Images courtesy of RAF Falcons Have you ever seen a Falcon fly? How about fall? The RAF Falcons have been falling for a long time, and it’s safe to say they’ve elevated it to a fine art. This 2024 display season is their 63rd, kicked off with some training in the southern California sunshine to put the gloss on some fresh manoeuvres in preparation for the team’s much-anticipated April kickoff. The season will see the team perform more than 60 displays – all over the UK, of course, but also across Europe, including the Formula 1 Grand Prix, the Slovakian International Air Show and France’s LAVA ..read more

By Jack Peploe Be honest: did you start skydiving because you saw a video of someone in a wingsuit, and the electricity of it propelled you to make your first tandem jump? You might have gone immediately in another direction after your AFF – and haven’t so much as waddled around a living room in your friend’s old Phantom – but still, there’s a statistically good chance that the idea of wingsuiting is what brought you into the fold. …Perhaps this season is your season to, finally, give it a go? Pawel-Kowal Wingsuiting in the UK is experiencing a spectacular renaissance. It’s a time of vibran ..read more

By Connor Figg All images courtesy iFly Routines are a hugely influential part of our lives. They can guide our actions in more ways than most of us realise. It is often remarked that we are creatures of habit: we drive the same routes to work, we pick the same products when shopping, and we repeat countless other actions throughout our days. When we switch our brains off and find ourselves “going through the motions”, it is the routines that we have developed that take over. This can be very helpful in some ways – which we will touch upon in this article – but it can also impact us negatively ..read more

Neurodiversity Is Powerful Stuff. Let’s Embrace It This is the first of two articles derived from an AGM talk given by our regular KISS + Tell Contributor, Emily Aucutt, alongside Advanced Packer/Basic Rigger Lucy Mancey. Over the course of the past year, we’ve taken this space in this magazine to look at some of the ways that physical diversity barriers to our sport – such as deafness – can be overcome. Differences beyond the physical also loom large for us in our sport, and by that, I mean the stuff that’s completely invisible to the naked eye. As you might have guessed, I’m talkin ..read more

“You can change the axis, the orientation, the movement, even the position… but at the end of the day, it’s all just barrel rolls”  – Naomi Kotzee By Connor Figg   Ah, freestyle flying: that pointy-toed fringe discipline for contortionists. …Or is it? Spoiler alert: it is not. Myths and preconceptions may abound, but there’s no question that freestyle flying is art. It’s an expression of oneself using movement and freedom. The fun part is that this discipline is for absolutely everyone – and the more you take notice of what these skills can do for you as a flyer, the better off you’l ..read more

By Karen Saunders I first wrote about the subject of the MARD back in December 2015. That feels like a long time ago, but make no mistake: for any skydiver who dislikes the idea of a reserve that doesn’t deploy in the event of an AAD fire, this topic is just as fresh now as it was then. The MARD (Main Assisted Reserve Deployment) systems used today are blindly trusted – while remaining incompletely understood – by the majority of the skydiving population. Case in point: I once asked a jumper who had had an AAD fire – after a total malfunction – why he hadn’t pulled his reserve handle after pul ..read more

By Joel Strickland When presented with the opportunity to join a water jump back in September, my initial instinct was to stay well clear of it. This is because in June of 2018 I cut away from underneath a functioning parachute into a body of water, and died. I still don’t know why. I was unconscious in a lake in Missouri for long enough to drown. I don’t remember being dragged onto the boat. The end result was a concussion, a couple of cracked bits of skeleton, and a procedure on my small intestine that ultimately meant a week in hospital. It was rough, for a bunch of reasons, most of all the ..read more

Growing as an Instructor, One Year at a Time By Emily Aucutt As I write this article, Christmas is only a few days away. The new year is right around the corner. However, as you’re reading this it’s probably closer to the start of the 2024 season – still a good time to be setting some jumping based intentions. This time of year often makes a person reflective. It’s always nice to see people’s social media posts around this time, summarising the year they have had – not only the experienced jumpers, but also freshly A-licenced skydivers that, this time last year, hadn’t even booked a ground sch ..read more

Seven Tunnel Flying Resolutions for 2024 By Connor Figg As the clock strikes midnight and we look towards the new year, it’s traditional to think about our resolutions and plan out how we wish to be better for this lap of the sun than we were for the last. So for this article, we’ll touch upon some personal resolutions for the tunnel that can help anyone make the most of their time. STRETCH! (BECAUSE PRE-FLIGHT SHOELACE TYING SHOULDN’T BE THE EXTREME SPORT) You’ve probably heard this a thousand times now, but before you get in the wind, it’s crucial to make sure your limbs are as ready to pa ..read more

  Image courtesy HarperCollins What if how you think about skydiving is just as important to your progress in the sport as what you think as you repetitively train for a certain jump? What if you could add tools to your cognitive toolkit that will not only meaningfully improve your approach to skydiving, but also your approach to – and satisfaction in – your life off the dropzone, as well? Every year for more than a decade, the thinkers-of-all-stripes-and-flavours that comprise the Edge collective have been asked to respond to a single annual question. These questions are different each y ..read more