Nine months before the national competition, Quest trained every weekend at the Perris Valley Parachute Center, a sky divers' Mecca, but the center closed in June. They review a videotape of the jump. But she had raced motorcycles and off-road bikes--high-speed vehicles that demand split-second timing. Committee members parachuting from an airplane crossword clue 8 letters. The team reviews the tape between jumps. They all lean forward from the waist, heads meeting in the center of the circle.
But Barnes is serious. Though Georgia (Tiny) Broadwick was the first woman to parachute from an airplane more than 70 years ago, sky diving remains male-dominated. With only weeks left before the nationals, the women were forced into long weekend drives to California City's drop zone to continue practice. I can't think of any. Their mime is disrupted with a frustrated "Where am I going? " That's never enough. The pre-World War II aircraft waits, engines idling, propellers turning. It is the last jump of the day, and Quest's four canopies burst open--red, white and blue rectangles against a chalk-blue sky. "I want the whole enchilada--to be competitive, to jump out of planes, to be as good as I possibly can. On a recent Saturday afternoon, the group gathers for rehearsal, or dirt dive. The winning four-way team was the Air Bears, an all-male group from Deland, Fla. ). The video is stopped. Committee members parachuting from an airplane crossword clue solver. The women make their way to the rigging area to repack their rectangular parachutes. Letting Go: The Nation's Only Competitive All-Woman Sky-Diving Team Hangs Tough in a Mostly Male Sport.
On the ground, two five-person judging teams viewed the choreography on ground-to-air videotapes. A human missile, arms flat against body, head straight down, she dives toward earth at 190 m. Watching the video, Sue Barnes grins and turns to her teammates. Barnes explains this sky-diving mental block. "After completing student status I realized that I didn't want to pursue the sport at a fun, low-key level, " she says. She began sky diving at 19, to fulfill a passion and, as with Barnes, childhood dreams. Formations were judged for precision, execution and time taken from airplane exit to completed pattern. The video is analyzed once more. Hanging onto an airplane and then letting go, they say, produces a "rush" felt in no other sport--not hang gliding, soaring, motorcycle racing, mountain climbing. Played, stopped again. It was the only all-woman group to compete against 62 men's and mixed teams and finished ninth out of 35 four-way groups (the remaining teams had 8 and 10 members). Committee members parachuting from an airplane crossword clue 2. Barnes laments: "Laura and I think we are so damned marketable, and yet, the right person just hasn't come along. Quest's other cofounder, Laura Maddock, once said that she would never jump. "I guess we just needed more experience, more training and practice. " "This is a selfish sport, " she says.
"She's having so much fun. Gloria Durosko, 30, a life-insurance sales / service representative living in Bloomington, Calif., joined the group in 1983. Their social lives are constrained. Sky diving demands total focus. "I'd dream of running real fast--then one jump and I'd keep going. The precision of the sport and the instantaneous decisions that have to be made attract 35-year-old Barnes, who explains: "I love the challenge of taking in information and responding in split seconds. A movement is miscalculated, a grip not completed; the formation is ruined and everyone knows it. The fourth, knees bent, one shoulder forward, faces them. But if my parachute malfunctions, I have a second one to rely on. Curiosity about reactions and timing in sky diving led to her first jump. Canopies open; touchdown. In competition, the scoring would stop. "The mere thought of jumping out of planes always scared me, " she says. Following penciled diagrams not unlike those of football formations, they go through the motions.
Hurrying toward the DC-3, she points out one of the sport's peculiarities. "There was never a sensation of falling or fear in my dreams, although I'm scared of falling down while skiing, and of motorcycles--they're too fast. A victory would have given the team the opportunity to represent the United States in last September's world competition in Yugoslavia. We are the women of the '80s doing a different thing. "How many learning environments are there with no coach or teacher? "It's very difficult to learn in a self-evaluation, " Barnes says. She stares ahead, brown eyes wide, mouth agape. " Assembling on the ground, standing as they would be in the air, each takes her position. They rehearse the next, then go up again. It's also called a bust. A radio-advertising representative living in Manhattan Beach, Barnes began jumping seven years ago to re-create a childhood dream. Unlike gymnastics or tennis, sky diving creates no household names--no Mary Lou Rettons, no Martina Navratilovas. That's basically what we get each time we go up. Compounding the difficulty is that midair judgments are made not in relation to a fixed object but to a fellow sky diver.
The schedule is rigid: Practice begins at 7 a. m. Saturday and continues until dark Sunday night. Quest members acknowledge the obvious dangers of their sport, but they prefer to talk about its satisfactions and challenges, their desire to succeed and what they consider to be the ultimate experience of freedom.