Brian Cumming at Skydive Hibaldstow in 2020

It’s fair to say that Brian Cumming has been visiting Hibaldstow for over 15 years. Since then he’s become a much respected full-time skydiver, coach, load organiser and enthusiastic representative of the discipline of FS. In 2020, we are pleased to announce that we have Brian for three events:

• 18-19th April – Bigway Carnival II
• 31st July-2nd August – 14 & 28-ways Bigway Carnival IV
• 24-25th October – Load Organising

Brian has an unusual philosophy when it comes to bigway event organising which we were intrigued by. Here’s a little bit more as he see’s it:

“After a decade of 4-way FS and two World Cups, I took a step back from 4-way. Major organ surgery with multiple complications meant a 12-week hospital stay, a 19kg weight loss and 6 months off work and 9 months off skydiving.

During my break I reflected on my skydiving and I came to realise that because 4-way is competitive, you are constantly striving to make each move as efficient as possible, to make the move as small as possible. In fact, the best teams do the smallest moves. This means that the whole point of competitive 4way is to go up 2 miles into the sky and jump out and… use the smallest amount of sky possible. Realising that made me want to pursue other disciplines within skydiving.

But I always came back to FS. It’s the most social.”

Tell us a bit more about your Dynamic 6-way Concept

“Just before my surgery, I’d seen Pete Allum doing a 6way tunnel flight without grips and it just looked like so much fun. Just 2 mins of flying.

A few weeks later, we were due to take part in a 6-way competition in March. But the weather was poor, so we scooted off to Twinwoods Adventure and flew 30 mins. We just came up with a few routines with no grips, and some block moves with grips. It was ace.

And that was when D6 was born in the tunnel. When I had my surgery, D6 took a temporary break. But when I was fit, I came back and demand has been excellent since then. www.dynamic6.uk.

D6 is for people who dream about being better flyers. Who believe that the only way to progress at FS isn’t 4way, it isn’t dirt-diving on creepers, it isn’t about winning or losing. D6 is for people who want to expand and improve their skillset in a fun and social environment.”

D6 is primarily a tunnel thing, how will it transfer to the sky?

“Every time we tried the moves in the sky, it got really big without the walls to keep us close to each other. Invariably, there would always be one or two people without the D6 experience on the group and they’d be wide-eyed and perhaps not find it as easy as the others to remember the dive flow.

I gave this kind of flying a break for a bit and just focussed on bringing through low-experienced skydivers into bigway. Offering many people their first chance of multi-plane was a thrill and I’ve got a tried and trusted method of getting great results from people. This allows people to learn bigway with a strong foundation of skills and experience.

As this group has grown (over 200 on the mailing list!), they’ve inspired me to create more challenging skydives and some D6 themed skydives snuck back into the sky. People seemed to really enjoy them, so I really want to expand on this idea and I think 2020 is the right time to do this.”

Pic credits: Rob Gray, Craig Poxon, Gary Wainwright and Dan Maden.

Brian’s 4-way Pedigree

• Escondido 2005-2013 – In 2005, the team became the Hibaldstow team of the year. Bronze at UK Nationals ‘Juniors’,  they also won the overall UKSL League.
• 2006 – The single A-class introduced. Escondido lost a jump-off for silver at Nationals. They did however, win the overall UKSL League again.
• 2007 – Moved into the AA-class with an 8.3 average. Finished 6th.
• 2008 – By 2008, the team had upgraded to the  6th in AA with a 12.4 ave and finishing 6th to take a big leap forward.
• 2009 – This was to be Brian’s first trip as part of team GB at the World Cup in Prostejov, Czech.
• 2011 – Participation in the World Cup in Saarlouis, Germany.