Skydive Langar is proudly hosting the Artistic Skydiving Nationals for the first time ever at the end of September, and so we thought it would be a good idea to take some time and explain what ‘Artistics’ actually means, and why all Langar’s freeflyers should think about taking part.
Freefly and Freestyle
Essentially the difference between the disciplines boils down to the number of performers. Freestyle is one performer and one cameraflyer, whereas Freefly is two performers and one cameraflyer. So if you are trying to decide which competition to enter, it can be as simple as working out how many of your friends are available.
In Freestyle there are two categories – A and B. The ‘A’ category is the advanced level, and requires both team members to hold FF2. Freestyle B requires just FF1 in order to compete. There is a third competition in Freefly – Intermediate. This category allows one performer to have FF1, while the other two team members have FF2.
To keep this article as simple as possible (there are 41 pages of rules…), we are going to focus on the B categories.
Competition Rules
Finding out the rules for artistic competition (be it Freefly or Freestyle) can be difficult. A quick search of British Skydiving and FAI websites will not give you a simple rundown, so we will try to here:
- To compete in either Freefly or Freestyle B, all team members need to have FF1
- For Freefly and Freestyle ‘B’, there are 5 jumps, split into 3 ‘free routine’ jumps [F] and 2 ‘compulsory’[C] jumps, in the following order: F, C1, F, F, C2.
The compulsory jumps are two sets of 3 pre-set sequences (C1 and C2) that can be done in any order during the jump (described in more detail below).
The free routine is just that! Anything you want to do can be put in this jump, and you can repeat the same jump 3 times, or even perform 3 completely different jumps. Most teams stick to one routine, as it gives them the opportunity to really perfect the routine before competition, showcasing their best moves. Bear in mind that scores are based on technical difficulty and performance of each move, as well as creativity.
The working time (the amount of time you have to complete the routine) is 43 seconds for Freeflying, and 45 seconds for Freestyle.
Compulsory dives
Each compulsory is split into the 3 sequences, and each sequence can be performed a number of different ways depending on how difficult or easy you feel you can perform it. For example, one hand grip in sit is easier than two hand grips in sit, which in turn is easier than two in stand. There is no simple way to explain all this, so we’ve taken the relevant sections straight from the British Skydiving rules:
It is as simple as that. 5 jumps to challenge yourselves and your friends, and hopefully some medals at the end of it!
If you are interested in the intermediate of ‘A’ categories, or would like to know more, here is the information bulletin from British Skydiving:
https://britishskydiving.org/wp-content/uploads/Artistics-Nationals-2021-Approved.pdf
How to enter
To enter your team to the Freely and Artistics Nationals, please complete this form.