Indoor skydiving

That's me in 2003, taking a very expensive week-long lesson in how to improve my skydiving technique. Notice that I really DO look a lot like that person in my previous post, except that I have about ten pounds of lead strapped around my middle in this picture to keep me belly down in the wind tunnel. This was in Orlando, Florida, but more and more wind tunnels are cropping up all around the country. Take a look at the Wikipedia information about vertical wind tunnels.

And more than that, what is going to happen to the next generation of skydivers? I have never flown around successfully on my head, but just look at what these two 8- and 11-year-old "tunnel kids" are doing at the wind tunnel in Colorado.

Whatever you do, don't let your kids or grandkids see this video, or you will be spending all your money for them to go to the nearest wind tunnel to play in the tunnel like this! These kids are much better than most skydivers who have spent tons of money (like I did in that first picture) to get better. At about 2:20 into the video, the kids are joined by two adults and they fly around making different formations on their belly. This is the kind of skydiving that I am familiar with.

They will be flying circles around their instructors (in freefall, anyway) if they become skydivers. But of course they won't know the first thing about flying a canopy, and that might be the scariest part of the experience for them. I am really looking forward to sitting around in my rockin' chair and watching this new generation conquer the sky.
:-)