{"id":31948,"date":"2021-02-23T15:26:00","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T15:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=31948"},"modified":"2021-03-03T09:47:57","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T09:47:57","slug":"catching-up-with-laurent-frat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/catching-up-with-laurent-frat\/","title":{"rendered":"Catching up with… Laurent Frat"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Laurent Frat lives to Wingsuit BASE jump and has dedicated his life to wingsuits and BASE jumping<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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Laurent Frat by Dan Dupuis<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

‘Lau’ has over 1,000 wingsuit BASE jumps and nearly 3,000 skydives. He is a three-time Red Bull ACES contestant, was first in accuracy at Wings for Love (third team overall), and competed at the World Wingsuit League in 2014.<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Laurent lives in the French Alps where he skydives and does wingsuit BASE from big mountains all year round. He worked for years as a firefighter, paramedic and on a search and rescue team \u2013 giving him excellent situational awareness and risk assessment abilities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lau also spent years racing mountain bikes competitively and training in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. He says that these things have helped him to understand the importance of training and humility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He believes that being a good coach is about being able to present material in a way that students will be able to absorb it. Lau\u2019s experiences in journalism, fitness training and the emergency services gave a great foundation for sharing his knowledge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you haven\u2019t tried a wingsuit, think angle flying that lasts two or three times as long, with tons of power \u2013 and we can even go up!<\/p>Laurent Frat<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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Laurent has over 1,000 wingsuit BASE jumps
Image: Laurent testing the Mutant 2 tracksuit from Squirrel<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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How did you start wingsuiting?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In 2007 I saw a video that had some really impressive footage of guys flying in Norway \u2013 right away I knew this was something I had to do.  I had seen wingsuit videos before but, at the time, it just seemed like a stunt, not a sport a guy from California could get into.  Then when a couple of guys I knew started sharing videos of their wingsuit jumps, the dream started to feel like something real and attainable \u2013 so I went for it 100%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The closest DZ at the time was in Lodi, California and it was the place for wingsuiting at the time.  I was fortunate to meet lots of experienced jumpers there and I sponged up as much knowledge as I could.  Where I live, my wife and even my job have all emerged from my experiences in the sport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The longer I am in the sport the more fun it seems to get.  There was a point around 2012 when I was ready to sell my skydiving gear and focus only on BASE jumping.  But as wingsuits have become more sophisticated and comfortable, wingsuit skydiving has become something really amazing.  If you\u2019re a skydiver and haven\u2019t tried one, think angle flying that lasts twice or three times as long, with tons of power, and we can even go up!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What’s your opinion of how the WS discipline has developed?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The biggest developments in wingsuit flying have come from the side-by-side evolution of suit technology and pilot flying skills. Really good wingsuits with talented and creative skydivers continue to fuel the sport\u2019s evolution.  Red Bull Aces<\/a> was an important pivotal event in wingsuit history that not only drove a massive jump in suit technology but also brought together an exchange of ideas, flying styles and of course an awesome competition. These innovations continue to trickle as far as into intro level suits and even how we teach FFCs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the BASE side of things, Chamonix really changed the game.  I was lucky to be a part of what we refer to as the golden age of Wingsuit BASE.  Never before were so many pilots able to fly so many vertical meters with such frequency as we did then.  It fueled a big jump in the general experience level and offered many lessons \u2013 sometimes very hard ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Video – Red Bull ACES 2016<\/em><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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