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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (March 10, 2000)
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Courtesy of Skydiving Club ■ The Oregon Club skydiving team hopes to fly into Hayward Field or the EMU lawn By Alissa Scott for the Emerald She sat crouched in a plane looking out the door. It was as if she was looking at a landscape painting, not the actual earth. She could see small dots that represented houses. A million thoughts of excitement were running through Chiaki Okamoto’s mind, preventing her from speakin right before her instructor pushed her out of the plane. “It was amazing,” she says. “I didn’t feel like I was falling down. It was like I was swim ming.” As Okamoto fell through the sky at speeds between 90 and 120 miles per hour, she couldn’t hear anything — not even her own screams. She became numb. “I was in the air. I didn’t feel cold, but I think it was really cold,” she explained. “I didn’t have gloves, but I didn’t feel cold. Maybe because I was so excited.” After her free fall, she was re lieved when her parachute opened. “I could hear my voice again and my instructor’s too. He was laughing because he was excit ed too. Then when I reached the ground, my throat was sore from screaming so much. ” Okamoto is one of 12 mem bers on the Oregon Club skydiv ing team. She took part in a four hour ground-training class in which she did her first jump with an instructor attached to her back. During ground school, first-time jumpers like Okamoto learned safety tactics and how to pack the parachute. “Everyone remembers their first time,” says Natali Jones, the student coordinator for the Ore gon Club skydiving team. “The first time is usually more excit ing than scary. My first time is something I will never forget. ” Jones has been skydiving for a little more than a year and a half. However, she did not begin with the club team, which is only in its fourth year. According to Jones, skydiv ing is not a traditional team sport. Many members go out and practice on their own. Indi viduals who are affiliated with Oregon Club will be in the sky, but they are usually out there on their own time. Because skydiving is still a relatively new club, it has had different coordinators, and the team hasn’t been in an official competition yet. Oregon State University also has a skydiving team, but a lack of communica tion between the schools makes it difficult to hold any competi tions, Jones said. “We can have inner-club com petitions and fun things,” Jones says. “One example: Fill sand wich bags with flour, drop them and see where they land in com parison with everyone else’s. ” In a competition, skydiving teams are judged on accuracy and relative work. Jumpers are judged on how far from a mat they land. Relative work is judged a lit tle differently. A cameraman will jump with the team mem bers and video tape them as they are in their free fall. Then the judges watch the film and award points for the number of times the team members touch, whether it is with their hands or sides of their bodies. Also before competition, every member of the team must have an ‘A’ license in skydiving. A license is obtained after com pleting 20 jumps, including tan dem jumps. When members have a license, they are able to jump anytime and anywhere by themselves. “The first jumps are critical,” Jones says. “But after that you can come back in five months and be OK.” Skydiving is time consuming and costly, Jones says. The first two tandem jumps cost $220 and ground school for a club member is $20. However, a non-club member may have to pay up to $80 for ground school. Jumps fol lowing the tandem jumps cost $21 for a club member and $39 for non-cluL members. Brand new equipment costs about $4,000. Used equipment is per fectly safe, but that’s also very ex pensive, according to Jones. Skydiving was originally dominated by men, as many other sports were. However, more women are becoming in volved, Jones says. “ Skydiving is one of the things that doesn’t take the strength, so women can compete equally,” she explained. “But women do fly differently because of their bone structure. ” As the student coordinator, Jones hopes to promote more awareness of the Oregon Club skydiving team. She is thinking about having members jump into Hayward Field during a track meet or landing on the lawn behind the EMU. For any newcomers, Jones says, skydiving is “not what most people think. It is not a roller-coaster feeling with a dropping stomach. You are just floating like being in water or floating over a big fan. Or if you move around, you feel like you are flying. It doesn’t feel like you are falling.” As for Okamoto, she is ready and eager to jump again. “I want to do it again so I can jump by myself,” she says. “It’s challenging because I will have to jump by myself, and no one will push me. I will have to pull the cord myself and reach the ground by myself’ Kiteboard continued from page 4B knowned for his sailboards, but he is also on the cutting edge of kite board, sailboard and surf technol ogy. He uses some of the latest re visions of materials like high density foam products, carbon fiber laminate, and fiberglass epoxy resin to create a super-light, high-tech board. Two of the best kiteboarders in the world, Elliott Leboe and Lou Wainman, are both sponsored by Lewis and ride his wakeboard style kiteboards. Wainman and Leboe are both able to pull off some amazing stunts on their kiteboards. From being able to jump as high as 40 feets in the air, floating for up to 10 seconds, to upside-down, one handed aerials, Wainman and Leboe practically make an art out of kiteboarding. “Kiteboarding air is different than windsurfing air. When you kiteboard, you just float, and it freaks you out,” James said from his office in Florida. The actual kites used in kite boarding have also advanced in technology and come in various sizes. For lighter wind conditions a larger kite is usually preferred starting at about 7 feet, 2 inches by 18 inches. And for stronger wind conditions, kites as small as 5 feet, 10 inches by 17 inches are usually required. Lines from the rider out to the kite measure an average of 30 meters, and a rider can choose from a variety of accessories from belts to bars to bindings. All of this equipment may cost between $1,200 and $1,400. Even if you can’t fork out the money for new equipment, check out what it’s all about at the next stop of the European circuit of pro-kiteboarding. Or get a virtual ride and visit www.kiteski world.com or www.jimmylewis to order a board, to read about wind conditions or to find out more about the sport. “It’s very dynamic and exciting to watch,” said Lewis. “So natu rally people will think ‘I’d like to try that too!”’
