- What's up Sky Vibers?
I know those times are hard.
We are stuck inside, our gear just screams
to get out, get in the sky.
Although since I'm a Canadian,
even though the times were different,
well I wouldn't be able to jump anyways because of that.
(upbeat music)
But nowadays, skydivers are spending a lot
of time online trying to find content and videos
to watch and learn in order
to improve their skydiving skills.
And over the last days, there has been a lot
of videos posted specifically about Safety Day content.
And there's one that really stood out for me.
So I wanted to discuss with you about that one video
that was very interesting for me.
Do you wanna know which one it is?
Well, keep on watching.
(upbeat music)
Welcome back to the channel.
My name is Catherine Bernier and @SkydiveVibes.
We are sharing the passion of skydiving
and helping you become better and safer skydivers.
So if you're new here, well consider subscribing
and click the little bell icon to be notified
whenever we post new videos all about skydiving.
So like I said, recently did I watch a lot
of Safety Day videos online and one really stood out for me,
and this is the one of Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld.
- Hello everyone, Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld here coming at you
on Safety Day.
- Dan BC is a very experienced skydiver.
He's been in the sport for many years.
He has experienced a lot of different situation.
Some bad, some great like world records,
so he has a lot of experience to share
and it amazes me how much he's geared towards safety.
And he starts by saying "There's no such thing
"as a safe skydiver.
"There's only safe skydives."
And this is gold because whatever experience you have,
however safe you can be as as a skydiver, well everything
can still go wrong on a skydive, not related directly
to you and what you do.
He did share his skydive checklist
to make sure that we are safe doing what we love most.
And I must say that there's really one thing
that really stood out for me
and I could summarize his whole video with one word.
First, let me go through his checklist
and let me know if you do find the one word
that I'm referring to, all right?
First, ask yourself "Are you ready to skydive?"
How do you feel?
Are you tired, hangover?
What about the weather?
Are you comfortable with it?
Second, stay within your comfort zone.
So try to be in jumps that are your level of difficulty.
Don't try to push yourself because,
at some point, you will endanger yourself
and endanger everyone around you.
Like Dan said, he's always ready to jump
on the world record jump with 500 people on their belly
but he knows that he couldn't go
on a four-way free fly formation
because he would be a danger for everyone on the jump.
And it's not about the jump number.
Actually, for me, I realized
that the jump number is not really synonym of experience.
I think that also years in the sport matters
because season from season, you're gonna
have different weather type, different people
on the drop zone, different environments.
So even though you rush 500 jumps
in a season, I wouldn't consider you as experimented
than someone that have three years in the sport
and 300 jump.
What really matters, in terms of experience,
is your awareness during a jump
and also your decision making capability.
Third, gear checks and for that, you also need
to know your equipment very well.
If you're not packing your own canopy
during your jump day, well you are giving less attention
to your equipment.
So for that matter, gear checks are even more important,
and when you do your gear checks, you got
to expect that someone did something to your equipment
and you gotta find what it is.
Even though if it's been five minutes
since you did it, you didn't put it
on your bag right away, do a gear check just like
if someone did something to your gear
during those five minutes.
Four, on the jump, you gotta be aware at all time.
And even though we plan everything
before going on the jump, well expect something to go wrong,
and be ready to adapt.
At break off, don't just turn yourself
or throw yourself and track away the fast as you can.
Expect someone to be right behind you when you do that
because you gotta be aware
even though during the track potion of the jump.
When it's time to deploy, always be ready and aware,
and expect your canopy to actually turn
in front of your friend skydiver.
Fifth, talking about deployment
and upcoming malfunctions, expect a malfunction
on every jump.
That really resonated with me
because that's how Dan sees every jump.
He's always saying, "I'm gonna have malfunctions,
"so am I ready to react whatever malfunction can be."
So go on a jump expecting
that you're gonna have a malfunction
and be ready for it.
This way, the skydive will get safer for you.
