Let’s Talk About… France

Touring boogies involves carefully massaging all the moving parts. There should be a thoughtful balance between well-established events and growing interests, arranged in a way that means you don’t spend all Summer driving millions of miles and risk burning out halfway through. Setting it all up is a fluid process that begins as soon as dates are available to be thrown at a calendar, and remains in flux even throughout the tour itself. Decisions are a shared effort between manufacturers and their deployed representatives, plus often cross-coordination between brands. The lion’s share of the logistics are completed by those sent out into the world, because their job is to go places and know stuff, but guidance comes from within as companies look at the big picture to focus attention and effort.

The assignment was as such: Do more France. 

Frenchness is guarded from on high. Language is protected, media is mandated to contain resistance to cultural imperialism from outside, and if you mess with their way of life the locals will let you know by rioting and setting your car on fire. Sport doesn’t escape from how the French carry their national identity, which has fostered the idea that the globetrotting community of skydiving is better served visiting other places to get their jump on because the French will be very French at you, and we are spoiled and like things to be easy.

If there is a reason that you don’t see quite as many Frenchies out in the world as the folk of some other nations, it is that they are good at skydiving and have a bunch of nice places to go do it. For all eras of the modern sport, they have been showing up to win medals and invent stuff, before going home to practice for next time.

So we went to a few things and here is what we found:

The Language Barrier Barrier

It is said that if you go skydiving in France (or do anything there really) the locals will only speak French at you and be angry and rude if you cannot do it. This is not true. English is used almost universally as the intermediary language in much of the skydiving world, but circumstance dictates that if you are both in France and surrounded by French people then liberal use of English is going to be much less of a thing. What visiting skydivers have going for them is a strong cultural context within which to function and make friends. Even if you share zero connective linguistic tissue with someone, and you are both wearing parachutes, it is much easier and more fun than you think to plan a jump and do it successfully. It is easier to bumble through a conversation with just a few available words in each other’s language than it is to communicate properly with someone at home that you share nothing in common with.

Embrace The Lunch Break Or Else

The French are not messing around when it comes to lunch. You will stop and sit. There will be no rush and you will like it, and the pilot will be there too so stop complaining. Those long Summer days can test your energy levels, and while going hard has been part of your plans since getting into skydiving, a decent break in the hot, bumpy, windy part of the day can serve your intentions well. Replenishing the collective energy of everyone at an event means a better, easier time later on when the light is nice, the air is friendly and the jumps are getting fast and tight. Even if this is not an enforced national policy, give it a try and see how you feel, instead of trying to push through and then landing on your face on the beach because you were tired and compromised for the evening innhopp.

Le Politics

It always helps to have a local on board and the new Jyro guy is French. Nick (Gallo) provided us with some cultural context on why there isn’t a long-running annual boogie somewhere in-country. Running a skydiving operation is high-pressure and low-margin, so internal politics on the dropzone often gets heavy fast. When you combine this with the national position on not having people mess with your shit, it can get tricky. The short version is that a dropzone will set something up for a couple of seasons until it gets complicated and they choose to bin in – opening up the opportunity for whoever is next. This keeps things fresh and the enthusiasm high, but makes it difficult for visitors from the outside to pin down when it is time to make plans.

For the record, these are merely the observations of an Englishman. We went to some events in France and had a great time – anticipating at least some of the above but receiving an incredibly positive and warm welcome.