Walking on Clouds: SkyDiving in Vibram Five Fingers KSOs

By Justin Owings on May 31, 2009 | In user stories | Leave a comment »

SkyDiving in Vibram Five Finger KSOs - walking on clouds

Not only can you hang glide in Vibram Five Fingers, but Bobby (@ultrajumper on twitter) snapped this photo of a friend skydiving in his black Vibram fivefinger KSOs!

Before I started swooping, I jumped barefoot, and if I still did I would definitely wear my KSOs. After introducing some skydiving friends to the FiveFingers (which I wear to strengthen my feet for ultrarunning), they went out and bought their own and now they jump in them, hence the picture from this weekend. ...

The picture was taken above Skydive Delmarva in Laurel, DE. I have a video and a still camera mounted on my helmet, so when I am out there in a group making formations (in this case we were "freeflying", or flying vertically, to make our formations), I sometimes get interesting pictures like this one. I purposefully was trying to get a close-up shot of his feet in freefall since he was wearing his KSOs and the sky was looking extra nice that day. I'm pleased with the end result. Kinda gives a new perspective on the whole "freedom" aspect of VFFs.

A fantastic photo. And if you're like me, and don't know much about skydiving, you might appreciate the explanation of "swooping" that Bobby provided:

High performance landing in skydiving is called "swooping" and basically involves initiating a hook-turn that builds up speed so you "swoop" across the ground at 60mph or so, just inches above. Sometimes needing to put a foot down as a brake, and with divots in the landing area, I am more comfortable with regular shoes for jumping just in case.

Thanks for sharing with us, Bobby! Also, see Bobby's flickr photostream!

About the Author — I founded BirthdayShoes.com in April 2009 on realizing just how much I enjoyed having "free feet" - I mostly wanted to use them for weights, sprints, and plyometrics (I'm not much of a runner!). I'm a Googler by day and minimalist footwear aficionado by night; you can find me 'round Atlanta. If you want to catch up with what I'm doing outside of the site here, follow me on twitter @bdayshoes or @justinno or check out my personal site JustinOwings.com.
Justin Owings+ has written 710 articles and 258 comments.