Tips from a professional skydiver — Stoked Nomads

an interview to Konstantin Kunts

Hi Kos! Nice to have you!

You are a guy always moving… 😀 Where have you been recently? and where are you now?

Yes, mostly for work or skydiving 🙂 I just got back to USA from South africa, from canopy piloting world cup in Skydive Pretoria

Oh, awesome! How has it been there?

It was challenging as any big competition. 5500ft above sea level so the canopies are way faster than at sea level

Jesus! So the level of accuracy, speed,… had to be more hard for everybody. Well of course for the locals maybe not 😅

exactly! Locals had some advantages for sure 🙂 but not game changing advantages

Could you explain us a bit how it works this type of competition?

Sure! There are a lot of disciplines in skydiving – freefall and canopy disciplines (with parachute opened). I’m the part of russian national skydiving team in canopy piloting (swoop) . we compete using very small and high performance canopies which can fly across the ground at 90+ mph and we compete in 4 events: speed, distance, accuracy and freestyle.

Distance – the goal is to accelerate parachute towards the ground, touch the water (the course is above the water). before entry gate and fly as far as possible
Accuracy – we need to land in the small box 1×1 meter
Speed – fly 70 meters across the ground as fast as we can

However it would be easier to catch what we are doing by watching a video

It looks quite difficult to me. I mean, that is what I was thinking, your canopies are pretty small and you fly super closed from the ground looping down full speed. You need to have big balls!!

ahah kinda ) lol

How did you get into this?

Occasionally. 7 years ago my friends invited me to dropzone to try a tandem jump (with instructor). After this jump i felt in love with sky and decided to get a license.

How long did it take to get your license?

Actually the first course takes only two weekends and 8 jumps

The AFF?

Exactly

After that you can jump by your own

And to get into the federation and compete you need to have a minimum jumps right?

The first thing one need to do is to choose a discipline (there are 30+ of them) and start to learn… with instructors… it takes some time and money…

My first competition ever was in 2016 when I had 900 jumps

So basically it is my 4th competition season and 2nd as a part of national team

You are in the Russian National Parachute Team. How many countries do normally compete on those events? On the one that you normally compete…

It depends from year to year. Around 20 countries and more or less 100 competitors just in our discipline. To get to world meet a competitor has to perform well in national meet.

How do you manage the costs? Do you get enough support for it? Sponsors,…

Right now – yes. Thanks to Russian Federation of Skydiving our team has great support. getting to the comp, some training jumps, flight, hotel

How about the gear?

I have several sponsors who support me with equipment. However the costs are quite high as during the year i need to jump and train 🙂 – at least 300-350 jumps a year to be in shape

So, basically you got the sponsors through competing. At the beginning did you start with your own equipment?

Exactly. first you start at your own expenses and if you start showing the results you might get sponsored … it doesn’t happen to everybody though

Mmmm… You are good 😑

#notgoogenough

hahah

Ok, Which gear would you recommend to someone that is starting?

I have good prices from my sponsors but not free of charge

If we are talking about the gear – very simple.

Skydiving containers – SkyWideSystems,
Canopies – NZ Aerosports,
Reserve canopies – Aerodyne Research.
And Cypres Safety Device

only 🙂

What about second hand? 😬

the market is big for sure…

👍👍👍 But, it looks a bit scary to buy a second one Lol. Is there any certification that approves the gear or so?

Actually not … but there are professional riggers who can check the gear and say if it is OK. and basically every experienced skydiver can do

Cool

Since the parachute doesn’t have a huge hole – it should de ok 🙂

hahahahaha

Are you working also in other things related into skydiving?

I used to be a tandem instructor and videographer 2 years ago just to earn more money to train. But two years ago I decided to concentrate more only on training (which i pay having non skydiving job)

Currently I also teach post aff students how to fly safely the canopy and also get into canopy piloting

So… How long did it take from your first jump to be working as a skydiver?

In the first 3 years I didn’t do many jumps because of the climate in my hometown (saint petersburg) ….. thank we moved with my wife in Italy and we started to jump more. When I had 500 jumps i became tandem instructor and videoman

“videoman” Lol

We actually call them like this worldwide. lol

👍 It sounds like a superhero

hahah kinda :))))

Actually my home dropzone in Italy (Flygang Molinella) has given me a lot and helped to get into sport because of the great facilities and dropzone owner. This dropzone give me possibil;ity to train paying less for my jumptickets. Which is very important :))))

But you are in USA, Florida right?

yes 🙂 from september 🙂

Are you planning to stay there for a while?

I’ve been staying here from September and will be here till mid december 🙂 after that I will get back to Italy for a while! As snowboard season is coming 🙂

Cool

Are you at the North of Italy?

Yes, close to Milano … and mountains :)))

Beautiful!

Yep, can’t wait to snowboard and speedride!

Can you tell us a bit of your future projects? Some future events? Courses that you are planning to do?

For now I have three big plans for next year:

canopy piloting camp in Italy for all those who want to get into canopy piloting.
Mondial 2020 – the biggest world championships in skydiving in history (will take place in Russia)
Also I am planning to get more into wingsuiting next year and start competing in this discipline as well