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Training
Tim Porter: www.gofreeschool.com
Tim Porter has coached me from my very first jumps as a freestyle skydiver. I have performed over 100 skydives with him. With a total of 28 national medals, 14 of which are gold and 8th place at world level in 1999, he is considered to be one of the most experienced freeflyers and freefly coaches in the world. He has recently been working with Hollywood in the new "Batman" movie as "Batman's" stunt double in a scene when "Batman" is skydiving.
When I do a coaching jump with Tim he can communicate with me by using special hand signals whilst falling through the air. We make a plan on the ground on what we want to achieve on a skydive almost like a mini routine.
He films me with a camcorder attached to the side of his special helmet. He can also make some spectacular stills photos with an additional stills camera attached to the top of his helmet.
By filming the skydive he can make a detailed debrief at the end of each jump which improves the quality of his coaching.
Training camp regime:
The average training camp normally takes places over a week to a week and a half.
In one day we will:
- Get up and be at the Drop Zone by 09:00am in order to manifest for the first lift (ride to the altitude of about 13,500ft)
- We we aim to be on every other lift that takes place in that day.
- We will land after one skydive spend about 20 minutes packing our parachutes and debriefing the previous jump then be back on the plane for the next jump. The whole day follows the pattern: skydive, pack, debrief...
- We will finish jumping at sunset. Our aim is to do an average of 9 skydives per day.
Therefore in a week we aim to make between 50-65 skydives (weather permitting)
All of my training camps in the last year have involved myself, my team mate and cameraman for the nationals (Leigh Birchenough-Richards) and a minimum of 1 coach between us.
Training Locations:
So far I have attended training camps in: Orlando, Florida; Seville; South Spain; Empuriabrava, North Spain. Many practice jumps up to the nationals were done in the UK at British Parachute Schools in Langar, Nottingham. www.bpslangar.co.uk
The reason I travel abroad is:
- Brighter, warmer weather- we cannot skydive in high wind, low cloud or rain.
- Busier dropzones with a faster manifest and faster planes - the busier the dropzone and the faster the plane, the more jumps we can do in a day.
- Cheaper jump ticket prices!
Cost:
10 coached jumps = £410
I would like to do about 60 coaches jumps this year, therefore a total will be: £2460
Other costs include solo jumps (an average of £18 per jump) and also flights, accommodation and general living requirements.
Per year I like to do an average of 150-200 skydives.
Aircraft:
There are many different aircrafts that I jump out of. The main ones include: Beech 99, Cessna Caravan, Sky Van (tail gate aircraft). The plane that we perform competition jumps out of is a Dornier.
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