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2019 Australian Open Indoor Skydiving Championships – 23rd & 24th August!

ISAG, Australia’s largest indoor skydiving group, has announced the dates for the 2019 Australian Open Indoor Skydiving Championships, this year celebrating its 5th anniversary; with registrations open worldwide.

This years Championship will be held across two huge days, Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th August; with over 300 of the worlds best in the sport expected to compete.

“We have been holding these Championships in Sydney for the last 5 years and the popularity within the skydiving community globally is growing”, comments National Marketing Manager for ISAG Cheryl Dawson, “each year we are extending the competition length, and adding new elements to the event so that we can accommodate the amount of registrations we receive!”

The first Championships was held in 2015 with around 147 registered competitors, and over the last 5 years has seen almost 600 of the world’s best battle it out for the coveted titles.

“We started out in 2015 with 147 registered competitors; but popularity for this event grew fast not only here in Australia but worldwide.  We have people from across the world travel to compete against our Australian flyers! We have some amazing local talent that will be hard to beat!”

One such talent is 13 year old Amy Watson who earlier this year became the youngest ever indoor skydiving champion taking gold for Australia in the Junior Freestyle competition just last month at the 3rd FAI Indoor Skydiving World Championships in France.

“We have been supporting Amy’s career in professional indoor skydiving since she first stepped into the tunnel back in 2013,” states Cheryl, “we are incredibly proud of Amy, and all our talented sponsored athletes, and can’t wait to see them all compete at the Australian Open”.

The Championships will be held at Amy’s home ground training facility, iFLY Indoor Skydiving Penrith, recognised not only as Australia’s largest indoor skydiving facility, but also the biggest in the Southern Hemisphere.

“Australia is rapidly becoming a leader in producing some of the world’s greatest in the sport of indoor skydiving”, comments iFLY Indoor Skydiving National Marketing Manager Cheryl Dawson, “It is one of the most accessible and all-inclusive sports and we are incredibly proud of the talent that our facilities across Australia have been producing.”

“Indoor skydiving is a sport that can be enjoyed by anybody, any age, all inclusive”, continues Cheryl, “it doesn’t matter if you are in a wheelchair, have hearing loss, low vision, are 3 years old or 103. When you are indoor skydiving everyone is the same. We invite people of all abilities to enter and be part of our championships and have your chance to compete for Australia!’

All the Australian competitors who win a medal in the 2019 championships will qualify to participate in the 4th FAI Indoor Skydiving World Cup in Charleroi (Belgium) in April 2020.

“Without doubt this is the biggest indoor skydiving event to ever happen in Australia”, continues Cheryl, “we will have some of the world’s greatest indoor skydivers competing. We want everyone to be part of it!

The public will be invited to attend free of charge, and iFLY Indoor Skydive will also broadcast a live Facebook Feed expected to be viewed by almost 1 million viewers.

The 2019 Australian Open Indoor Skydiving Championships will be held on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th August.  For more information on the event and to register as a contender please head to https://downunder.iflyworld.com/australianchampionships

WATCH – the highlights from the 2018 Australian Open here:

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Northern Beaches Mums iFLY Experience

Michaela, a Northern Beaches Mum, got the opportunity to try out iFLY Downunder with her two children Thomas (11) and Melissa (7) and here is her raving review…

I’ve always wanted to say I had done a sky dive but being scared of heights you would never get me sitting in that small plane and jumping out! No way, hose!

Firstly, the centre is out at Penrith so a nice family drive, WARNING: DO NOT BE PUT OFF THAT YOU HAVE TO DRIVE… it is worth the travel? HELL YES!!!!!  This is a fantastic experience for the whole family, so if you are looking for something different to do and something that you’ll always remember, then this is it!

I was visiting the centre with my husband, my best friend from abroad and my two kids who are 11 and 7. The kids were super excited but i was feeling pretty nervous and my husband was still in shock that I’d booked this as I don’t normally go in for anything energetic and especially adrenaline pumping.

So… on arrival we started to get a little excited. It is a big centre with lots of seating where everyone can view the people that are currently in the wind tunnel area doing their sky dives. There’s also a café there with food and drink BONUS… I got cake and coffee so I was happy!

The staff are super helpful and friendly, and they took us in a room for our pre-flight training and safety talk and to get us kitted out in our flight gear, goggles and helmets. Now I was dreading putting the suit on as I thought I’d look ridiculous and fat but another bonus is that the suit was super slimming, I actually looked slimmer BONUS!!! and I was yet again feeling more and more pumped about booking this experience and ready to show the kids that this mummy still had some fun in her. Yes the nagging, tired, worn out, drained mummy was gone and here was super mama!! ready to go go go!! I could see the kids looking at me like is this really our mum… did they put something in coffee at the café!!! who hoo lets goooo!!!

It’s time for the skydive and you’re about to go in… oh wait a minute quick toilet trip for us all as we don’t want any accidents in there! Once you’re all ready you all have to put your headphones on to cancel the noise as it is REALLY NOISEY in there! So once you go in there’s lots of sign language going on (no bickering from the kids as you can’t hear a word they’re saying… BONUS).

CLICK HERE to read the full review and visit the Northern Beaches Mums website.

From the team at iFLY Downunder, thank you to Michaela and Northern Beaches Mums for visiting and writing this fantastic review of your experience!

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Virtual Reality (VR) has arrived!

iFLY Indoor Skydiving Downunder, Australia’s largest facility for indoor skydiving, have introduced Virtual Reality as part of their experience offers, a revolutionary first for the Australian market.

“Virtual Reality is something we have been working towards introducing into our facilities for a long time”, comments ISAG National Marketing Manager Cheryl Dawson, “We have been waiting for the technology to become advanced enough that the experience replicates the skydiving experience perfectly, we are very excited with our new product”.

Virtual reality will allow users a real-world skydiving experience, without the need to jump from a plane or even wear a parachute.

“Our iFLY VR experience has skyrocketed our indoor skydiving offering to a whole new level. During our testing phase we had some of the country’s best skydivers using the product, with many commenting on its realism and how they felt like they were really flying outdoors!”

The iFLY VR Experience allows the user to watch POV skydiving footage on a specially designed VR helmet that takes the indoor skydiving experience outdoors.

“While you are in the safety of our wind tunnel, you will be watching mountains and even other skydivers fly by from 14,000 feet! It’s really quite incredible.”

The iFLY VR Experience combines the latest in VR technology with the state-of-the-art wind tunnel creating the most realistic skydiving experience ever offered in Australia.

iFLY VR package is now available at iFLY Downunder (Sydney West) to fly from 19th November 2018.

The technology will also land at iFLY Gold Coast and iFLY Perth by the end of the month, making it the hottest new product on the market this Christmas.

For more information, visit the iFLY website here or follow the iFLY Indoor Skydiving Facebook page here.

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