Given the name, you would think that the sky is an integral part of the skydiving experience. The most integral, in fact. Yet tucked away in iFly facilities around the globe, hurtling through imperiously large wind tunnels, indoor skydivers might just disagree on a technicality.<\/p>\n
The tunnels offer a prolonged simulation of skydiving\u2019s freefall in 200km\/h wind. The results, a spectacle to behold, with acrobatic flips and dizzying turns that seem to laugh in the face of gravity. They haven\u2019t removed the sky, exactly. They\u2019ve simply bottled it.<\/p>\n
Kyra Poh, a competitor in this weekend\u2019s Australian indoor skydiving championships, knows this equation all too well. \u201cIndoors is like: unlimited time, limited space,\u201d Poh says. \u201cIn the sky, we have unlimited space, but limited time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 23-year-old from Singapore is a Red Bull athlete and current indoor skydiving world champion, but her background \u2013 perhaps surprisingly \u2013 is in competitive swimming. Her first taste of \u201cflying\u201d came 15 years ago, when her mother\u2019s advertising agency was engaged by iFly Singapore to showcase younger flyers in a commercial. Eight-year-old Poh was the perfect choice.<\/p>\n
\u201cI loved rollercoasters, anything that has adrenaline and speed, so when my mum asked me to become a flyer, it was a no-brainer,\u201d Poh says. \u201cSwimming was doing the same four strokes over and over every single day, so this was really refreshing. The possibilities were basically endless.\u201d<\/p>\n
Flyer Kyra Poh has a rigorous strength and conditioning regime that allows her to perform complex routines in the tunnel. Photograph: iFly Singapore<\/p>\n
These possibilities are explored in the competitive side of the sport \u2013 a bustling combination of national contests and world championships, stretching across multiple disciplines and divided by skill level and number of flyers. The disciplines can be split into two main categories: dynamic and speed, and freestyle.<\/p>\n
Freestyle is where indoor skydiving\u2019s artistry really comes to life. It boasts meticulously choreographed and synchronised routines, all imbued with breathtaking creativity and set to music.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe take inspiration from many sports,\u201d Poh says. \u201cStreet dancing or breakdancing, ballet, gymnastics \u2026 but with the element of wind, so we can do it all when we\u2019re floating. It\u2019s kind of like ice-skating but three-dimensional.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As with all sports that marry grace with athleticism, the elegance on display disguises the significant load being placed upon the body. For Poh, flight training looks like 90-second reps in 15-minute bursts, with 30-minute recovery periods, for up to seven hours a day. When she trains for world championship meets, she is at the facility six or seven days a week for four months.<\/p>\n
Conditioning reflects this accordingly. \u201cWe have to do a lot of strengthening and stretching outside of the tunnel,\u201d Poh says. \u201cFor a freestyle routine, we\u2019re putting our bodies through one minute and 30 seconds of extreme spins, so we do a lot of warmups. And because we don\u2019t have any impact with the ground, we\u2019re using a bunch of our muscles that we would never use if we weren\u2019t flying.\u201d<\/p>\n
There will be several family teams competing at the Australian indoor skydiving championships. Photograph: iFly Downunder<\/p>\n
For Canberra-based skydiver Jakob Kapelj it\u2019s all about shoulder training. \u201cI do a lot of head-down positions in the tunnel. It\u2019s much more physically demanding on your body than actual skydiving.\u201d<\/p>\n
skip past newsletter promotion<\/a><\/p>\n The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend\u2019s action<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. For more information see our Privacy Policy<\/a>. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy<\/a> and Terms of Service<\/a> apply.<\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n An avid outdoor skydiver, Kapelj started out while living in Florida a decade ago, where he completed 50 jumps: \u201cnot a lot\u201d by skydiving standards. Pursuing the indoor side began much more recently.<\/p>\n \u201cI was travelling a lot for work and we had a long layover down in Melbourne,\u201d he says. \u201cI thought that rather than sitting in the airport, eating crappy food and drinking beers, I\u2019d go find something more productive to do.\u201d<\/p>\n A Google search and a quick taxi ride took Kapelj to the nearby iFly, where he \u201cdid a few sessions, had so much fun, and basically became obsessed\u201d. Undeterred by the closest tunnel being in Penrith, he began making frequent trips north and progressing through skills development at an eye-watering pace. A mere two-and-a-half years later, and Kapelj will compete in these championships as his first official competition.<\/p>\n The Australian indoor skydiving championships run from 8-10 August at iFly in Western Sydney. Photograph: iFly Downunder<\/p>\n He won\u2019t be alone when he does \u2013 his daughter Alia, 7, will also be making her debut in the junior contest. \u201cThe kids have so much fun,\u201d Kapelj says. \u201cThey get creative, and they\u2019re just playing in this really fun environment.\u201d<\/p>\n The sport itself can be quite an expensive pursuit, especially with the tunnel time required to compete at a high level. But with how quickly you can begin to master tricks, Kapelj believes it\u2019s well worth the investment.<\/p>\n \u201cHave a go, and you\u2019ll be surprised by how quickly you can be let off the grip with your instructor. And then once you\u2019re flying all on your own, it\u2019s so much fun.\u201d<\/p>\n Poh\u2019s pitch is even more simple: \u201cWho wouldn\u2019t want to fly?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Given the name, you would think that the sky is an integral part of the skydiving experience. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-54350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}