Jump Your Ring Out

Online Reprint

By Hamish Wilson, NZ Aerosports

No one knows who the hell Paul Martyn was because everyone called him Jyro. JYRO means, of course, Jump Your Ring Out: something he not only did but also encouraged everyone else to do as well! If you’ve been living under a rock—or perhaps a roundy—Jyro made himself a parachute, then some for his mates, then started selling them to others. This business became NZ Aerosports and Jyro, perhaps more than any single person, pushed the boundaries of what was possible with high-performance canopies. He was not only our fearless leader but a personal friend to all of us who work at NZA.

OK then! First things first, we needed a load-organizer lineup and a good one! Well luckily for us, turns out saying, “We’re holding a boogie for Jyro, will you come?” is actually a really good way to do it! Rockstar lineup sorted, the nitty gritty was planned out, which of course always goes super smoothly …

The boogie arrives and everyone is absolutely humming. So many old friends and plenty of new faces to bring into our NZA family. Jyro was there in spirit and of course was trying to just get everyone drunk, so had arranged for the wind to be above 20 knots for the first three days. Cheeky bastard. The level of coaching available and the raw hunger in everyone kept loads turning rather easily though and everyone was progressing nicely and having a lot of fun. Groups got tighter and larger and there was a lot of FUCK YEAH going around the landing and packing area! It’s very rare to see this caliber of jumping happening in New Zealand, which just increased the stoke levels even further. Fuck Yeah!

Surprisingly, most people behaved themselves throughout the boogie in the hopes of more jumping, which made the energy on Day Four absolutely electric. People were hungry for the jumps available but everyone knew what was coming next and the froth levels rose and rose until those magic words: “That was the last load of JYRO boogie 2018!!!” A switch flicked. Angels sung. Eyebrows were waggled suggestively, and Hawaiian shirts were donned. Let’s fucking party.

Everyone converged at the venue and it was ON like donkey kong. I can’t tell you much about the party except that it was large, the last-day tape was shown to much yellin’ and hollerin’ and we retired at some point to the NZ Aerosports HQ to continue on until the sun came up. We did Jyro proud, no doubt.

Jyro was always saying, “here’s fun to be had,” and we really did our best at having it all over four days! It’s events like this one that make me truly grateful to be part of this wild and wacky family of ours. We are SO fucking lucky! ‘Til next time!

About the author: Hamish Wilson started skydiving in 2013 as a freshfaced 20-year-old university student and never looked back. He’s constantly looking for ways to jump more and generally have as much fun as possible, which led him to start working for NZ Aerosports in 2016.

From the people who were there

A legendary boogie for a legendary man, what a special boogie this was, everyone just happy to be there and everyone going above and beyond to make sure they made the boogie the best it could, everyone getting to know each other and plenty of Heinekens been passed around so everyone could have a beer with each other, I cant wait for the next one because it’s hard to find a boogie with an old school party boogie vibe but also with all the brand new and up to date coaching and flying skills, JYRO BOOGIE THERE WAS FUN TO BE HAD.

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—Peter Irish Sutton

A little average weather definitely didn’t dampen the spirits for Jyro Boogie 2018. The huge turnout of awesome people almost made jumping unnecessary, with so many folks around to shoot the breeze with. When the clouds parted though, the loads turned super fast, with 2 turbines and mad skills of the Skydive Auckland Manifest staff getting the job done. Awesome day tapes from Gus laced with hilarious skits from the one and only MC Irish, had people gagging for more. Perfect weather on the final day made sure everyone had their jump needs satisfied by the time party night rolled around. And oh boy did it roll! I’m pretty sure we did Jyro proud!!! Thanks heaps to everyone at Icarus, and Skydive Auckland for putting on such an unforgettable event.

—Michael “Woody” Smart

What a boogie!

Jyro was definitely there with us in spirit – perfect drinking weather, but the taste for potential better conditions kept jumpers from the bar until some awesome sunset loads were made! It was a great mix of jumping, meeting new friends, catching up with family, entertaining information sharing and of course… nudity! CRW was never on the itinerary but an impressive ‘canopy dock’ behind the fence on landing was nearly pulled off!Big thanks to NZ Aerosports for everything you do for the sport and Thanks to Skydive Auckland for hosting an epic event… can’t wait til next year!

—Jules McConnel

J.Y.R.O.s boogie…it was definitely worthwhile to travel to the other side of the world for this one ;) !I am not a “boogie” person but if I was gonna attend a boogie this year this was the one for sure. No better way to honour a legend and I think we made him proud. Over 150 skydivers sharing the skies of beautiful New Zealand, learning from the best in the world (#icarusathletes) and, of course, having a lot of fun. Even though the weather was a bit challenging, there was an incredibly good vibe and we made the best out of every moment. I personally did a lot of diverse jumps, from XRW to 4 way belly with the current World Champion ;), so I definetly recommend it. Make sure you attend the next one! “There’s fun to be had!”

