Talent Pool 2024

• Sun 28 Jul - Thurs 1 Aug 2022
• Skydive Pink, Klatovy, Czech Republic
• Five days of jumping.
• Optional but recommended: Sat 28 is arrival and warm up day and is strongly recommended. Fri 27 July will feature some tunnel min-camps to get your skils up just in time. Fri 2 Aug is boogie fun jump day.
• 20-24 jumps.
• Fun, smiles and socially distanced cheesy high fives.
• Please be ready for 8am Sun 28 July.
• Day 5 on the ground for 15:30. RELEASE TIME 16:00 (normally there are flights to the UK, or wherever, leaving Prague after 8pm)

• Skydivers who want to get bigway current again
• Skydivers that want to learn bigway properly
• Skydivers who want to have a fun trip. Obvs.
• Skydivers that want a reference for other events

• Skydivers who want multiple completions.
• This camp isn't about completions. It's about learning the skills required in a no stress atmosphere. As soon as there is an expectation of completions, the stress increases, decisions are rushed and mistakes are more common. No stress. No blame.
• You need to be aware that you will do some jumps in your comfort zone. And then you will be rotated into a slot that you are not comfortable with. 50kg people in the base? 100kg people on the outside? That's what we do here. Test yourself.
• There were zero completions in 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2022. Perfect. But everyone came away more confident about performing under pressure in a traditional bigway environment AND they were all smiling.
  
  This is how you learn bigway properly.

At the start of the event you must have:

50 jumps experience after you have done a proficient 4way skydive (4 points or more). The assumption is that this is *at least* 75 jumps in total. Skydive Langar calls this 'FS1+', or older British skydivers may know it as 'old' FS1.

Minimum 15 jumps in 3 months preceding this event, ie between 18th Feb - 17th May

Minimum 2hrs tunnel total of which at least 1hr in the 3 months preceding this event, eg 18th Feb - 17th May.

Practice Jump requirements:

Please practice your tracking. Get used to tracking next to someone for a few seconds before fanning out and separating.

Suggest you try this on at least two jumps ahead of the camp.

Plan and jump a normal FS jump, 2 or 3 way. At 7k, turn and fly as a tracking team. Fan out at 5k, and deploy at 4. These altitudes are just a suggestion, feel free to modify them to make them more appropriate for your jump.

NOTE: C licence (200 jumps logged in your logbook) required to jump from high altitude with O2 and to jump the balloons. If you're close, make it happen.

This is how you learn bigway properly.

Friday Tunnel mini-camps in Prague

Saturday optional warm up day with free LO

Sunday: Day 1

Monday: Day 2. 10way Speed Star competition. Potential innhopp

Tuesday: Day 3

Wednesday: Day 4 Potentiall innhopp

Thursday: Day 5

Nominally 4-5 jumps per day but we'll flex if weather requires it. Option of a 'special' jump on one or more evenings. See below.

Same as BigGER Way Skills Camp. Sliding Scale. The bigway FS scene is ageing. To encourage younger skydivers to join we're using a sliding scale.

• Registration fee = £195 (equivalent to £39 per day for LO and camera on five jumps - a massive bargain. Equivalent to less than 4 mins in the tunnel)
• Under 30? Discounted reg fee = £140
• In full time education? Discounted reg fee = £110 (equivalent to only £22 per day, or approx 2 mins in the tunnel)

Credit card options exist in the registration form. Bank transfer saves 1.4% card handling fee. Euro bank account details exist too.

The reg fee covers your LO and cameraflyer costs for 5 jumps per day for 4 days.

PS The sliding scale seems to work so happy to keep it for a sixth year. Would love to hear your feedback.

PPS The credit card company takes 20p and 1.5% from every card transaction. After feedback from participants on previous events, I have included a voluntary option to cover the 1.5%. This is totally optional and not expected at all.

PPPS if a simple thing like money is the only thing stopping you from registering... speak to me. We might be able to find a flexible solution. I just want people to jump.

