Unconventional Athletes Issue 5
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www.unconventionalathletes.com<br />
Ewa: Unlike Tim, whose life is very<br />
adventurous as a whole, I lead<br />
quite a “normal” life. After university<br />
graduation from Aviation Management<br />
studies, I moved from Poland to Spain<br />
where could practice wingsuit flying<br />
as much as I wanted to – considering<br />
weather conditions, allowing jumping<br />
season to last nearly the whole year<br />
round! For work, I manage projects for<br />
the airlines industry and spend my free<br />
time outdoors or flying. Sports and<br />
fitness were always a great part of my<br />
life. To me, the main benefit of being<br />
fit is not to look better, but to perform<br />
better, to achieve more in sports I do for<br />
fun, to be more efficient and capable of<br />
more, to push my own limits constantly.<br />
Especially when having Tim by my side<br />
(laughs Ewa).<br />
For me, wingsuit flying is the purest<br />
human flight, when you’re not<br />
separated from the air with any<br />
machine. It’s your own body dressed in<br />
a suit, which is flying!<br />
Individually how long have you been<br />
Wing suiting and how long have you<br />
been doing it together?<br />
Ewa: I started wingsuit flying a couple<br />
of years ago, accomplishing to date<br />
over 600 wingsuit jumps, mainly in<br />
skydiving environments. Wingsuit<br />
BASE jumping was on the radar for a<br />
long time, coincidently we met at the<br />
time when were both ready to transfer<br />
skills and experience from skydive to<br />
BASE wingsuiting. We started this<br />
new chapter together! We’ve journeyed<br />
on the steep learning curve together<br />
which has been really interesting<br />
complimenting each other’s skills.<br />
Where have you both jumped in the<br />
world?<br />
Tim: I’ve BASE jumped in 12 countries<br />
now from Morocco, USA, South Africa<br />
and Bulgaria to name a few.<br />
Ewa: And particularly for wingsuiting<br />
BASE, we’ve been so far flying in Italy,<br />
France, Switzerland and USA. The more<br />
we jump and train, the more of new<br />
locations are opening. Getting back<br />
from one trip, we’re already planning<br />
the next one!<br />
How do you roughly calculate if the route<br />
is appropriate for a jump?<br />
Tim: Heights and distances are<br />
calculated and from these we can<br />
judge weather we are able to do the<br />
jump. Taking also into account the<br />
flying performance we’re getting at<br />
the moment e.g. how fast we can start<br />
flying the suit from the moment of<br />
leaving the cliff, what distance and<br />
what speed we can cover.<br />
Do you both know how fast you are<br />
going?<br />
Ewa: There are electronics that can<br />
measure those parameters, but we<br />
hardly ever use those. We know roughly<br />
the speed and covered distance,<br />
considering mainly the size/type of<br />
the wingsuit, together with the flight<br />
objective. In some occasions we focus<br />
on speed and distance, some others on<br />
more dynamic (artistic) flying together<br />
performing flying on the back, holding<br />
hands in flight, doing various acrobatic<br />
moves etc.<br />
Is your aim to get as close to the floor as<br />
possible?<br />
Ewa: For sure not mine! (laughs Ewa).<br />
Flying close to the ground, cliffs, trees<br />
and other objects is called “proximity<br />
flying”. A discipline that requires not<br />
only precise flying skills, but also<br />
mental strength and capacity to take a<br />
greater, calculated risk. Tim is the one<br />
approaching the cliff in flight closer<br />
than me. For now, I’m happy to follow<br />
him with the camera capturing his<br />
achievement on the video, but keeping<br />
safe(ish) distance from the cliff myself.<br />
Proximity flying can be (and probably<br />
will be) a natural progression that will<br />
come with time and practice. Since we<br />
both aim to enjoy the sport doing our<br />
best to avoid injuries and fatality.<br />
Tim: It definitely adds more excitement<br />
to a jump. The aim isn’t to get as close<br />
as possible, after all getting too close<br />
to the wall at 120mph won’t end<br />
well…<br />
What does it feel like to fly together?????<br />
Ewa: Flying with people is definitely<br />
more fun than cruising alone, I’d<br />
say. And flying with your partner is<br />
naturally even better: not only it’s<br />
another bonding experience, but also<br />
allows us to spend more time together<br />
and to avoid arguments on how and<br />
where we spend our time off!<br />
Do you both get nervous before you jump<br />
who’s the twitchy one if there is one?<br />
Tim: I get nervous because I’m jumping<br />
with someone I care about. But<br />
normally I’m sure of the jump, I know<br />
what to expect and what I’m going to<br />
do and how to execute it. With the risk<br />
minimized and understood I can then<br />
just focus on the flight.<br />
ISSUE 5 VOLUME 1 Page 32
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