Girls Go Large – by Laurence Garceau

August 31, 2017

No Comments

1760

Highlights from my trip to the “tropical island” of Toogoolawah – August 2017

Written by Laurence Garceau (LG), captured by Steve Fitch

As part of a “Girls Go Large” initiative to invigorate bigways and attract female talent at Skydive Ramblers, I had the pleasure of coaching local flyers in the art and fun of bigway jumping. A few things we learnt and shared:

There’s so much more to bigways than single point round formations! If you have a medium-sized group, go for drills:
- exit single file from inside the plane to practice your dive technique,
- build sub-sections of typical bigway formations: a helix, a line, a diamond,
- familiarise yourself with an anchor slot,
- practice good perspective in “picture-perfect” formations,
- learn how to pick up a bigway grip; typically elbow to knee for a high upper grip on an outside leg (diamond), elbow to elbow for a wrist grip (line),
- If it’s early morning and the whole group has yet to re-form, fly 5-way rotating spiders in honour of Fiona, because they’re fun and because she loved them.

Women in Adventure Sports are well accompanied by Men in Adventure Sports. My personal view is that we should aim, in the long run, to Integrate, not Segregate. After some helpful “female only time”, that’s what we did and we all had fun.
Chicken wings are good for the barbie!!!
- Yes I refer to the particular flying style most often displayed by light jumpers, easily spotted from a distance, where elbows come all the way back to the waist and arching from the thorax is all the rage!
- No, it’s not really a flying style. It’s the ultimate compromise when one has “nothing left” in one’s fall rate range and tries desperately to arch more, get more surface out of the wind. It can also be seen as a means to drive forward.
- But wait! You have legs, they give you forward drive if you extend them. And, and, and, there’s this tool called a weight belt that just needs pouches of lead inserted and to be worn during the jump, and it will magically make you fall faster, I promise.
- So you mean you can actually fly with your elbows in front of you the whole time, get to your slot, stop, and pick up a grip on level without popping like a helium balloon and moving away from the grip in a manner proportional to the reach of your arm… Y-E-S!
- All credit to the girls, they took me up on a “no chicken wings” jump challenge and delivered in style. I was still woo-hoo-ing under canopy as I landed in the kangaroo resting area…
Are you still flying?
- Well, are you? Remember how they said Present, Identify, Intercept, fly to your slot, stop, dock without momentum, and keep flying. Your job is not over!
- One way to find out is by practising this simple drill: build the first point, whatever it may be. On the key, drop all the grips and aim to go nowhere. Are you staying still? Are you backsliding (symptom of not enough forward drive with your legs once in formation)? Are you falling out of the sky like Wile E Coyote’s anvil (you were flying faster than the formation and relying on your grip to stay up with it)?
- Have fun with your mates practising this drill. Then fly as if you were in the drill, every jump, every point. Regardless of formation size, if you’re doing relative work, you want to stay close.

Thanks to Kristina Hicks for organising and to the APF Fi Fund, South Queensland Parachute Council, Skydive Ramblers and the SEQS Club for their support.