You should have at least 50 jumps post 'old' FS1/FS1+ (or equivalent, eg 4 point 4way) to be considering this event.

You should have at least 2hrs of tunnel flying experience and at least 1hr of tunnel flying in the 3 months prior to the camp. Tunnel time can be as cheap as £59 for 15mins at a Party People event in MK. or £75 for 20mins at a FAB Scrambles in Basingstoke.

If you have >200 jumps then you'll be able to take part in the O2 jump(s) from >15k. At least one jump. No more than two. Unless everyone has >200 jumps and wants to get high.

You should try some 'tracking team' jumps before you arrive. At least 2 jumps. Try and fly close to each other, start slow and get faster. The aim is maximum horizontal distance travelled.

Tracking teams are great. But we only seem to use them on the big jumps. This means when you're on the biggest skydive of your life, and your audible beeps 6k, suddenly you're doing something you've never done before. Unnecessary stress. But with practice? You'll nail it.

You should be aware of and understand the following bigway terms;

• Quadrants
• Radials
• Stadium Approach
• Red Zone
• Tracking teams

You don't need experience of doing these though, that's what this camp is for. If we don't make a single completion BUT everyone comes back confident they've got the skills to nail a bigway formation record AND we're all smiling? That would be just perfect.

But obvs... I'd love some cool photos too. That's what facebook is for, right?

The DZ have confirmed that there will be two skyvans on the DZ.

Jump tickets at Klatovy are EUR39.50 each. (price correct as of Jan 2024)

The planes are equipped with O2 and can go to FL20. Single plane 02 jumps are marginally more likely than multi-plane 02 jumps.

The costs are:

4200m / 13,800 ft AGL is EUR 39.50 (No O2 required)

4800m / 15,750 ft AGL is EUR 45
5200m / 17,100 ft AGL is EUR 56

6000m / FL20 / 19,700 ft AGL is EUR 64

Klatovy is about 1k ASL so we'd get 1k less than stated numbers. ie if we're going to do it, we're going all in. To the top. Well, at least once anyway.

• Please be on the DZ for 8am on Day1. DZ registration can be a little slow. We'd like to be on a call for 9am.
• You'll be released no later than 1600 on Day5 in order to make the late flights home to the UK, or wherever.
• Camping is free
• DZ Bunkhouse is cheap and clean and very close.
• We're working on a hotel package. Don't feel you have to if you've got a bigger budget. Costs are pretty reasonable. Standard hotel price is about 30-35 euro per night inc breakfast. Expect breakfast to be typically Czech. Expect twin beds to be separate mattresses but one double bed frame. I don't know why, it's just what they do there.
• It is likely accommodation will be tricky and single rooms at a premium. :-(
• If you know you want a single room you will probably have to sort your own accommodation.
• Nearest airports are Prague and the ones in southern Germany. Assume Prague will be most popular but suggest you do your own checks.

I'll be LO for some chilled warm up jumps the day before.

After the event I'll be unwinding with some fun boogie jumps on the Friday. Wingsuit rodeos, freefly, big big star formations, 9way tubes. Anything goes. Join me?

Event tshirts are notoriously hard to get right. I don't do them. I am happy to assist and guide someone else sorting them though.

2018 - event tshirts for the BigWay Skills Camp were crowd sourced. John Horne was 'the man'. He designed them and found a manufacturer.

2019 - The legends of Sun Path Products subsidised the event tshirts - it was a one off. Shirts supplied by Manufactory. Approx USD 70 per shirt. Wow. Amazing. Jemma Westing was the designer to rule all designers.

2020 - hahahaha.

2022 - ugh, I was persuaded to do tshirts for my big 3 events of the year. I am still having issues with them. Something (everything?) always goes wrong.

2023 - Thanks to David and Damien for the old school cotton tshirts with unique design.

2024 -If you want to make it happen, please be my guest. I'm happy to help. Thank you.