Their playground is between 4,000 and 1,000 m above sea level. The Lyonnaise Karine Joly and the Stéphanois
Greg Crozier then jump from a plane to chain spectacular figures, like figure skaters, from 250 to 280 km / h for 45 seconds, all in the air. Their collaboration in free fall dates back to August 2007, three years after the meeting “in a drop-zone” between these two young practitioners of leisure parachuting. With the freefly, they wanted to opt for the artistic aspect of parachuting. “What I like about freeflying is the interaction,” explains Karine Joly.
This one is not likely to miss, like their “signature figure”, the Down under, with one of the athletes horizontal, the other upside down, his head resting on his partner’s back. Filmed by their determinant +1, Baptiste Welsch, “invisible performer videomaniac”, who sends the images to a jury taking into account the technique and the artistic, the Airwax tandem has multiplied the titles for 12 years. Quadruple champions of France and vice-champions of Europe in 2017, the Rhônalpins even reached the consecration in 2018, with a first coronation of world champions in Australia, at 37 years old.
Dubai, Maldives, Namibia, Copacabana, who says better during Covid-19?
If the competitions have marked time since last year with the Covid-19, the duo did not experience this period so badly. “While everyone was confined, we were lucky,” smiles Greg Crozier. We did a series of jumps in Dubai, Namibia, the Maldives, and even over Copacabana beach during our two months in Brazil. OK, the coronavirus really doesn’t have a hold on the creativity of these air artists.
Karine Joly, who will publish her first book in September The freedom to win, dedicated to free fall, continues: “We are always looking for the most exceptional places in the world, especially if they have never been flown over in a freefly, as we were able to do above the Great Barrier of coral and pyramids of Egypt. The idea is to share all of this with the public ”. And in what way, since Karine and Greg are now embarking on virtual reality films.
The crucial importance of wind tunnels in their training
The images of their flight over the city centers of Lyon and Marseille will thus be broadcast in vertical flight simulators in indoor as
iFly Lyon, in Saint-Priest (Rhône). With a helmet on, regardless of their level, practitioners will be able to fully project themselves into the air, above Confluence and Place Bellecour, for nearly a minute. “The paratroopers who have tried our project in wind tunnels are amazed by the result,” says Karine Joly. People who cannot parachute, for example for medical reasons, will find the sensations of such a jump again. “
If we are very far from the escape of Copacabana and the Great Barrier Reef, the training sessions of this couple for five years in life, at iFly Lyon, are proving to be very precious. “Without the wind tunnels, we would not have had the opportunity to be top-level competitors,” says Karine Joly. Given the constraints of free fall, we can only perform about ten jumps per day in outdoor training. There, we can do 80 for 1h30 at iFly Lyon. It’s like Air France pilots, they often work on a simulator during their careers. “
“Cirque du Soleil has always been a source of inspiration for us”
“Some postures would have required years of outdoor training,” adds Greg Crozier. There, we don’t have an 8 kg parachute in the back, so we can test what we want and then determine if it’s adaptable in the air. Since their beginnings, many artistic disciplines such as skating and acroyoga have been able to influence the tricolor paratroopers. “Cirque du Soleil has also always been a source of inspiration for us,” says Greg Crozier. We make sure we never miss their passages when we are around. We take a lot of notes while discovering their duet shows. Contrary to popular belief, the Airwax team does not necessarily take more risks than Canadian artists. Karine and Greg have not suffered any serious injury since the start of their collaboration 14 years ago.
“Our sport is very little known and it’s frustrating to see that many see freefly as a risky discipline, regrets Karine Joly. You should know that our practice, which has around fifty high-level athletes around the world, is very supervised. “” For us, it’s an ultra sport safe, continues Greg Crozier. Our equipment beeps so that the parachute is open when we find ourselves at an altitude of 1,000 m. In terms of risks, we are below a bike trip in the center of Paris. »And at the level of kif?