Skysurfing

Sky surfing is a type of skydiving and extreme sport in which the skydiver wears a custom skysurf board attached to the feet and performs surfing-style aerobatics during freefall.

The boards used are generally smaller than actual surfboards, and look more like snowboards or large skateboards. Custom bindings attach the board to the feet, which is removable with the use of a 2-ring release system based on the common 3-ring release system used to cut away main parachutes.

A neutral position maintaining stability is to stand upright on the board during freefall, this is also the position required for deployment of the main parachute whilst surfing medium and expert boards.

The combination of rigid board and relative wind requires control to maintain stability during freefall. The jumper must control the board and their body position so as to open the parachute in a stable configuration. More advanced aerobatics such as loops, rolls and helicopter spins are possible. Since some moves involve high G-force spins, some skysurfers tightly wrap bandages all the way up their arms to keep the blood from pooling at the end of the limbs. However, even with this bandage technique, many techniques in skysurfing can be extremely painful and result in temporary paralysis of fingers along with subconjunctival bleeding (broken blood vessel in the eye).^{[citation needed]}

When a skysurfer is filmed by another skydiver falling alongside them, the resulting film gives the appearance that the skysurfer is riding on the air in the same way a surfer rides on a wave. The downward motion is not very apparent and this creates the illusion that a skysurfer is floating on the relative wind. A skysurfer falls at speeds comparable to any other freefall or freeflying skydiver, with speed varying depending on orientation. The competitive discipline of skysurfing is a team sport consisting of a skysurfer and a camera flyer with a video camera.^{[citation needed]}

Pioneers, included the late Patrick de Gayardon, Eric Fradet & Phillipe Vallaud. Mike Frost, Sean MacCormick and Kebe remain prominent in the sport, each with between 25 - 30 years experience, providing industry seminars and coaching programmes, ensuring the next generation of skysurfers can access the discipline and progress safely along with commercial exposure through the sport.

In 1991, after performing standing on a surfboard for a skysurfing advertisement of Coca-Cola, Ray Palmer became the first Australian skysurfer.

The sport of skysurfing coincided with other new-age disciplines in skydiving freestyle freeflying.^{[citation needed]} It reached its peak in popularity during the mid to late 1990s. Skysurfers were featured in prime time television commercials for major brands like Pepsi, AT&T & Sony PlayStation and continue to this day with Red Bull. The combination of brand association, television coverage and competition promoted the sport of skydiving in a positive manner while producing exciting content for brands to be associated with. A number of movie studios included skysurfing in action sequences such as Silver Surfer & XXX (2002) film. Ralph Lauren created a fragrance brand Extreme Polo Sport based on imagery of skysurfing.