Spring Fling adventures ’19

Over the ocean during the daytime and at night

The European Team in Spring Fling 2019, Sebastian, Florida

Spring Fling ’19 appeared to be CF’s largest gathering ever. 153 participants from all continents took part in this great event. 20 members of the crEUw team joined in, making up the biggest group of foreign representatives.
Below is the story of one of those crEUw members, Kira Tsindyaikina.

Kira Tsindyaikina (c) Ivan Kazancev
Kira Tsindyaikina (c) Ivan Kazancev

I have a friend, Irina Yakimenko. When I had more or less 300 jumps (300 in total and about 100 CRW jumps; yes, I’ve calculated them properly) and she had about 800, she started doing 2-way CF with me (and I am endlessly thankful to her for it). She is a women’s world record holder in FS, as well as a holder of Russian and European CF records. When, in 2014, she went to the US for the women’s world FS record challenge I was thinking, why there are so many international events for FS and no international CRW events at all?

I so badly wanted to get acquainted with foreign CRW skydivers and to jump with them. In 2017, somehow Facebook directed me to the European Canopy Formation page and there I found information about the Parasummer event (https://parasummer.com/). I immediately decided to take part. This post is about Spring Fling so I will leave my enormous emotions related to Parasummer for further posts. However, it was at Parasummer where I first met a lot of new friendly CRW people and fell in love with them. They immediately became a part of my CRW family.
Sebastian Cato from Sweden asked me: “are you going to Spring Fling?” “Spring Fling? What is it?” “Don’t you know what Spring Fling is? It is the most important CRW event of the year. You should take part.”

Photo David Sands

After my great experience at Parasummer I could not miss another international CRW event.

So, in 2018 I went to Spring Fling for the first time. From the very beginning I was struck by the openness and friendliness of all the people I met there; People who had never met me before helped me to sort out different issues with my rig, took me on jumps, hung out with me. I met the most experienced CRW people of the world in one place at the same time. I had chances (and took them) to jump with all the organisers and, therefore, learned from the best.

For the first time in my life I took part in jumps involving a formation being split into two or three pieces, formations with two and even three pilots, and, of course, the fraaaame!! Everyone must do it!! This is incredible!

Flying a frame through the skies asks for some extra skills, nice work (red).

At Spring Fling 2018 I took part in three jumps in a row when we built 49-, 50- and 50-ways! And I was in! It was my first time at the event, and I was in, and we were successful. With no wraps! Before these jumps my biggest formation was an 18-way. Can you imagine what I felt?

This year Spring Fling was even more incredible for me than the previous one. I took part in two world records, including the night one.

CF-37 World record dive point 1, transition and point 2.

What did I feel? I docked on the night jump, and people after me docked, and then I heard “complete” and after some time I heard Brian’s voice on the radio, “pyro pyro pyro,” and then I saw sparkles of pyro, I still can not believe we really did it. We were flying in the night sky, we were seen from the ground, and my heart was racing in happiness. I guess I was smiling until I landed, or even packed. I was really surprised when people on the ground applauded for those who were landing. It was astonishing. The most important thing is that on the ground there was a girl with the list of participants, and, once I’d landed, she asked me my name; even in the midst of the euphoria of this great event, there were people making sure that everything was organised safely and verifying that everyone landed properly in the main landing area.

Night Record, Photo Bruno Brokken

crEUw members in both Worldrecords were: Szymon Chełmicki (PL), Ben Simoens (BEL), George Buitendijk (NL), Pasi Pirttikoski (FIN), Henk Lunshof (NL), Yulia Pangburn (BLR) and Kira Tsindyaikina (RUS).

Another incredible aspect of the Spring Fling is the beach jump. I have never made beach jumps before. We built a 10-way, a diamond with a stinger, and flew above the ocean. Have you ever seen the endless ocean from above, flying for several incredible minutes with your friends and then landed on the beach?

Unbelievably, all the things described above occurred in a single week! How can the organizers do it? What an event! Spring Fling always gives me something new, and this new is always incredible. I do not know what will be prepared for next year, but I am definitely in!

These events are always a great chance for everyone to try something new. What I like, and what I am grateful for, is the organisers’ belief in newcomers, and the provision of opportunities to take part in great projects. You always have a chance, just take it.
My wish is that my beloved skydivers with whom I jump at home would come to Spring Fling with me next year. This is the best CRW experience.

Skydiving Videographer Bruno Brokken from Belgium accompanied us in Florida with his video and photographic art.
Thank you, Bruno for these beautiful shots for our discipline.

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