Juggling and skydiving?

[MF42 0]

So I know that Icon134 makes one other juggling nut on here, and there may be others. I did a search, but couldn't find anything about this:

Has anyone ever successfully juggled while in freefall? I watched a couple of videos with people freeflying with those spaceballs, and it looks to my newbie eyes like a simple cascade at least should definitely be possible. Has it been done? Am I a massive nerd for even wanting to try it? (Probably yes to that one, but that's ok, I'm very comfortable in my nerdiness.)

Matt

[AggieDave 6]

I don't care what anyone else says, I say you should get ahold of a ball master (a skyball master, sicko) and go try to juggle while flying HD. That would be the most awesome solo video since the pumpkin flew!

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[MF42 0]

That's exactly what I'm thinking! The video would be great!

'Course I gotta heal up, save money, finish AFF, get my A, and make a whole bunch of skydives first, but I was planning on doing that anyway.

Matt

[AggieDave 6]

When I had about 6 jumps I had a plan for a skydive that was fairly out there...then I did it on jump 30. It was a really unsafe and bad idea, even though the pictures were great as was the video.

I got really lucky, period. So I would hope that you would learn from my mistake and get some experience before you try something very different and difficult, even though its cool.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[MF42 0]

Don't worry Dave. I am my own safety nazi. Believe me the juggling jump won't happen for a very long time.

Matt

[skydemon2 0]

yeah thanks for leaving us hanging....... spill it already!!

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

[AggieDave 6]

WTF do you mean spill it already? Everyone knows about the pumpkin jump.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[skydemon2 0]

I guess it was before my time here, I had no idea what it was.... sorry


but hey skydiving and pumkins dont mix so I can imagine how it went.

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

[AggieDave 6]

It went really well, unfortunately I can't find a picture of Flight of the Great Pumpkin...hopefully someone else has a pic of that jump saved somewhere and can post it for me.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[skydemon2 0]

http://www.skydivingmovies.com/ver2/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=253

searched and found it very cool!

Beauty is only skin deep, but ugly goes clean to the bone!

I like to start my day off with a little Ray of Soulshine™!!

[AggieDave 6]

Holy crap, and I thought that video was lost to time due to a HD crash a couple of years ago.

Well, that was jump #30. I was lucky. Stupid human tricks are fun in skydiving, but once you have enough experience to pull them off with some relative safety.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[MF42 0]

hahahahaha

Very very cool! Carmina Burana remix as Jack Pumpkinhead flys again! Without the gump this time!

But you're right, I can see a few ways that could have gone very seriously bad. Not sure I would do that.

Matt

[Lindercles 0]

I'm a juggling nut as well. I used to have torches, but I don't anymore...long story.

I'm definitely interested in juggling during freefall. All I have to do is learn to fly head down, then learn to fly head down well, then learn to be a badass headdown flyer. Then maybe we'll see.

[MF42 0]

Cool! You and Icon and I need to learn crazy freeflying skild and juggle and pass to each other!

Matt

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

Cool! You and Icon and I need to learn crazy freeflying skild and juggle and pass to each other!

That would possibly be the most awesome video I've ever seen, if yall are ever able to do it.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Lindercles 0]

I'm in!

Of course, we need to get lots of tunnel time in for practice. Which would make a pretty cool video all on it's own.

[MF42 0]

It's gotta be possible. I'm thinking that backflying might actually be more workable. But I'm an extreme noob and might be wrong about that.

Edited for severe typos because the painkillers are hitting kind of strong right now.

Matt

[Lindercles 0]

Yeah, you'd probably have some pretty serious burble issues on your back. HD is definitely the way to go.

[AggieDave 6]

Of course you could probably do it on your belly with some FF skyballs (or similar). You'd really want a ballmaster on hand to catch them if you dropped them, though.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[Lindercles 0]

What is this "dropped" you speak of?

[AggieDave 6]

Quote

What is this "dropped" you speak of?

HA!

Sort of like that juggler with the knife in his foot. He didn't drop it, he just has to work on juggling with his feet.

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[MF42 0]

Yeah, you'd definitely need someone else there to chase the drops. Thinking about it, for that reason alone this would be kind of a dangerous stunt. Much caution necessary.

Matt

[jdobleman 0]

Here's another one, Mad John the Juggler is how I got my name. Haven't tried it in freefall all these years, mainly for safety reasons. Somewhere there's an old skydiving movie where a whole bag of oranges is let loose and they just float around the freefallers.

Maybe it could be incorporated with one of Bryan Burke's Junk Days in AZ.

madjohn

Main goals in life: Be on the "Jumpers Over Eighty" (JOE) World Record and attend the Lost Prairie Boogie once after I'm gone.

[MF42 0]

What's a Junk Day?

Sounds like fun.

Matt

[MF42 0]

Ok, a search of rec.juggling turns up a whole bunch of theorizing about the possibility of freefall juggling, and one actually interesting post:

Subject: Re: Juggling while skydiving.
Author: Dave Blumenthal
Date: 8 Aug 2000
Ref: 1

Hi,

I've tried this a few times, with some limited success. I decided to go
with a belly-to-earth position throwing balls towards the earth and catching
them as they slowed down and I fell past them. I used large cotton Fergies
on account that they're well packed, the cotton material gives them a nice
fallrate that's a little slower than mine, and they're completely
biodegradable which gives me a warm fuzzy feeling to counterbalance the fact
that if they hit anything they will likely cause significant damage :-) I
was able to make 2 catches out of 10 throws, on 3 jumps. The largest
problem was throwing them too hard, because they would travel too far below
me, and then be too far off to the side when they returned. It takes a very
light touch. I didn't feel that the throwing motion was moving me around
the sky much - I think as long as you have a good fallrate and an otherwise
very stable body position your arm motions shouldn't be a problem.

I considered using a sit-fly/back-fly position and juggling the balls in the
burble. That might be easier. I don't know how much the burble turbulence
would affect the balls - heavier balls might be needed.

John Mathews at ZHills suggested that I try making a skyball weighted to
fall at belly speeds, and get comfortable flying relative to that one,
before adding more balls and increasing the fallrate a touch. The juggling
attempts will be much more controlled and the likelyhood of landing with the
balls is much higher.

On all of my attempts, I lost all the balls, so please be very mindful of
where you're practicing this. Get the OK from the DZO, watch the spot,
coordinate with the pilot if you need to be dropped somewhere other than the
normal spot, and remember that it's the pilot who looses his ticket if the
FAA gets annoyed.

I think that juggling in freefall is possible with enough practice, but I
don't know of anyone who has ever done it. Good luck to anyone who tries
it!

Cheers,
-Dave

BTW, I'm "Juggler" at Skydive Chicago - if you're in the area say hello.



So 6 years ago it was attempted, but not successfully. Anybody know this guy? Any further updates? Tips?

Matt