Banzai Skydiving
Why do women not compete in sports that men are predominant in? Well, here is why! There is something for everyone in my blogs! My Blogs are a 7 to 10-minute read.
What is Banzai Skydiving exactly?
Banzai skydiving is an intense sport that causes chills just by thinking about it.
Skydiving is a popular sport done by adrenaline junkies and adventurous people, but even this terrifies people to the bone. There’s another form of skydiving that not only will scare these adrenaline junkies but also poses a life threat if went wrong. Not many people have heard of this extreme sport, as it is attempted only by professionals assisted by a team. This intense sport is known as Banzai skydiving. WTF!!
It requires 2 distinct actions:
First, throw off the parachute, and second, jump after it.
The aim of Banzai Skydiving is to catch the parachute in just enough time so that the diver can make sure the harness is secured, pull the ripcord and land safely at the pre-planned landing spot. The throwing off of the parachute and the jump of the diver must be synchronized to ensure successful Banzai skydiving; failure of accomplishing this will result in the death of the diver.
The Guinness book of world record claims Banzai Skydiving to be the most dangerous category. Yasuhiro Kubo has won a place in the Guinness world of records by waiting 50 seconds after jumping before regaining and deploying his parachute. With exceptional skills, he was able to retrieve the parachute and was able to glide down and hit the pre-planned landing spot.
Even though skydiving has a number of fatalities, however, Banzai Skydiving, being the most dangerous of all, has no fatalities recorded. Geez, I wonder why, it’s just insane! I can just imagine how people actually do this!
Banzai Skydiving is an intense sport that causes chills just by thinking about it. We have seen it in movies but in real life, only the brave, adrenaline-loving people might be able to perform this type of sport.
There have been multiple recorded instances of skydivers jumping without being attached to a parachute. However, these jumps lack the element that makes them a banzai skydive, where a parachute is thrown out of the plane and then caught by the jumper after some delay. During skydives where the jumper is detached from the skydiving rig, the rig is held by the skydiver or an assistant until the skydiver is secured to the rig. This is due to the skydiving rig having a much slower terminal velocity than a skydiver is capable of achieving. This has led the skydiving community to doubt the idea that banzai skydiving has ever occurred as defined.
Skydivers jumping while detached from a rig wear a special harness that attaches to a cord extending from the parachute. The skydiver can safely recover the parachute. Otherwise, the leg straps on a normal harness would require a thread through. This would be impossible while in free fall.
The Banzai Skydive is the most dangerous category in the Guinness Book of World Records.
Yasuhiro Kubo took the challenge on September 2, 2000. Kubo supposedly fell alongside the rig for 50 seconds after jumping before regaining and deploying his parachute. Details about the jump are sparse and it is unknown whether Kubo or another skydiver held onto the rig while falling. This won him a place in the Guinness World Records. This claim however was not witnessed by a Guinness Book of World Records official but was witnessed by an unknown expert. No video or photographic evidence exists to support the claim.
The Banzai Skydiving category is still accepted in the Guinness Book of World Records. Guinness cannot accept a record claim that is likely to put people at risk other than the person attempting the world record. As long as the Banzai skydive guidelines are followed, nobody is at risk. The guidelines state that the jump must be done away from public places.
Skydiver Luke Aikins became the first person to jump from a plane without a parachute or wingsuit, carrying out the daring stunt on live television. Aikins jumped from a height of 25,000 feet (7,600 meters) and, after a two-minute fall, flipped onto his back to land in a 100-foot-by-100-foot (30 m by 30 m) net, according to news reports. How did the daredevil pull off such a heart-stopping stunt?
To accomplish such a jump with a parachute, a skydiver would typically jump from the plane, free-fall at 120 mph (190 km/h) or faster and then, at higher than 2,500 feet (760 m) above the ground, deploy the parachute, The parachute works to slow the skydiver’s decent enough for a safe landing, she told Live Science.
Without a parachute, a skydiver would continue to fall at 120 mph, a speed at which it would be fatal if the person hit the ground, however, instead of hitting the ground, Aikins fell into a net. That was what he used to survive,” Koreen said. 8 Craziest Skydives of all time.
But did Aikins’ movements, such as flipping onto his back or tumbling in the air, slow his fall? Not by much. To slow down, a skydiver can spread his or her limbs to increase surface area, but “that will only slow you down maybe 10 miles an hour [16 km/h] — not substantially. You’re still falling above 100 miles an hour [160 km/h],”
Yet, even in a jump without a parachute or wingsuit. locating a landing site (in this case, a large net) is not as difficult as people may think, said Jean Potvin, a professor of physics at the Parks College of Engineering, Aviation and Technology at Saint Louis University in Missouri.
“And obviously he practised that move a lot,” Potvin told Live Science.
Finding The Net
Aikins’ helmet gave him GPS alerts throughout the dive, and lights on the net, visible from altitudes of more than 25,000 feet (7,600 m), turned red when he was off-track and white when he was on course,
Still, finding the net is not as simple as jumping out of a plane directly above the target and falling straight down, Potvin said. The plane is moving forward at the time of the jump, which means the skydiver leaves the plane on a forward trajectory, Potvin said, speculating that Aikins probably jumped from the plane before it flew over the net.
