Sister and brother Kayleigh and Noah Wittenburg, aged 11 and 9, just won the 2-way Dynamic event in the Clash of Champions, beating 16 others team, mostly composed of adults. Is this a fluke? Is it easier for small people? Is it magic? None of the above, they got to the top by sheer hard work. We interview their proud father and coach, Mike Wittenburg…
##How long have Kayleigh and Noah been flying?
Kayleigh started flying aged 7 and Noah aged 5.. they probably have around 250 hours,
##How many competitions do they enter, and is this the first they have won?
It’s the first major competition. Last year Kayleigh won Sandstorm, it was a scrambles meet held here at Inflight Dubai. They have entered 3 Bedford World Challenges. I limit the competitions to two a year; one local and one overseas. Any more than that would really get in the way of their schooling. We went to one in iFly Singapore, then Noah won the junior world champion when he was 6. He won $4,000 of tunnel time when he was six!!
##What do they do with the money they win?
We make them give 10 per cent to charity and buy their mum a gift. Most of it they put away in savings, but we let them buy a few things for themselves.
##How much training do they do?
Usually we train 3 days a week .. they come right after school, which is an hour’s drive .. then they fly for an hour or so. They come home at 7 and we debrief in the car.. they come in and do their homework and then go straight to bed. The past month with the competition looming we increased to 4 times a week, and the last 2 weeks it’s been 5 days a week.
##Wow that sounds like hard work! Do they ever resist?
Does a kid resist going to school? They just know that they do it. They are lucky because everyone here (Inflight Dubai) is so friendly, they know they have a good time here. They walk in with big smiles and are just wanting to come in and see everybody. They have their kid friends at school and different friends here, more adults, who wrestle and have a laugh with them. This is just normal for them .. they have been on dropzones since birth – they were even even conceived on a dropzone! [laughs] .. so that’s all they know .. this is normal to them, they don’t see it as being different, it’s just what they do.
##Do they ever get frustrated?
They love flying but like anything else there are good days and bad days. Kayleigh’s eleven, she gets frustrated at everything .. she is turning into a woman right now, her emotions are through the roof. Their biggest treat for doing well is ice cream… ice cream is a huge motivator!
##How do they get on each other, what’s their relationship like?
I’ve never seen kids get along so well but of course they fight now and then, they are brother and sister after all… afterwards they just giggle and play together.
##What’s the goal in all this?
My ultimate goal is to let them know they can do anything in life. If they succeed at this and want to carry on, great – but if not they know that they can get good at anything else. Once you get to the top of something you know you can do absolutely anything. It’s to give them confidence in whatever they do – and to teach them that to be really good, that they need to work hard, That’s all I want for them.
##So what’s next?
Charlewars competition, at Airspace, Belgium, 28-30 April
##How did you feel when they won?
It was amazing, far more gratifying than any championship I’ve won – 100 % better feeling. I was just so happy for them because they worked so hard. Just knowing how hard they work – sometimes I’m even second guessing what’s going on .. but to perform that well in the last round and just beat everybody, it showed style.
##What competitions have you won?
Bedford World Challenge in dyanmic.. Paraclete wind tunnel we won 4-way VFS, with Mandarin.. took 1st and 2nd in several [US] nationals. Funnily enough we still hold the record high score for VFS — 41 points in time.
##Does this give you the bug to start competing yourself again?
No. I remembered I don’t really like competing! Now I’m more into speed riding and filming and stuff like that. Competitions are great for some people but if you do it for so long there are other things to show up for. I want to keep filming and doing stuff in the mountains. Next year we have 22 days lined up speed riding in New Zealand, we wil be going to France again also speed riding in the mountains. We’ll keep putting out videos, jumping, flying … we have a big project with the inflight guys, some 8way videos, tunnel and skydiving.
##Do they do well at competition, do they perform better or worse under the pressure?
They like competition and usually do better. Kayleigh didn’t have one bust the whole meet, and Noah only had one. I always tell them it ends on the last training day .. work hard and try your best till the last training day. After that whatever happens is ok, as long as they enjoy the competition and are good sports.
##Did you expect them to win?
No. [laughs] They are only 9 and 11, who would expect them to win?! I expected them to fly extremely well but didn’t expect anything. I was hoping for an outside shot at podium… but as teams started to roll in you start to get a feel for it, and I figured they’d perform well. You don’t need to say ‘we’re expecting this’ … you know how it’s going to go – usually when you put your heart into the training good things happen.
##So why do you think there were 2 out of 3 podium places went to juniors?
The Singapore girls have a great work ethic. Those girls are busting their butts just as much and that’s what it boils down to. They are great girls. It’s almost a shame that both teams are so young as people may think that’s the reason for their success. I don’t think it’s anything to do with the youth, it’s a work ethic. Work hard and you achieve results. Simple.
##Is it easier for them as they are smaller?
It’s totally reversed, they are flying larger circles. They are moving their bodies larger distances than an adult, without a doubt. I thought they would have to grow before they started doing well. If you are half the size of someone you are flying a larger track.. add in the fact that 18-29 year old man has a lot more strength than a 9-year old boy, and they are actually at a disadvantage. Youth is on their side as far as gymnastic stuff, being able to flip-twist and bend further. Fatigue is an issue though. Sometimes I’ll be talking to them and put my hand on their hearts and realise they need rest as their little hearts are pumping so hard.
##What else do they like to do?
They get out [of the tunnel] and say, can I go play basketball ? Everything in me thinks ‘no you need to rest’, so on comp days I say no, but on other days, it’s their choice, go do it! Noah loves goes kiting [taking off the ground under a canopy], Kayleigh too. They’ve doing that for a year and a half.
##Will they skydive when they are older?
Noah likes kiting but I don’t know how much further they are going to take it, it’s up to them. I’ve actually told them I don’t want them to skydive, because I don’t want them to feel any pressure. I don’t want to encourage them to jump. Any parent would be insane if they did that.
##How did they feel on winning?
They were ecstatic, overjoyed. But it didn’t last long. Noah’s next reaction was, if only Jamie wouldn’t keep beating me on that video game! … they do that at all the competitons, Jamie and Noah, play electronic games with each other, they get on really well. Winning was a big deal at the time but he’ll go back to school on Monday and just get on as normal.
##What do their schoolmates think?
Their friends at school probably don’t even know what they do, and I doubt if they will even mention it. I went into school once and did a talk about skydiving, becasue the teacher asked. Kayleigh was kind of embarrassed at first – then she said everyone kept coming up and saying how cool it was that her dad was a skydiver. It made her look at it in a different way, realise that it is cool instead of just thinking of me as an old fart!
##Anything else you’d like to add?
A massive thanks to Skydive Dubai and to Saif and Saeed, our teammates for the 4-way dynamic team Mini Maktoum.
