Why is skysurf so uncommon today?

[SurfFlite 0]

1 death while skysurfing, actually a baglock but had a board on. Lost altitude awareness and I think it is safe to say that the board MAY have contributed to his death. Jerry Loftis, Surf Flite founder and 1st American to skysurf. WFFC 1998.

1 death, 1st time beginner board jump. DZ employee, ~600 jumps. Grabbed board from behind manifest counter, never watched the training video (I'm 99% convinced this would have prevented the accident) or asked anyone about what to do on the 1st time board jump. Last seen "tracking away" on board. Assumption is that he deployed the pilot chute between his legs while still tracking. THE ONLY MAJOR THING THAT CAN MESS UP YOUR SHORT BOARD JUMP. It is also one of the major sections of the video that he didn't watch.

That's it, 2 deaths total. I'm sure there are plenty of "scared to death" skyboard jumps though.

Rob and Patrick, both fantastic skysurfers, passed on doing other things.

As for it's popularity, I have owned Surf Flite since late 1998. I would say that it has remained fairly steady. Not growing or declining. Board sales have been consistant for the last 5 years. The X-Games cancellation did not effect sales at all. Sales are 70% overseas, 30% American. (I think Americans are a little more sissyfied when it comes to boards)
Myth: You can only do solos or surf with a camera flyer only.

I have been on dives with 3 boards and 14 freeflyers. I have been on jumps with 5 boards and 3 freeflyers. It's all about your skills. Just like some people are only comfortable FF with 3 people and others are setting world records.

As for the future of skysurfing. Look for 2, 4' diameter tubes dumped out of the plane. Ovaltrack racing on short boards around the tubes. It will take a good board tracker. We are working on this and it will happen. We have come to the conclusion (like someone mentioned above) that it is very intimidating to imagine yourself ever being as good as your Eric Fradet type. The guy has over 24,000 skydives. How will anyone ever catch him. But tracking on a board is a basic skill that most anyone can master. Look for the future of boards to maybe seperate itself from the hardcore competitions and enter a more funfilled/competitve atmosphere. We had an event last winter in Eloy were there were 9 competitors from 5 countries. Nobody had more than 20 skysurfs, pros were not allowed to enter. The competition was just as close as the pro stuff, everyone had a blast and we gave out $750 in prize money. This is where I see the sport going in the future. But I could be wrong.

Kerry

[PurpleBadger 0]

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very intimidating to imagine yourself ever being as good as your Eric Fradet type. The guy has over 24,000 skydives. How will anyone ever catch him.

a couple of guys have... he only came 3rd in Mondial . Hopefully the Rob Harris Boogie next easter helps bring a few people towards trying SkySurf out.