically to continue your same direction. This is more of a challenge, and you’re also dealing with faster speeds and consequently a higher degree of difficulty and of risk. So that’s one of the reasons I spend more of my time freeflying. I love all of those challenges from that, so you could say it is one of my favorites. But really, a lot of the reasons why I do that is motivated by the photography. I want to do whatever it takes to not let freeflying pull away to where I can’t participate in the state of the art, cutting edge things that are happening like records and things like that.

SDC: That’s great! I was actually going to ask next which came first, skydiving or photography and you beat me to that. Tell us a little about how the two merged…

NK: Photography happened for me the same way skydiving did. I found myself in a situation where I said, “wow, this is what I want to do,” and I was a photographer instantly. It took a long time to really make it pay off in terms of money and all that, but the passion was there and I wasn’t turning back. Then of course when skydiving happened, it was a similar thing.

So there was this passion for shooting and passion for skydiving and I couldn’t wait to merge the two. I remember I wanted to jump a helmet with my static line jumps, and of course they wouldn’t let me. My first [camera] jump was jump 23, and with static line I didn’t have much freefall under my belt, but I was in a hurry because all I could think of was shooting this wonderful world. And that’s how it all started as far as putting the two of them together.

SDC: Who has inspired you as a skydiver?

NK: I’d have to say that I don’t have a specific person who acted as a mentor to me so much as I’m inspired by a specific type of person: anyone that’s willing to go the distance and go all out for their feelings and become a champion on a project or record. These people aren’t necessarily ego oriented, but are in search of a dream.  Of course, I look up to the pioneers in the sport – some of those whose names have gotten left behind in the sport, but people who have helped make it what it is today.

I do have my mentors and the people that made a huge difference for me in photography, but in skydiving it’s almost like I had so much support and I had so many experiences with so many cool people that it’s almost a breed of people [rather than specific mentors].

SDC: We talked a little about your experience with freefly, but tell us, what have your experiences been with other disciplines like wingsuiting.

NK: As I said before, I’m interested in every part of the sport. But I should define what really has worked for me and what hasn’t. Anything that has to do with regular belly flying, whether it’s competitions or large formations, it’s all sorta the same. I’m a certain quality of flyer. I’ve shot some style, but it hasn’t attracted me as much. I shot LOTS of freestyle because I was married to Deanna who was one of the pioneers who pretty much created that. Wingsuit I do also. I shot the 71 way record and if you go to my website you can see some amazing pictures of that. I’m not as current on that as I am on other disciplines, but it’s very dynamic and I love it.

*Photo by Norman Kent, NormanKent.com

One thing that I completely turn my back on for survival reasons is swooping. One of the reasons is because to shoot swooping, you don’t have to be a swooper, a lot of it happens near ground level. So I didn’t want to have to keep up with that. But because of the danger I didn’t want to go that route, especially when I’m not going to be approaching it as a specialization. Something that dangerous should be a specialization, not just as every once in a while visiting it.

And on top of that because my priority is in surviving the deployment with my big helmet, sometimes my helmet weights up to 32 pounds when I’m doing movie work, and so when that happens I need to have a specific parachute and a specific way it’s set up, and it’s completely not consistent with the kind of canopies you need for swooping. So slowly that’s left me behind and I’ve decided not to chase it; the parachute for me is a survival device. But most of the other disciplines I practice and love, both for photographing and participating in.

SDC: I remember thinking to myself at the Work Stinks Boogie, “how does he hold his head up with that camera helmet on, let alone skydive with it.” But I guess it’s something you get used to over time.

NK: Yeah that’s exactly how it is, you figure it out. If you really think about it, the analogy I use is one that most skydivers can relate to which is skydiving is looked at the same way by non skydivers, like “how can you do that.”

And then the skydiver goes “well what do you mean?” To us it’s pretty normal.

What you’ve done is turned something that wasn’t normal into something normal by simply understanding it, practicing it, getting comfortable with it. And at that point it becomes a normal part of your life and what you consider comfort level, and then, it’s really not that crazy at that point. And so the same things happen with a helmet. The reason why it’s considered crazier is just because it’s less common that people have on a huge helmet like that and the size appears to be not as necessary. But you have the same thing, you get used to it, you make it normal, you understand it, then you have a relationship with it that to you makes it not so crazy. That’s sort of the same with any sport and anything else.

To be honest with you, my theory is that that is the addiction in our sport and the addiction of anything like that. Meaning, the addiction is taking something that seems abnormal, you work it out physically and mentally so that it becomes normal, and now you’re living in this world that’s completely extraordinary, but you are in a comfort zone there to a certain extent. And when you do that, then you add something else and start tackling more disciplines to engage your mind.

…stay tuned on Friday for part 2 of my interview with Norman Kent and learn a little more about his career, the practices and techniques he recommends for skydivers, and one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard.

Blue Skies!

Ashley