—Cornelia Mihai

Last week in Auckland, New Zealand, we celebrated Jyro at a Remembrance Boogie. This was the first time many had returned to NZ to skydiving without the great man being there. His corrupting influence was definitely missed, although some of us drew on his infamous presence and still managed to go missing??? Even with extremely windy conditions and some heavy cloud cover, the sun still shone above 5000ft and so we continued to jump, improve, challenge ourselves and even managed to get safely to the drop zone. A big thanks to Lucy, Attila, Richard, Julien and all the Icarus family for supporting me over the last 12 years. Without them, myself and some of the world’s champion coaches wouldn’t have been able to attend an amazing event like this and to see so many of you progress. To Fiona, Tony and all the crew at Skydive Auckland, thank you for hosting such an memorable event, and congratulations on all the work you do with the Skydiving School. You would be hard pressed not to find one of their students at your drop zone. Jyro’s presence will always be missed at these events, but it’s comforting to know his legacy is in skilled hands.

—Hayden Galvin

I was very happy to get invited to come over to New Zealand and load organize at the Jyro boogie where we paid tribute to the legend “Jyro” by having the utmost fun!

It all started off at the dropzone where jumpers and load organisers came together for their dropzone and event briefing. Even though the weather wasn’t really playing along, the atmosphere at the dropzone was nothing but positive. Everybody was super enthusiastic and the organisation was ready to go whenever the weather was good enough for us to jump. Sure enough we made it happen and the first jumps of the boogie were a go.

For the FS part of the boogie, we had a lot of motivated people. We started off with small groups to get to know each other and determine the level and potential groups we can make. Everyone was very eager to progress and learn from the coaches but more importantly, following Jyro’s footsteps, the fun was there to be had!
As the weekend came closer, more people showed up and the dropzone had their hands full to get everyone in the air. Because of the weather being on the very limit sometimes, it was not always easy to get it sorted. People not having the experience for the conditions, getting on and off loads,… But I have to take my hat off to the manifest because they did a fantastic job at it all.

More people means bigger formations. Most of the jumps we did were 8-way jumps. But I really wanted to try a bigger one, just to pull it off. Again the weather conditions didn’t always play along but we managed to go up for a 12-way between the clouds. We all exited solo, the base was built fairly quick but there was a massive gap between the first and last divers out the plane. The challenge was on to make this formation happen. As the first divers came in and picked up grips, the formation was flying nicely and everyone was being very patient. One of the last divers came in with a little bit less patience and slammed on the brakes a touch too late. There he was going low on the formation, but did very well to get back up and join the formation. Some good flying going on there. And BOOM the formation was built just in time for the camera guy to have nice shot at it before break off. I was happy and the people were happy.

I have to say that I really enjoyed myself during this boogie. The people were incredibly friendly, I had an awesome team of organizers and staff around me, the day tapes were really really cool. Jyro’s spirit definitely came alive during these days! Big shout out to NZ Aerosports and Skydive Auckland for making it all happen. Bring on the next edition!

—Dennis Praet

Unfortunately I never had the privilege to meet the legend but It was an honor to be part of the Jyro-boogie and see on ground level what he created. I also learned that it is not true about what they say concerning Kiwis inability to fly. They sure can, they just need lots of strong winds to do it. I was most impressed by Chris Stewart. He has always been someone I look up to. But now when he has lost weight and looks super fit and just can’t help myself from getting homo feelings when I’m around him. It is not only his looks, skills, and manliness. Byt that sexy raspy voice just makes me hard.

—Kim Törnwall

I’m writing this because Chris Stewart will not leave me alone. He’s been emailing and Facebooking and just won’t stop bugging me. It’s really starting to border on harassment. Seriously, someone needs to do something about that guy…

Jyro boogie 2018 was rad! I’d never been to New Zealand before so, for me, Skydive Auckland and NZA had some big shoes to fill because I had seen the Lord of the Rings movies and they were fucking good. I wasn’t disappointed. The dropzone was running a fast PAC, a faster caravan AND a wide body 182. Manifest was manning a tight but effective ship turning tickets into freefall and the place was filled with happy, skydive hungry people.

All those pieces in place the weather was the determining factor in the stoke level and it was shit. Days one through three had low clouds and gale force winds fucking up the flow but they still managed to send plenty of loads to fill up the day tapes and earn beer fines every night. My groups angled it up for the first three days then slowly morphed into “vert and dessert” (as I’m told is the lingo south of the equator) for day four with an unofficial New Zealand head down record being set in the process……that we shuffled…. and tracked off head up… no big deal. Haha!

NZA was also pretty fucking rad. There’s a special place in my heart for any business that has a beer fridge in the office ALL the time. These guys are a different breed and I’m happy I got to be around for this to honor Jyro, I think it’s safe to say he lives on in that place for sure. Not only did they let me demo a brand new SLeia for the week (which is awesome by the way and you should definitely buy one) but they were cool with me not only taking it to the pond on my three failed jet ski landing attempts but also ripping a hole the size a nickel in the tail by being careless with a wet RDS. I was literally able to hang up their soaking wet, damaged, three thousand plus dollar parachute in the factory Sunday night and then leave with a hug. Amazing! Good luck doing that with any other manufacturer!

Jyro boogie was fucking fun and I really hope it happens again. Big thanks to Skydive Auckland NZ Aerosports for a killer time.

—Noah Bahnson

Jyro boogie . High winds , low clouds but don’t let that stop you ! plenty of fun and cool fun jumps to be had . Catch up with old friends , meet new ones , eat meat from a hole in the ground , drink beer and debate the pro’s and con’s of RSL’s and Anal sex .
Great boogie.
Cheers Bra !!!

—Sas