And on a side note, he did talk
about one particular malfunction
where, sometimes people are pulling too low,
and when he asks them what happened, they are like
"Oh, I had a hard pull."
"A hard pull?
"Well, you got it out, right?"
And the guy say "Yeah, took me three times to pull."
So in the end, that wasn't malfunction
because a malfunction would've caused you
to actually deploy your reserve canopy
because you wouldn't have been able
to pull your pilot chute.
So if you were able on the third time, Dan is saying
like "You're not serious enough
"when it's time for you to pull."
Again, you can expect a hard pull on every jump,
so when it's time to deploy, pull as you mean it.
It's actually the one thing that you gotta do
to save your life on every jump.
So pull like you wanna save your life,
like you mean it at first.
There's not gonna be such thing as hard pull
in the way that I just talked about.
So are you starting to see a pattern
and figuring out the one word that I wanna share with you
by the end of this video?
If so, let me know in the comments right away.
Seven, when landing, be aware of people around you
at all time.
I know that many skydivers,
when it's time to land, we are focused
on our landing pattern, on our flare,
so sometimes we're not giving enough attention
to what's going on around us in the sky,
what's going on with the other skydivers
that are trying to land also.
But we have to stay aware of people around us.
We got to expect people to fly in front of us.
We got to expect people to be behind us
when we want to do a maneuver.
So try ton be aware of what's going on around you.
If when you're landing, there's too much traffic
and you can't concentrate on your landing, well
why not choose another landing area
and maybe your canopy is flying too fast
when it's time to land,
maybe you should a more docile canopy.
As you're expecting people to fly
in front of you when you're
on your final leg, well give yourself enough margin
to adjust and react without
and then during people behind you.
So at every jump, expect someone to cut you
and have a plan ready to react accordingly
in a smooth matter.
For that, you can use your base leg.
That's why this leg is important to be long enough
and so this way, you can adjust with the height you are at
and what's happening in front of you,
so you could delay your last turn
or turn faster if needed, but this would give you more room
to react if something happens.
Eight, once you landed on your feet
and smoothly, expect that someone is
about to land right on you.
So when you expect that, what will be your first reaction?
Turn around to see who's coming your way
and this way, you can also leave room
to people who are about to land in order
to help them landing safe.
All right, so that was a quick rundown of his checklist.
You can watch his full video by clicking right here.
It's very interesting.
But did you figure out the one word I talked about?
Expect.
Expectation.
Expect that everything that can go wrong will go wrong
on a skydive.
If you are ready and have a plan
to everything that you expect
to happen, you're gonna experience safe skydives every time.
So that really resonated with me.
So in everything you do, you just got to remember one thing
to be safe, one thing.
Expect, all right?
I'm doing my gear check.
Oh, I expect that someone did something to my rig.
Oh I expect that when I'm gonna land,
I don't wanna put myself in the corner
because I expect that someone will come in front of me.
So for that matter, I'm gonna leave myself more room
during my landing.
I'm gonna expect someone to be behind me
when it's time to track, so how will I react?
I'll just make sure that I'm turning around more smoothly
and be aware of what's happening because I expect things
to happen during my skydive.
So I really like that because it simplifies safety.
And as Dan said.
- Not being safe is not cool.
What's cool is going to the bar at night, having a beer
with your friends and laughing about
what an awesome, awesome day of skydiving you had,
and everybody going home safe.
That's cool.
- Well for that I say, make safety great again.
All right Sky Vibers, I hope you liked this video
and I hope this will bring you discussions online
or in between yourself on the drop zone talking
about Safety Day content.
Let me know in the comments if you liked that video
and if you did find out that one word
that I talked about at the beginning.
On that, guys we are all in this together.
Everyone is grounded for the moment so prepare yourself
for when the drop zones are gonna be opened, get yourself
some new gear, pack your gear, learn it, find
some content online.
There's a lot of content there online.
I'll try to feed you guys a little bit more too.
So on that, make safety great again
and blue skies for later.
(upbeat music)