EJ Carr
Wind rushes past Sydney Kennett as she spins and twists in the air. The 15-year-old is a competitive skydiver, but she’s never jumped out of a plane. Instead, she takes flight indoors with the help of a specialized tunnel designed to mimic skydiving—no parachute required.
Sydney, who lives in Colorado, is one of the world’s top athletes in the fast-growing sport of indoor skydiving, also known as bodyflight. Competitors perform stunts inside a wind tunnel, a big tube with fans that create powerful jets of air. Sydney first flew in a wind tunnel at age 4. Her dad, Andrew—an outdoor skydiver—wanted to share his love of flying. Although her memory of that first experience is a little hazy, her next one, at age 8, was unforgettable. “I had the time of my life,” she says.
Wind rushes past Sydney Kennett as she spins and twists in the air. The 15-year-old is a competitive skydiver—but she’s never jumped out of a plane. Instead, she does all of her aerial stunts indoors. She uses a specialized tunnel designed to mimic skydiving—no parachute required.
Sydney lives in Colorado. She’s one of the world’s top athletes in indoor skydiving, also known as bodyflight. This unique sport is becoming increasingly popular. Competitors perform stunts inside a wind tunnel—a big tube with powerful fans that blow air upwards to keep athletes aloft.
Sydney first flew in a wind tunnel at age 4. Her dad, Andrew—an outdoor skydiver—wanted to share his love of flying. Sydney doesn’t remember that first experience very well. But her next one, at age 8, was unforgettable: “I had the time of my life,” she says. Soon after, Sydney joined an after-school indoor skydiving program. She started participating in competitions not long after that.