Inspired by SDAZ’s Junk Days from the ’90s, this boogie threw down some wild skydives
Couches, and barrels, and go-karts… oh my! Don’t leave anything lying around the Curtis residence, as it might just get tossed from a plane.
Inspired by Skydive Arizona Junk Days from the 1990s and early 2000s, Konstantin Petrijcuk designed Guardians of the Drop to be an even more engineered, technically and visually impressive feat.
The Team Behind the Madness
Along with Konstantin, Steve and Sara Curtis and Dalton Swan assembled quite the team of ridiculously talented skydivers and enablers cough rather, “support crew” with even more ridiculous cargo. Almost sixty in total: two riggers, two pilots, eighteen ground crew doing every odd job imaginable, twenty-eight participants, and six videographers to capture it all, but the internet will say it’s AI.
Preparing the Objects
The first couple of days were spent preparing the initial objects procured by each team member. Objects included whiskey barrels, go-karts, a weighted teddy bear wearing its own parachute and CYPRES AAD, a giant skeleton, inert bombs of various shapes and sizes, a Coca-Cola machine, couches, a fully decorated Christmas tree complete with Grinch and elves, a disco ball, space balls (including a 250-pound “space ball”), a golf cart, tandem bikes, and more.
Even though the objects would ultimately splat onto the ground, several criteria needed to be achieved in order for the objects to be transported, flown, and disposed of safely, and the larger the object, the more prep required.
Some of the items were too heavy to be lifted by bare hands alone. Those items were lifted by a Unimog into the plane and secured to a special ramp with rollers designed to allow the items to slide out safely without damaging the plane or squishing any skydivers.
Other items, such as the tandem bikes, required a piece of metal to be welded between the wheels to prevent the back wheel from getting hung up on the plane after the front wheel rolled out. The couches needed a sturdier bottom installed and their feet removed so they could slide down the roller ramp. Loose pieces needed to be secured or removed to prevent skydivers from being struck by pieces flying off the objects in freefall. Each object also required a way to be secured in the plane for takeoff.
Luckily, Steve Curtis and Keith Senerchia are experts in analyzing and planning what modifications an object needs to make it jumpable. The team was also full of construction talent, such as welding, which made executing the plans possible.
Restocking the Ridiculous
After the first day of jumping, the team needed to restock. If one person’s trash is another person’s treasure, social media marketplaces are a gold mine. Porta-potties, pianos, wheelchairs, and everything in between. Every time someone returned to the workshop, the team paused to admire the ridiculousness of what was being unloaded.
Organized Chaos
Even though it was a lot of work, preparing the objects was actually quite fun. Keith graciously allowed the Guardians to invade his property, complete with a full workshop containing every tool and part imaginable. It was organized chaos, with projects lying everywhere. It looked like Santa’s island for misfit toys!
Random locals driving by would stop and ask if it was a flea market. Sara Curtis and Konstantin spent most of their time coordinating loads — which objects could go together on a load, who would jump with each object, and assigning videographers to capture the jumps. There were a LOT of moving parts!
Dropping Over Area 51
Despite it being the wettest week of the year in the Arizona desert, the team dropped twenty-eight loads and more than a hundred treasures over “Area 51,” a secluded section of desert where the objects could land safely.
Ground crew stayed busy transporting objects from the shop to the DZ, loading objects into the aircraft, and securing the objects so they would not roll around during the ride to altitude. Ground crew also secured Area 51 and monitored every object’s landing.
Waynerd Davis scurried around on a little motorbike between drops, pinning each object’s landing place on GPS and retrieving GoPros — or what was left of them — that had been mounted to the objects themselves.
Courtesy of SSK Industries, some objects, such as the go-kart, were equipped with CYPRES AADs and round parachutes, which made them reusable. Cleanup was made much easier with a map showing where everything had landed. The area was left just as it was found, with no discarded material or ruts left behind.
The ground crew also coordinated picking up the Guardians and returning them to the drop zone. The rides back were filled with laughter and stories about how the jumps went.
Sponsor Support and Safety
CYPRES and SSK Industries were the title sponsors of Guardians of the Drop. When asked his thoughts on the event, SSK President Adam Schmucker replied:
“SSK’s number one priority is safety, followed by having fun. There are obviously varying degrees of risk in our sport, but even with riskier activities, such as being in freefall with a Coca-Cola machine prior to the CYPRES activating the round canopy attached to it, we mitigate part of the risk and help assist jumpers push the limits to achieve their dreams.
If we didn’t feel that the organizers and jumpers were extremely safety conscious, we wouldn’t be involved. But knowing how thorough Konstantin, Curtis, and others involved are, we had full faith that they would make these jumps as safe as possible.
The team put in a lot of thought to make the objects fly well, but with a number of things being experimental, there is always added risk of a collision with one of these objects, potentially resulting in an unconscious jumper. This is why it was critical that jumpers had the reliability of CYPRES on their backs.
We love working with our sponsored athletes and the skydiving community and take pride in being involved with unique and exciting projects. It was really awesome seeing how well this event came together.”
Thank You
Thank you to CYPRES and SSK Industries for your generosity and innovations that keep us safe while doing what we love. Guardians of the Drop would not have been possible without Skydive Arizona owner Shawn Hill.
Additional thanks to sponsors Credova, Black Swan, and Arizona Arsenal. Stay tuned for the amazing event edit by master media producer James Kunze!
