SPORTS INTERVIEW
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Iris Xue
Happy New Year and welcome to 2024! To kick start this years sports skydiving interviews we have Iris.
One of our most determined female skydivers, Taro card teller and most beautiful soul. Iris has taken a love for camera flying recently and absolutely crushing it. When you see her at the DZ you might be lucky enough to meet her pet bird, a legend!
This is Iris’s story and what she had to say!
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how did you get into skydiving?
It was not what I planned when I look back. I used to travel a few times a year but I was not able to do that due to COVID. I did a 1 minute ifly tunnel as a tourist when I was at Gold Coast in December 2019, then COVID started. After that on a random day I watched a video about a Chinese guy who did solo jumps in Argentina in May 2020. All of a sudden, this idea of ‘what about I go to learn skydiving’ just struck in my head. So I called SA Skydiving and talked to Teags, one of the best coaches in SA and started my skydiving journey in August 2020.
what was your favourite aff solo stage?
Stage 5! I think I repeated that jump about 6 times. That’s the stage that we learned how to do 360 degrees turns. I kept losing control of my body and started spinning nonstop. I was thrilled when I passed the jump and did a perfect turn after 6 attempts. Thanks to all the wonderful coaches saving my life and be there for me in the sky!
HAVE YOU EVER HAD A SKYDIVING MALFUNCTION?
Lucky not yet. I had line twist a couple of times that I was able to undo the twist sagely with the training I had on the ground.
What has been your favourite skydiving memory?
Every jump is so unique and special. We learn so much from each jump. There will be different people that we jump with, different weather, and even I myself may be in a different state or mindset at each jump that I need to be aware of and also communicate with myself. That’s the best bit of skydiving, getting to know myself more and better.
However if I had to choose one favorite jump, that would be the last jump I did, my 237th jump as a camera flyer to film a tandem on 27/12/23. I jumped out the plane with Aimee, as the tandem master on that jump and who is also my first AFF instructor who took me for my stage 1, first ever skydive which was also a tandem. The customer that Aimee took on the jump was Dan, who just asked me to be his girlfriend on Tuesday and I took him for a jump on the following day Wednesday. It turned out to be a surprise to both of us and one of our favorite dating memories. Matis, one of my best friends in skydiving also came with us to film the jump. It was a very special moment to us that we will remember for a long while!
Whats your skydiving goals you’re pursuing?
I cannot pick a specific goal at this time. There’s so much to learn about in skydiving. Last year my goal was to land safely as I had quite a few bad landings and I was in my own head for a while when I was about to land that I may mess up. Lucky we have Zack here, one of the best canopy coaches in Australia, who helped me a lot with my canopy flying and landing with his best value for money canopy course. Now I am more confident in my landing so that I can focus more on other areas.
The other goals on my list probably would be better belly flying, camera flying with tandems and other disciplines, learning how to do angle jumps and also free flying.
Where do you see yourself in the next 5 years?
This is a question that I don’t know how to answer to be honest. My other close friends have answered that they see themselves doing wingsuiting or AFF coaching which I am so excited to hear their goals. I don’t see myself doing that in 5 years at this point but who knows. 5 years is a long time and I think I will be happy that I am still skydiving in 5 years with my skydiving buddies!
Jumping with the tribe I was lucky to be part of for 3 years so far or in the next 5 years means a lot to me! They can take me for a rodeo on a wingsuit (Natalia you said you will take me first, don’t forget that!). Or, I would love to do more jumps with Dan at different places and occasions if he’s still around haha and also take my sister for a jump when she’s 16 in a couple of years time.
If you could give any advice to yourself when you started skydiving, what would it be?
Be patient!
Be present!
Slow is fast!
Enjoy the journey, that’s the best part already, on the road.
Who should we interview next?
