Teenage skydivers fly Singapore flag on the world stage

Video by Jeremy Ho and Text and Photos by Stefanus Ian

Holding on to the entrance of the wind tunnel, Choo Yi Xuan waits for the James Bond theme to play through her earpiece as her cue to step in. As the music starts, she enters, leaning back – appearing to defy gravity – as she lets gushing winds of about 216km/h carry her up, before effortlessly doing a flip to land her feet on the wall just above the entrance.

Seconds later, her skydiving partner Kyra Poh, enters and perform a similar routine to link their limbs together to begin their indoor skydiving routine. This is the same routine that clinched them a first place in the 2-way artistic category in April at the world’s largest indoor skydiving competition, the 2016 Bodyflight World Challenge.

Despite being indoor skydiving champions and holding multiple world records in indoor skydiving, 13-year-old Poh and 14-year-old Choo are actually not old enough to skydive outdoors. Not that it matters to them, as proven by their continued strong showing on the world’s biggest stage.

Choo Yi Xuan, 14, (left) posing with her friend and skydiving partner Kyra Poh, 13, (right) at their training venue at iFly Singapore.

“Not like other sports, indoor skydiving doesn’t matter on age, because when we compete in competitions it’s always open category,” Poh told Yahoo Singapore.

“It’s always kids against adults and adults against kids so we compete with people that are twice our age,” she added.

Apart from clinching first place in the 2-way artistic category, they came in second in the 2-way speed category to place second overall. This was an improvement from their overall third placing in last year’s edition and their achievements are helping to raise the profile of the sport.

Tourist attraction

Choo, who is enrolled in Singapore Sports School, said many of her friends were at first “clueless” about the sport.

“They know very little about the sport, so when we tell them, at first they are clueless about it,” said Choo.

Poh added that her friends at first thought iFly Singapore was more of a tourist attraction rather than a place for the duo to train in indoor skydiving.

“They didn’t know that (indoor skydiving) could be a sport, but after they saw us fly and our videos, they actually realise that it can be a real sport,” added Poh, who currently studies at the School of the Arts.

Kyra Poh (left) landing her legs on Choo Yi Xuan’s shoulders at the beginning of their indoor skydiving routine during a demonstration to Yahoo Singapore.

The two girls began their skydiving journey when Poh’s mother was doing some advertising work for iFly. iFly Singapore was just starting out then and they needed models and ambassadors for their collaterals.

Full body workout

At her mother’s request, Poh brought Choo along and stepped into wind tunnels and they took to the winds so naturally that they have continued soaring since. Leading up to competitions, the duo train intensively during the weekends.

A normal training session includes two sessions of 10 flights each with each flight about 90 seconds long. Between each session they will also have a 30-minute break. The girls likened their training to a full body workout as most of the time they are being suspended in air.

“In the (wind) tunnel, it’s like a full body stretch because we’re flying so there’s nothing to like hold on or anything,” explained Poh.

‘You’re actually stretching every single muscle you have and even some muscles that you didn’t know you had.”

The girls said they have also benefitted from renowned visiting coaches such as Indoor Skydiving Freestyle World Champion Inka Tiitto and Hurricane Factory’s Honza Turek.

The girls train mostly on weekends because Choo Yi Xuan studies and stays at Singapore Sports School on weekdays.

iFly Singapore said that they fully sponsor the duo’s training sessions and development for the past five years, which amounts to about $15,000-$20,000 a year. Each skydiver gets a base number of 10 hours of flight time each year but the amount can increase when they prepare intensively for certain competitions. Their next competition will be in Dubai at the end of the year.

World record holders

Some of the world records that the two girls hold include, most number of 2-way reverse eagles at 26 reverse eagles. Poh also currently holds the world record for the most number of backward somersaults at 68 somersaults.

Despite their strong performances in the sport, they have not decided if they will consider indoor skydiving as a career path.

“For us we love flying but to take this as a career, we actually would not be able to fly so much (because we will be coaches),” said Poh.

Kyra Poh and Choo Yi Xuan have been flying together for five years and currently coaches local indoor skydivers on Tuesdays at iFly Singapore.

The girls, however, still harbour hopes of further competing in indoor skydiving in the future.

“Maybe if we are good enough, we will continue to compete and coach other people,” Poh added.

“And one day be like the international coaches that train us and be able to travel around and teach other people that would be the best.”