Sydney Kennett is one of the world's best indoor skydivers.
The 14-year-old champion moves with the grace of a ballerina inside wind tunnels that propel air in excess of 100 miles per hour.
Sydney holds numerous top prizes at competitions around the world, and she's even a Guinness World Record holder.
[relaxing music]- [Narrator] This is Sydney Kennett.She's flying on a jet of air travelingat over 100 miles per hour.She's one of the world'sbest indoor skydivers,and she's only 14.- [Sydney] It kind offeels like the matrix.I'm pretty much defying gravity.[upbeat music]- [Narrator] Sydneyholds numerous top prizesat competitions all around the world.She's been the US JuniorNational Champion,three years in a row, and sheholds a Guinness World Record.- [Sydney] The World Record I have,is the most box slit spinsin a minute in that windtunnel, I got 68 in total.I was a little dizzy cause it wasfor a whole minute straight,but usually I don'treally get dizzy in there.- [Narrator] For Sydney,taking skydiving outsideof the tunnel, doesn't appealas much as you might think.- [Sydney] I might wannaskydive when I'm older,it's five years away, soI might change my mind.I'm also kind of scared of heights.[ambient music]- [Man] At Wright Field,at the headquartersof the Air Materiel Command,aeronautical engineers are workingon problems of research and development.- [Narrator] This is oneof the first wind tunnels built in 1945.It's also where AircraftMachinist and Skydiver,Jack Tiffany, became the first personto fly in a wind tunnel.Early wind tunnels builtfor human flight featuredthe fan below the skydiver.In 1997, the fans were moved aboveand the chamber was enclosed.This is known as an Open Flow System.But it wasn't until 2005,that the modern wind tunnelslike this one were born.This building housesa recirculating systemthat is key to the modernvertical wind tunnel.There are four giant fansat the top of the chamber,12 feet in diameter that pull the air up.The air is recirculatedback down these two shaftsand then back up again.This allows for turbulentfree controllable wind.Many say the sensation is verysimilar to the real thing.- [Sydney] If you moveyour arm a little bit,you'll like turn or go to the side,and if you like straighten your legsand arms at the same time, you'll go up,and if you like bend them, you'll go down.- [Narrator] The windspeeds can be cranked upto 185 miles an hour.- Everyone has their own uniquewind speed that they fly at.What my main wind speed isaround like a 110, 115 maybe,but I can fly up tolike the highest speedsin almost all the tunnels.- [Narrator] Higher wind speeds allow youto make quicker moves,but don't expect tostart out at this level.- You have to make prettysmall body movements,because the higher windspeed affects it more.Wind speeds also, they can be affectedby what you're wearing.So, if you're wearing a bag of your suit,you'll be at a lower windspeed cause there's more drag.But if you're wearing a tighter suit,which most free stylists do,you're usually at a higher speed.- [Narrator] There arefour basic body positionsin indoor skydiving.- [Sydney] The first one,you're pretty much layingon your belly.You have your arms spreadout and your legs spread up.The instructor will tellyou to like bend your legsor straighten your legs to move you.And you can also turn you,like use your hands to terrain,and also use your feet to turn.And they don't have tobe big movements at all.Small movements go a long way.The second one you wouldlearn is back flying.So, you're kind of sittingin a chair, but on your back.You can use your feet toturn your hands to turn.You can go flat to go upand scrunch up to go down.The third would be sit, which is,you're sitting in a chairand you have your armsat like a 90 degree angle,and you can straightenyour legs to go backand bend them to go forward.And the last one that you wouldlearn, would be head down.You can use your head to turn this timeand your arms and legs to turn again.And then you can straightenyour legs to go upand bend them to go down.That one took me the longest to learn.It's really hard becauseeverything's upside down,which is kind of difficultto know where you are in the tunnel.- [Narrator] Sydney competes in a numberof different categories,such as freestyle,where competitors createtheir own routines.Other categories includeformation skydiving,a more traditional approach to the sportand dynamic, where teams of twoor even four skydivers are judgedof specific sequencesthat they must perform.- [Sydney] With freestyle, every movein your routine counts,from that second you enter the door.I try to do as many hard anddifficult tricks in my routineas I can, while keeping itpretty smooth and graceful.- [Narrator] Sydney has big goals.She hopes the sport will soonqualify for the Olympics,so she can compete for a gold medal.But it hasn't yet caught onoutside of a niche community.- [Sydney] Some of thechallenges are like tryingto explain to people thatit's actually a sportcause all the people think is justlike a fun amusement ride,but they don't reallyrealize that it takes a lotto be an indoor skydiver.The first time I started flying waswhen I was four years old.- Yeah, buddy.- [Sydney] I was super nervous.- [Narrator] Sydney tookclasses when she first started,but she quickly outgrew themas her skills progressed.- [Sydney] It's just like set me upfor my main body positions and stuff,and I started training on my own.- [Narrator] Sydneydoesn't have her own coach,so her parents help when they can.- [Sydney] I haven't hada coach in a long time.A lot of people have likeaccess to really nice coaches.So, pretty much my coachesare me, my mom and my dad.My mom and like me talk alot in like sign languageor weird like signs,about like what's workingand what's not working in my routines.- [Narrator] She findsunique ways to train outsideof the tunnel, so she canstay at the top of her game.- [Sydney] Outside Ido a lot of stretchingand trampolining and contortion.- [Narrator] She uses hertraining to create new tricks.Like this one, she calls the scorpion.- [Sydney] One of the contortionmoves that I learned was,where you can touchyour feet to your head.So, I was like, maybe Ican do this in the tunnel,maybe I'll just try it.I remember trying it andtrying it and trying it,and like one of the last rotations I had,I finally just like tappedmy head, and I was like,Oh yeah, this is amazing.- [Announcer] ClassicSydney score been moved.- [Sydney] In 2018 for nationals,I got into the last roundand I was just like,you know what?I'll just do a scorpion, maybe I'll win.So, I got first forbest trick off of that,which is pretty cool.- [Narrator] Sydney trains hard.Two times a week, she goesto the tunnel after schooland applies her gymnasticwork to her flying.- [Sydney] So, like it's pretty long days,cause then I also have to do homeworkand like wanna talk to myfriends sometimes and stuff.My most memorable moment.My first competition, eventhough I wasn't very good.I knew like I wanna do this.This is what I wanna dofor a long, long time.