SCAD Jumping
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| | For more information about SCAD jumping go to www.dropzoneuk.co.uk or contact Marco Bell on 01282 705097 or 07974 738 202 or write to Dropzone UK, 1 York Street, Colne, Lancashire, BB8 0ND
www.gary-king.co.uk Extreme Sports Reporting at its Best. | |
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The crane is huge. Quite simply vast. It stretches into the clear blue sky like a massive metallic fishing rod. I’ve had my eye on it for the last couple of miles as I’ve driven closer and closer to the Sheffield Bowl Outside Arena in Yorkshire.
Now, as I stand at its base looking up, I realise I’ve actually got to jump off the platform that is swaying gently beneath it in the morning breeze. The platform seems very small, the crane seems very big and the ground looks very hard.
“It’s high isn’t it?”
The voice startles me and I turn round to see a man, who is also staring up into the heavens.
“It’s even higher when you are up there,” he continues.
There’s a brief silence as I try to assimilate this information, weighing up its worth.
“You’ll be doing 75mph by the time you hit the net and your body will experience a force of about 4g.”
More silence, more assimilation.
“It’s very exhilarating though,” he says whilst extending his hand, “I’m Marco Bell.” We shake hands, mine slightly clammy, and I realise that this is the head honcho of Dropzone UK. Operators of the only SCAD jumping equipment in the country. We’ve spoken many times over the phone but my basic skills of recollection appear to be failing me under the shadow of the giant crane.
SCAD stands for Suspended Catch Air Device and it is what has brought me to Sheffield on this bright and sunny Saturday morning. In essence, the system consists of dangling a platform 200 feet up in the air off a crane. The jumper is dropped into a net that is suspended 150 feet below the platform. Unlike a bungee jump, you don’t slow down as all the momentum from the fall is taken up by the net. Simple. Dropped from great height into net. What could be easier? Or so it sounded when I was researching it. It suddenly dawns on me that the worst thing about reality is how real it is.
The system was developed by a German company called Montic Fischer and Marco bought his equipment in 1999 after seeing it advertised in the small ads section of a newspaper.
“We do all kinds of events now,” he explains, “everything from corporate to charity work where organisations hire the kit for the day and then charge people by the jump. We’ve helped raised thousands of pounds over the last three years and whenever we set up at a show the crowds come flocking.”
We are joined by Richard the photographer who takes one look at the crane and says, “I’m not jumping off that.”
“Right let’s get you in the harness,” says Marco.
I follow Marco and we join Daz, otherwise known as The Dropmaster due to the sheer number of times that he has fallen to earth. I do a quick visual check for signs of anything untoward and he seems to have all of his faculties. I take this as a good sign.
The harness is slipped over my head, around my back, up through my legs and secured in place. I pull on some elbow pads and we climb over the inflatable sides of the square net and onto the platform. There is room enough for the two operators and two jumpers.
The Dropmaster waves at the crane driver and we are gently lifted into the air. I am hanging in the foetus position from the platform by a rope that is attached to the harness. The whole apparatus is slowly filling out beneath me with the net leaving the ground as we get higher and higher. The people on the ground get progressively smaller as we rise above the roof tops. Even the ambulance and the paramedics have shrunk to matchbox size.
The view is stunning with a 360 degree vista of Yorkshire panning out beneath us. For a few seconds I forget what I’m doing until Marco says, “That’s it.”
On each corner of the net there is a counterweight that ensures everything is held stable and in place. Excessive wind is the only thing that can make the SCAD equipment inoperable but even then it needs to be very strong.
My heart is hammering away more out of trepidation than fear and under the circumstances I feel remarkably calm.
“Oh no,” says Marco, “the weights aren’t balanced, we’ll need to go back down again and adjust them. Give me your hand and we pull you back onto the platform.”
This isn’t what I want to hear. I just want to jump. I lean up and just as our hands are about to meet Marco says, “Only joking,” and he pulls the release cord. I’m suddenly aware that I am no longer stationary. I am in fact accelerating from 0 to 75 mph in under three seconds.
There’s a cacophony in my ears, a lightness in my stomach and a reflex scream bursts from my lips. The platform shrinks in size as I zip away. The net takes the impact and I decelerate in a dull thump of sound. As I lay there motionless my brain unsuccessfully tries to make sense of what has just happened to my body.
The crane slowly lowers the net onto the floor and I leap up, blood still pulsing around my body and jump onto the grass. Just as I’m pulling off my harness I hear Marco shouting, “Did you enjoy that?”
A shout back in the affirmative buzzing with relief.
“Good,” he says, “Richard didn’t get the shot because I didn’t tell him when I was going to let you go.”
As I’m dangling for the second time, high above the city of Sheffield I can’t help thinking that Gary ‘Dropmaster’ King does have a certain ring to it.
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