Looks Like…
…we did it!!!!!!!!!!!!
It still needs to be judged by three judges, one on site and two off, but it looks like a 104 way world record.
We will keep you updated on the judging.
Thank you for the overwhelming support.
WHAT HAPPENED WAS…
Some of you may have been watching the live stream when things started to go wrong and the stream cut off. What happened was…
During the 9th attempt, with over 90 jumpers docked, the cleanest, most stable formation we have built yet hit a volume of turbulent air causing a wave of disruption to pass through the formation. We immediately initiated our well practiced breakoff procedures which were executed well. All jumpers landed safely with some minor bumps and bruises. A few jumpers cut-away their main canopies, deployed their reserve canopies and landed safely.
While we are used to this sort of thing, it being part of this sport, and sometimes you might hear us regaling each other with stories of our most intense wraps, it is important that you understand that we take it very seriously. The efforts over the years to continuously learn better techniques, improve our techniques and equipement not only make what we are attempting here possible, those effort are also a huge part of what makes this group of people so amazing.
It is the training in emergency procedures over the years, and the standardization of these procedures that kept our jumpers safe today. It reflects on the fundamentals this community teaches from the first CRW jump to the World Record.
What we are new at, is broadcasting live to a worldwide audience, being a niche discipline of skydiving that doesn’t get much attention. Please be patient with us as we work through these new emergency procedures in dealing with a live stream, because we are happy to have you with us and look forward to continuing to share our efforts with you this week and beyond!
So Far… Sooooo close…
Day three of attempts. We came quite close to the record and built the largest formation ever built. You may ask, “how is that not a world record?” Before doing a world record you must declare in advance exactly what that record will be. In our reach for 107 we have hit 101 and 103 which are the biggest ever but NOT the record we declared. It’s getting better and better each time and our confidence is staying high. if it was easy we would have done it years ago.
We now have a live stream available thanks to the work of Zachary Plumb. Much Thanks.
https://www.youtube.com/live/FyguM-ra0A0?si=JCunjsYf8jCenmaV
Attempt #8 resulted in a wrap on row 9 and 10 of the right side of the formation, so starburst was called early. We had one cutaway, but everyone landed safely! The formation built earlier than any previous jump, with great height to continue building if there hadn’t been the wrap.
Attempt #9 are heading out to the plane now to go get it!
Tomorrow…
Before we get to that…
Yesterday, we put up 3 very nice(slightly quick and dirty) 49 ways, working with the aircraft pilots to get the proximity, descent rate and timing of the first 5 aircraft while the remainder of the group continued to hone their skills on a variety of smaller jumps.
Today, we put up 3 very nice 64 ways, really getting the timing precise, followed by a 46 way, low altitude full test of the high altitude oxygen system.
Tomorrow morning at 6:00 AM we will send the first attempt of the 107 way world record.
The first aircraft with 9 jumpers will ascend to 19,500ft with onboard oxygen and bail-out oxygen systems that they must wear for the entire jump to keep them conscious at high altitude.
The next 2 aircraft carrying 28 formation jumpers and 2 videographers will pass over the formation at 18,000ft bringing the formation size to 36.
The next 2 aircraft passing at 15,000ft will drop 32 additional formation jumpers and some videographers bringing the size to 68.
2 more aircraft at 13,000ft bring us to 97
…and the final aircraft at 11,000ft will drop the final 10 bringing our total to 107 with an additional 6 videographers in the sky.
This has been a long and difficult road. Everyone involved has been working hard to make this work and making the final decisions on who among us will participate in the first attempt was one of the hardest parts yet. It has taken all of us to get here and I’d like to acknowledge the jumpers who have worked as hard as all the rest of us, knowing that they might not be on this attempt. I hope we can get every one of them on a later attempt and I hope we all have the experience of a lifetime together.
We are all feeling highly optimistic and will keep you posted.
If you are a Facebook user please check out the work of our social media team at https://www.facebook.com/crwworldrecord, there are some great photos and video edits to see there.
The last week…
The last week has been one of build-up and anticipation, but also amazing early successes. TL;DR: we're well on our way, but the women have already achieved THREE world records!
The base of the formation, consisting of 176 sq ft canopies and larger, starting with the 9-way base on Monday, building up to the 16 way on Wednesday, 25 on Thursday and 36 on Friday.
Tweaking this base has been an exercise of building a formation that can support a much larger formation, partly art and partly science… but that means this base isn’t built for its own stability. After each attempt, Chris and Brian have the mind of Kirk Van Zandt looking at the captured data and comparing configurations of canopies (especially at the top 3) and working through iterations a few jumps at a time.
