Aussie Bigways Skill Development Camp
Words by Joe Rummy Clarke
I’m in my slot, looking towards the base and across to my opposite in the formation. I see sunshine, rainbows and good times. I find myself wondering, where is the other person in the formation I’m docking with and attempt a furtive glance away from the base to see where that person is…suddenly I see doom, gloom and bad times… I lost concentration, I’m not flying a strong stable body position anymore, what the hell happened??
We all start somewhere. That sense of curiosity when flying in large formations to work out if we’ve built the formation, what is taking the divers so long to get there, wondering who just flew into someone’s burble and why they both went low. With experience we build strength, ability and knowledge and that was the common goal for many of the participants at the Aussie Bigways Doug Forth Camp at Skydive York in December 2017.
Experience of the participants ranged from between 50-100 jumps having just achieved a star crest rating to thousands of jumps. It was an opportunity for the experienced jumpers to shine, lead by example and support the less experienced team members through their first Bigway event. As we progress towards the goal of a 150-way Aussie Bigway Record in Perris, California events such as this are a vital tool in training, honing skills, building our experience and ultimately proving that as skydivers we are ready to set another record.
We commenced the event on Friday 1st December, with rego and check-in of the participants in the afternoon, a few beers over the bar, a welcome from Greg and Tracey and a chat from Doug so that everyone understood the plan for the camp.
Waking up on Saturday morning you the air was full of anticipation as the jumps got underway. The day kicked off with three groups of 12-14 ways with a focus flying in your slot, no contact and maintaining the fall rate of the formation. This gave the flyers the opportunity to practice flying still with stability. Slots in the formation stayed similar throughout the day giving an opportunity to consolidate and practice the skills required for the exit slot. As the day progressed each group showed discipline in flying to quadrants, intercepting their stadium and flying on radial. There were some really nice 2 and 3 point completions to cap off day 1. The friendly beer police were on hand at the end of the day to quench that hard-earned thirst and a hard-earned thirst needs a big cold beer and the best cold beer is Vic, Victoria Bitter…unless you’re Doug and you gag on your first mouthful and grab something more posh, like a Little Creatures Pale Ale.
Day 2, time for a change up of groups, coaches and skills to develop. Today was all about floating and dive floating. A skill that you often don’t practice when only using one plane. The base was diving out from the inside, challenging the floaters to fly up in their stadium and approach the formation. A new feature for the day was “strut-cam”. Strut-cam gave us a unique view of the exit and the entire dive line exiting. For most, it was particularly useful in coaching the technique of the late divers ensuring a solid launch off the left foot translating to good presentation making the dive to the formation more efficient. There isn’t a camera in the world that a skydiver won’t geek and this one was no exception. There were plenty of smiles and even a raised eyebrow or two, but style points go to Deb who almost fell off the plane in her attempt to geek the camera while climbing out to the rear float position. Good on ya Deb!
We always pray to the weather Gods and when praying is not enough a sacrifice is needed. Our day 3 started with some average weather that kept us on the ground. The day was not completely lost. Weather days are the perfect opportunity for sharing knowledge through seminars and ground coaching sessions. Greg shared the Aussie Bigways journey with the group including the previous records achieved and our plan for getting to Perris in 2019. Peta gave us a judges perspective on another side of our sport and the opportunities out there for judges in Australia and Internationally. Later in the afternoon, Doug took the group through a session on tracking giving everyone the chance to practice body position on the ground. One of the most important skills in bigway flying is the ability to track efficiently away from the formation for deployment. Even the coaches got down and dirty practicing their tracking body position on the ground. The second plane arrived in the afternoon on Monday ready for formation loads on Tuesday and on cue just before the end of the day, the skies opened and clouds broke up. There was just enough light to load both planes with the two groups and sneak in one jump for the day.
Our final day saw three West Australian Sequential State Records set and a completed 30-way on the last jump – the largest formation jump for many of our participants at this event. As soon as the word “record” is mentioned, it changes the vibe and psyche of every individual. The pressure is on to perform. There were numerous discussions within the coaching team about whether the participants would be told that we were attempting state sequential records. In the end, it was decided that it would remain a secret until we successfully completed the jumps. Keep the focus of the camp on a no-fault learning approach. Group 1 achieved the 17-way 2-point sequential jump on the first attempt with Doug breaking the news to the team in the debrief, much to the surprise and satisfaction of all the participants. Proving that when you perform consistently as you have practiced the skills previously, a record jump is just another jump. Unfortunately, Group 2 did not have a successful completion on their first attempt, but were so close. Now the pressure was on. Group 1 completed a 17-way 3-point sequential formation on the next jump with Group 2 completing the 17-way 2-point sequential. Three new WA records and 34 new record holders! You can just taste the beer. The jumps were completed doing formation loads with two caravans.
With the great success of the first jumps of the day, the two groups merged as one attempting a 34-way formation. The progress of every individual on the camp gave the organisers confidence in building a completion, with fatigue setting in, the jumps were not successful completions. The final jump of the camp and sixth jump of the day on Tuesday was a 30-way jump out of two planes. Every person on the load was focused on achieving our goal and with seconds to spare, the 30-way was completed.
In the words of our much-loved local beer policeman Darragh Flynn, “ladies and gentleman, may I please have your undivided attention please…”. The event was not without achievements and beer fines, with some of the highlights including:
- Steve Hogden – 2000 jumps
- Kevin Dodd – 1000 jumps
- Joe Rummy Clarke – 700 jumps
- Iris Golles – 100 jumps
- Multiple beer line infringements
- Largest completed formations
- First time in a formation load
- New WA sequential records
I apologise if I’ve missed anyone that was recognised during the event! Much love to you and make sure you ring the bell!
An event like this would not be possible without sponsors, our volunteers, coaches and local dropzone support. There was major financial assistance from the APF Fi Fund and State Councils including NSWPC, VTPC, WAPC, SAPC, NQPC, SQPC.
A huge thank you goes to Leo and the team at Skydive York sponsoring coach and camera slots. Keeping us in the air were our pilots Riley, Pete and Sam. Keeping the planes turning all within weights and balances is the magnificent Adrian Weaver and Helen Potter in manifest, you guys are gems! Thanks to the packers and to Mark Sillifant for the timely reserve pack overnight. Verity in the kitchen worked breakfast, lunch and dinner to feed the hungry mouths with delicious food, thank you.
Thank you to our Skydiving Supplier Sponsors who donated prizes to the raffle and other items for the goodie bags, in no particular order:
- iFly Downunder
- Cookie Helmets
- NZ Aerosports
- Sunpath
- Cypres
- P3 Skydiving
- Mee Loft
- Manufactory
- Terminal Sports
- Performance Design
- ParaGear
- Skydive York
Shout out to all of the local and interstate coaches: Greg Jack, Dave Loncasty, Red Ferguson, Shirley Cowcher, Joe Rummy Clarke and the main man Doug Forth for sharing his wisdom and knowledge with the coaches and all of the participants.
It is no mean feat to organise an event like this and without the commitment and dedication of Tracey Basman and the assistance of Shirley on the ground in WA the event would not have run as seamlessly as it did.
One final thank you goes to Red for bringing the printer that was more capable of being a paper weight than actually printing anything – good on ya mate, you tried.
