It’s no secret that I love skydiving…
For so many years, I would happily trot out thousands of jumps and thousands of air miles in the pursuit of happiness through skydiving and world travel. Now don’t get me wrong, I would like to continue jumping and traveling for as long as possible but I would also like to find a way to do this that doesn’t have such a negative impact on our environment.
At the start of lockdown, these thoughts were making their way through my head but with no engineering or real academic skills to my name I struggled to find any concrete way to help, so I started to look at what initiatives were already in place, with a view to sharing them within the skydiving community, in the hope that someone somewhere would be willing to take the steps to make these dreams a reality. In order to share the news I approached The Care All Foundation and asked if they would give me blog space, as they have altruistic goals and also love skydiving.
Episode 1 – Juli Sargatal from Skydive Empuriabrava
I started by interviewing one of the managers at Skydive Empuriabrava about their social responsibility and Carbon Offset program as the DZ works closely with the local community and has also recently chosen to buy power from renewable providers.
Episode 2 – Jasper Van der Meer
Jasper Van der Meer spoke about the difference between symbolic or real actions that we can take, looking at our travel footprint as we charge around the planet looking for blue skies. He also explained the steps that his group, Tora Tora, have taken to continue running events in this climate.
Episode 3 – Jordi Messeguer from Windoor
In Episode 3, I chatted to Jordi Messeguer the engineer from Windoor. He explained how he had changed to a renewable energy provider for the tunnel and how if we continue to make these choices the standard fossil fuel providers will be forced to take note.
Episode 4 – Annika from the Swedish Skydiving Federation
Next up was Annika Grannebeck, she oversaw the Swedish efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the sport and make it mandatory for DZ’s to undertake audits. Annika also highlighted the questionable nature of carbon offsets and how they should be the very last thing on the list.
Episode 4(b) – Roei Ganzarski, the CEO of MagniX
This episode was the most watched to date on the Care All blog, with me chatting to Roei Ganzarski, the CEO of MagniX and the developer of the electric Caravan. His description of the lack of noise and smell that we would have as we climbed to altitude in the electric aircraft, had shivers going down my spine. The current drawbacks are the battery life but he was optimistic about the time frame.
Episode 5 – Theophyle, the French agronomist
Then Theophyle, the French agronomist, talked about his dream of a circular Biomass system on a DZ that creates energy from waste material to power and heat our sport and the local community. Although not yet active on a DZ, this technology has been around for years and our rural placement should make this more than possible.
Episode 6 – Raphaël Domjan, the first person to skydive from an electric plane
It was another electric aircraft that made the next interview, as I chatted to Raphaël Domjan, the first person to skydive from an electric plane, this one created its own power! The Solar Stratos Project has many benefits in helping develop the technology but even he couldn’t conceive how solar powered planes would be effective for a daily operation.
Episode 7 – group chat with the CAMP Unity gang
Episode 7 was the first group chat, with the folk from CAMP Unity discussing their vision for a more inclusive sport. This was one of the moments that helped me realize that sustainability was not all about energy and technology but that we needed to work on growing our sport and keeping people on the DZ.
Episode 8 – Capt. Richard Birt
The last one to upload was a chat with an old friend, Richard Birt. He is a retired Fire Captain that has his heart set on renewable and resilient energy for the whole planet but would like to start that process on the DZ to show how effectively it can work.
What next?
In the pipeline is an interview with Andreas, the general manager of Skydive Voss, about their take on student training and the economics of fun jumping.
Each of the interviewees are skydivers and they bring their love of the sport and their desire to effect change into their initiatives. The process of studying for and filming each interview has given me the impetus to spread the message further, so I have teamed up with The Edge Agency and created my own blog space on Youtube.
Please subscribe and also get in touch if you have an idea that you think will help.
Other Articles Written by Pete Allum
Finding Your Perfect Canopy
Pete Allum discusses factors to consider to find your ideal canopy. He gives examples from his own canopy progression, and some other skydivers’ current choices, with their reasons…
The Perfect Canopy
The Two Ways to Die
Avoiding the two most common causes of fatalities – striking the ground hard after a maneuver made with too little time to recover and colliding with a fellow skydiver in free fall or under canopy…
2 Ways to Die
