Overview
Let us introduce you to the CF INTRO Skydive. This is a very attractive, original and … also quite dangerous discipline of the skydiving sport – Canopy Formation.
A canopy formation is a formation built by parachutists by flying their canopies in proximity to each other and then taking grips (“docking”) on other jumpers’ canopies.
The practice of building such formations is called : canopy formations (CF), previously called are canopy formation skydiving (CFS) or canopy relative work (CRW).
CF INTRO Skydive Short Description
CF Intro is a 2-way canopy formation skydive. The CF Instructor is docking from below the student. In this case the student is an experienced skydiver. On this training the student is flying his canopy according the the instructor indications. Above all, the good communication between the student and the instructor is fundamental.
Here on the photo below you can see our coach Tomek and our Chief Instructor Iwan on a 2 way CF INTRO. The participation in the CF requires a lot of discipline and concentration. It’s definitely not for everybody. But the satisfaction and the adrenaline from the achievement cannot compare to anything else!
During this training you will learn about:
- canopy flying
- equipment requirements
- formation work briefing
- docking rules
- communication rules
- emergency situations
- emergency procedures
- landing approach
CF INTRO Requirements
- 200+ jumps
- discipline positive attitude
- high risk awareness and its calculation ability
- good hearing
- Iwan’s “blessing” (the most important one ;)!
A Bit of a History
Canopy Formations (CF), or Canopy Relative Work (CRW) began in the mid 70’s. It is believed that Bobby Gray and Mike “Beanpole” Barber made the world first 2-way in 1975.
After that we have seen a lot of different and bigger formations. In the beginning jumpers made vertical formations by using the top dock method. Quite soon they saw that it became hard to dock once the formation grew bigger than a 4-way. A group of jumpers calling themselves the “Know-Sense Team” developed a new way to build formations. They started to use docking from below, and it became possible to build even bigger formations. The first official World Cup were held in France in 1982. The first World Championships were held in Gatton, Australia in 1986. IPC/FAI give the official status for CRW and the official World Cups started in 1982. (source: FAI).
Canopy Formation Records
Since those time they were developing their skills and achieving new, achieving more challenging records, as a consequence of their hard training. The largest CF world record up to date is a formation of 100 parachutes. It was formed by an international team over Lake Wales, Florida, USA, on 21 November 2007. The formation was in the shape of a diamond, with each parachutist in contact with the canopy of the person below them. Above all, you have to admit that this discipline is really amazing and watching the canopies docking on the sky is indeed a real spectacle!
As up to today, the last CF European record was achieved in Teuge (Netherlands) in 2018. Here is the organisers video to get you an idea of how difficult it is:
This September the organisers plan to beat this record in … Poland! Here is the general info.
We are so proud to see on the list our former AFF students, who are: Michal Balonis, Michal Markowicz, as well as well known tandem pilot (who worked with in Skydive Atmosfera team in Przasnysz, Poland before we moved to Spain) – Jarosław Zwierzynski “Zwierzu”. Keeping fingers crossed for you guys and the rest of the respectable team! Good luck and stay safe!