Tim Jones, Pascoal Rodrigues, their office staff and aircraft piloting team have been helping us manage a daily amount of shifting priorities and chaos, along with maintaining their daily dropzone operations – the supportive foundation on which this record can be launched! Jump Florida Skydiving is a major part of making all of this possible!
Sarah Bromley, Julie Kniech, and Jodie Susco have been keeping the loads manifested, Mark Evans getting jumpers picked up wherever they may land, and the Ashley Matrone / Linda Gallan team are keeping track of our jumpers as they get on the plane and off the field. Kim Goodin is keeping eyes on the sky to make sure everyone knows (literally) what’s up!
Our eyes IN the sky videography team this week has been Cécile Duval, Michael “Chico” Tomaselli, Daniel Lepôt, Cat Isgrigg, Matt Faivre, Bruno Brokken, and Robert Dabrowski. Thanks for making the debriefs and the growth they bring possible!
The biggest successes of this first week of the CF World Record Camp has been the womens group. After a few days of warmup jumps, they spent 24 hours setting 3 world records! It started with a 16-way 2 point sequential world record, certified by the FAI, and their record run ended with a 23-way 2 point sequential world record! Led by the organizing team of Hanna Albrecht, Yulia Pangburn, Krista Goral, Dawn Hillebrandt, Carmen Juneau, these women have crushed their goals and while this is an amazing milestone this is just the start of what we all think they’ll achieve in the years to come! Cheryl Michaels was here with a smile as an onsite judge to help get these records properly judged! And without the video of Cat, Cecile and Sarah Burriss, there’d be no record to judge!
Almost everyone else has been jumping in smaller training groups to warm up and sharpen their skills. Joe Thompson, Travis Johnson, Vincent Coulombe, Eric Gallan, Scott Lazarus, Carmen Juneau, Krista Goral, Brian Martin, and Nicolas Huard all helped pilot groups of jumpers as they showed up early, checked in, and warmed up for the big show.
Madisen Boyer, Chandra Barth and Rachel White are keeping parachutes packed at a feverish pace, any moment they get caught up on the packing mat they can be found napping with a rig as a pillow! Andi Paulsen and Rusty Vest have been measuring lines and checking parachutes non-stop, preparing to arm the record organizers with the engineering data they need to address any issues that come up.
Tomorrow, Sunday November 16th starts the attempts at the 49-way, while groups continue their practice, and from there to 64 and then 107!
Fingers crossed, but a big congratulations to all the World Record Women in our funny CRW family!
**WR Holders – 23-Way Sequential 2-Point**
**Carmen Juneau**
**Drucilla Poma**
**Kelli Kintzel**
**Charity Deroo**
**Adriana Spotova**
**Lauren Rorick**
**Kayleigh Garbett**
**Wendy Faulkner**
**Charlène Sufficool**
**Helen Williams**
**Sophia Kovachi**
**Alexandra Sarmiento**
**Yuliya Pangburn**
**Bethany Walters**
**Annie Dekoker**
**Marie Clark**
**Kira Tsindaiykina**
**Annie Dekoker**
**Justyna Sinica**
**Audrey Bernier**
**Krista Goral**
**Hanna Albrecht**
**Dawn Hillebrandt**
**Kel Spittle**
**Camera Flyers**
**Cat Isgrigg**
**Cécile Duval**
**Sarah Burriss**
What we have been up to…
Since I started doing CRW in 2013 I’ve been hearing stories about the 2007 100 Way World Record which was always just referred to as “The Record” and almost every story included some version of, “…and it will never be broken.”
At Spring Fling in 2018 we put up a 49 way and a couple of 50 ways, the first since “The Record” and surprised ourselves by doing it faster than they got to 50 while building that record. That was the first time I heard people suggesting that maybe we could break the 100 way. It took a couple years to get focused on what with a global pandemic and all but in November of 2022 we started organizing events with the intention of building toward that goal and last year at the 2024 Lake Wales, November Big Way Training Event we decided that 2025 would be the year.
The global CRW community has spent the last year striving hard, bringing the skill level up across the board and in a few weeks we are going to put ourselves to the test, shooting for a 107+ CRW World Record.
Regardless of what we accomplish at this event, I am incredibly proud of this community and the way that everyone in it strives to help make every other member of it better, I am humbled at the privilege of being a leader amongst my friends and giddy from the ridiculousness we are willing to get up to together.
If you can’t join us in Lake Wales, I hope you follow our progress here and I will start you off with a little peek at what we have been up to… …so far.
Andrew Draminski
