From August 11 to 14, the Frenchies put down their baguettes and took up grips to build a new national head-down record in Pujuat, southern France.

The initiators of this and the previous French record were Arnaud Fletcher and, Marjorie Ricquebourg, and this year organizers were Domitille Kiger, Virginie (Nini) Bouette and Fred Fugen.

We interviewed Domitille Kiger of Kristal Freefly, Joyriders and other fame

Records aren’t built on a day by individuals; they are the result of team work and preparation, preparation and more preparation. With this in mind the French hosted a series of warm up events in April, June and July.

Domi and Nini had worked fastidiously to not only engineer every warm-up jump down to the slot and exit position, but to then also keep impeccable records of each jumper on every single jump. All of the details were listed in a black exercise book they aptly dubbed ‘The Bible’.

She went on to explain, ‘We had an exact record of every formation, the debrief of the jump in detail, listing person by person in the bible so we had a perfectly accurate tracking of each person and their performance.’ It proved to be an invaluable resource when it came to building the record and rotating through the bench, as they knew exactly in which slots people had flown and were performing well. In the end Domi said ‘We knew all the pieces of the puzzle before we got there and so could easily put the pieces into place.’

The main concept behind the camps was to prepare people for the record, but it has had an unexpected and happy side effect in that it has motivated a new generation of free flyers, who had the opportunity to learn and grow within the process. Domi tells how, ‘some people in the length of 4-5 months have really been transformed. People who were teetering on the edge of borderline at the start of the season were a solid asset when the record came about.’

WARM UP DAYS

Jumpers started arriving in Pujaut the weekend prior to the first official warm up day. This positive vibe proved infectious and continued throughout the week. With everyone there and chomping at the bit, warm up jumps started early.

Monday was the first official day of the event and all the flyers were there from the get go so, which is typically uncommon of records, normally the more experienced flyers wait a day or so for the serious record attempts before they start jumping, but 65 out of the 75 registered flyers were there to get the ball rolling and break a record.

They split the group in two and started with a 40 and a 30 way. Domi, Fred and Ninie were jumping with the 40, and with every available Frenchman being used on the record attempts, Babylon member (Australian) Nimo was in charge of preparing and jumping with the 30-way.

This was a great day of jumping which filled everyone with great hopes of officially smashing the previous French record from 2011, a 40-way.

The jumps and preparation had been done, the people and aircraft had been assembled, the weather forecast was looking good. It seemed like everything was going well. So this was the moment for an unforeseen obstacle to emerge. Unbeknown to the organising team there was an aviation representative who was unwilling to allow any exits above the normal altitude of 14,000ft. It was unclear as to the motivation behind this restriction so the organisers made attempts to circumvent the ruling… which unfortunately resulted in them being slapped with an immovable week-long ban of any aviation activities above 14,000ft: no exceptions.

The lack of altitude would have crippled some records but not the French; no extra height, no worries. The restrictions did nothing to damper the mood of the record, rather it spurred them on to achieve the goal in the face of the opposition. Domi explained how they dealt with the issue of height, ‘We just had to adapt to what we had, and the outside adversity unified us even more, so in the end it was to our advantage’.

This is when the multitude of available aircraft really came to the fore. With 3 Cessna Caravans and 2 Pilatus Porters, they had the advantage of being able to exit small groups out of several aircraft, rather than sticking the same number of slots into fewer planes. It got everyone into freefall at the right time, which allowed the record to be achieved in quite trying circumstances.

On all the attempts the flying was super smooth and really controlled, with really safe break-offs, so they could easily keep the attempts going without the fear of safety being compromised. The rest went as most records do… participants were cycled onto the jump and motivational speeches given at key moments, until they captured on film enough people holding hands in the sky together.

The real key to their success was all of the preparation work done before the record jumps even started, Domi says ‘we got to really know the flyers well, and that enabled us to make the most of every record attempt.’

‘We were so close, just one grip off a 51-way, the current official record stands at a 48-way’, tells Kiger proudly.

Were the French happy with the outcome? That’s a big ‘OUI!!’ With the next world record around the corner this experience appears to have been invaluable for participants and organisers alike. The manner in which the camps were run, allowed people to gain the requisite experience and have showcased the team of Domi and Nini as a invaluable resource when it comes to getting the team ready and the job done in a professional and seamless manner.

Nice job Frenchies!

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