So how does a falling skydiver steer his body toward a target on the ground? Aikins’ manoeuvres in the air were efforts to do just that, Potvin said. As Aikins falls from the plane, he does something called “tracking.”
“Instead of falling like an X … he brought his arms back along his body, and so we call that tracking, so it means that what he did there is he started to glide forward and direct himself to the centre of the net,” Potvin said. Skydivers can also direct themselves backwards, he added.
Safe Landing
And just before hitting the net, Aikins flipped over onto his back so that his body would bend in the direction the back is flexible — toward the front, Potvin said. He had to land on his back to not break his spine, basically,” he said.
A skydiver falling at high speed has a lot of kinetic energy and that energy has to transfer somewhere upon landing, Potvin said. If you hit the ground, the kinetic energy is “dissipated into the ground, then reflected back into your body and breaks your body into a million pieces,” he said. But the net, made of a polyethene cord that is twice strong as steel, prevented that from happening. The net absorbed his fall, dissipated his energy, and allowed him to survive the jump and actually walk out of it,” Potvin said.
Potvin, who is a skydiver himself, said he was impressed by the feat. But not everyone was captivated by Aikins’ jump.
Michael Turoff, a skydiver and co-author of the book “Parachuting: The Skydiver’s Handbook”), called it “a ridiculously dangerous stunt that could have easily resulted in a fatality.”
Why do women not partake in Banzai Skydiving?
Whilst the majority of women don’t partake in Banzai Skydiving, maybe some do.
My research has not found any women in this discipline. Gee!, I wonder why?
If you have evidence that women do, kindly send me an email so I can include that information.
The Equipment
Once the skydiver catches the parachute! here are but a few parachute models:
Some of the following canopies are rarely if ever, used these days. However, it always pays to know your stuff.
Parachutes are divided into two types – ascending and descending. In this article, we’re going to look at the descending varieties used by those of us that like to fall. Ascending refers mostly to paragliding, which is a topic for another day.
Round-type parachutes
Used in the military – think any WWW1 film– and as emergency parachutes. These simply rely on the drag to slow descent, rather than having any lift. Made from dome-shaped canopies, they are often referred to as ‘jellyfish chutes’ and are seldom if ever used by modern jumpers.
Cruciform parachutes
Designed to provide a more steady descent by reducing oscillation. Cruciform are square-shaped chutes that have been modified in recent times by the US Army – called the ATPS system.
They can reduce descent speed by as much as 30%. This reduces the chance of landing injury. However, again, these chutes are rarely used outside military manoeuvres.
Rogallo-wing parachutes
Used to increase forward speed and decrease landing speed. There has been plenty of experimentation with this kind of chute in the world of sports parachuting. However, the building difficulty and subsequent introduction of the ram-air parachute means these are seldom used in the sporting community these days.
Annular parachutes
A ring – or series of concentric rings – shaped parachute that pulls the apex close to the load. They have a lower drag factor than conventional round parachutes. The rear position of the vents can give the jumper considerable forward speed in descent.
Ram-air parachutes
Most modern parachute types are ram-air, specifically in competitive skydiving. The self-inflating airfoils, known as parafoils, give the jumper greater control of speed and direction.
They also spread the stress of deployment (a major problem on some older chutes). Two layers of fabric allow air to penetrate from vents in the front and form cells.
- The use of sail sliders allows the jumper to adjust the canopy in descent and maintain greater control of airspeed, descent speed and direction. Vents and brake lines can also allow a greater degree of control.
- Many Ram-Air styles of parachute
There are many types of ram-air parachutes manufactured by several different companies worldwide. Different use of fabrics, such as air permeation-resistant ‘F-111’ can affect the parachute, and other design factors like stabilizers can vary according to individual design.
Using the right parachute and checking to ensure everything is correct before jumping is an essential part of skydiving. For many people packing their own chute is all part of the process. It’s important to know how the size, shape and design of your canopy will affect your descent.
Manufacturers of parachutes and accessories to name a few
Sky Dive – https://www.skydivestore.com/
Icarus Canopies – https://www.nzaerosports.com/?gclid=Cj0KCQjw0rr4BRCtARIsAB0_48P25KtEMyJ2L9hSCvIajp8EqoIhqpT4VnR7nzBeswdpjzOLix92ckQaArLHEALw_wcB&v=68caa8201064
Aerodyne – https://www.flyaerodyne.com/
Para Gear – http://www.paragear.com/
Parachute systems – http://parachutesystems.com/
South African Suppliers:
Fruity Chutes – https://fruitychutes.com/
Pasa – https://www.para.co.za/
Sorry avid gamers, there are no games for Banzai Sky Diving!
Keep an eye out for another sports blog: Base Jumping
My views, comments and content are strict on my own opinion and research and are not governed or influenced by any marketing of companies or brands. It is of my own free will to mention companies and brands that supply sporting equipment pertaining to the sport in the discussion.