by Christopher Gryniewicz

Created on: December 18, 2009

When the thrill of jumping out of a plane just isn't exhilarating anymore, it may be time to strap a skyboard to your feet and surf the air. Sky surfing was first started in France and is most often credited to Patrick de Gayardon's jump with a cutaway board, similar to what is used in the sport today, in 1988. A year prior Joel Cruciani also made a jump using a full size surf board, as did Laurent Bouquet with a smaller board with straps but no cutaway. By the mid nineties sky surfing had found its way into the x-games and was being experienced throughout the world. This is not a sport for everyone. Sky surfing is a physically demanding sport that should only be taken on by the most experienced skydivers. Even standing upright on a board while plummeting to the earth is difficult, let alone performing the aerial maneuvers required for competitive sky surfing.

In traditional skydiving, jumpers assume a belly flop position during their decent. This keeps the parachute facing the sky and ready to deploy. Freestyle skydivers take advantage of the time during the free fall, between exiting the plane and deploying the chute, to perform acrobatics and ballet style maneuvers. Sky surfing is similar to freestyle, except that incorporates a board to aid the diver in performing tricks.

Skyboards look similar to snow boards or small surf boards and strap to the skydiver's feet. On the board sky surfers perform somersaults, barrels rolls, axle twists, loops, and other tricks; taking advantage of all directions and space. In competition, sky surfers jump in pairs. One diver performs the tricks while the other follows and records the performance. The cameraman, or camera flyer as he is called, has a camera mounted to his head rather than a skyboard on his feet. Both jumpers contribute to the overall score of the competition which is judged by technical merit, team work, and artistic impression. The camera flyer must not only capture the surfer in flight but, make the video feed original and visually exciting to achieve a high score.

For those learning to sky surf for the first time, Tamara Koyn's dancer website, recommends that an interested party be able to stand-up between 9,500ft to 3,500ft while free falling, start and stop 360 degree spins and pirouettes in all directions, and perform front and back loops prior to strapping on a board. After each trick, the diver must return to an upright position. Koyn goes on to warn that the board changes the aerodynamics of the skydiver which creates its own complications when the chute is deployed. Early diver's are warned to not open their chutes while standing, as speeds can exceed 100-150 mph and the canopy can blow. There are many other things that can go wrong while sky surfing, which makes it as dangerous as thrilling. Without proper training a diver can get stuck in a spin or the board can get stuck in the canopy.

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