Noah & Kaleigh Wittenberg flying the Mutation tracking suit indoors…
Noah & Kaleigh, coached by their father, Mike, took on the challenge of flying the Mutation in the tunnel. This video is the result of many years of tunnel training & experience, and many hours of Mutation-specific training.
We asked the Wittenbergs about how the project came together…
From Mike Wittenburg (Dad):
“This was such a difficult project. We went into it with a plan to fly certain things, and the biggest thing was that we thought we were never going to get there. There were times when it seemed impossible but we kept checking the moves off one by one…
“Overall it was for sure the hardest film project we have done. Kaleigh caught on really quick, and she helped pull Noah along through the whole thing. Dave Hyndman was a huge help, we talked to him and he helped us to understand how much time he put into it… which was a lot, in the range of 12+ hours of training.”
From Noah & Kaleigh
What was fun about having all this extra surface area?
Noah: Having the extra surface area was a crazy feeling. Even though it’s a tunnel that I have flown in for 7 years, it was a different challenge learning to fly again while being weighted differently.
Kaleigh: Having the extra surface area made normal things that are easy for me while flying without the surface area, fun. Having the surface area added an extra challenge to normal flying, it allowed me to fly at slower speeds and it made it so that smaller movements had bigger results.
Did it feel difficult at first?
Noah: Flying in the wingsuits was very difficult at first – trying to learn to fly again from scratch because the only thing that carried over was head-down carving. We had to learn front flips, transitions, switching directions and outface carving all from scratch.
Kaleigh: It was difficult at all times until the last few days. It was weird having so much extra push. The suits were bottom-heavy so when flying if you used your arms whatsoever it did nothing. It was challenging learning how do breaker and bottom loops without having any help from my arms.
What else do you love doing besides tunnel flying?
Noah: Outside of the tunnel I love to play basketball with my friends and with my dad. I also love playing football for a travel league. During the winters I love to speed ride, ski and snowboard.
Kaleigh: I like having downtime to relax. I also love hanging out with friends after practice in the tunnel and on the weekends. During winter time I love skiing and snowboarding in Valfrejus, France.
Your dad is a total legend to the freefly world. Is he just a dorky old guy to you guys? Tell us the truth!
Noah: He doesn’t talk about himself much, and is very focused on our flying and competing. He also loves to speedride in France with me in the winters.
Kaleigh: My dad always says he wants a break from work but then if he sits down for twenty minutes he gets bored and wants to make a concrete table. However he doesn’t talk about his accomplishments in the freefly world much. He is always wanting me and my brother to excel in the sport and is a great coach.
(Noah and Kaleigh flew the SQRL Mutation for this project).
