I convinced Jerry Loftis to train me despite having far fewer jumps by pretending I met his requirements. I adapted to skysurfing almost instantly and quickly learned advanced tricks. I used a kevlar-wrapped, honeycomb-core board built in Loftis's workshop and flew it for twenty years. Inspiration came from a photo of Patrick de Gayardon. Skysurfing involves strapping a rigid, airplane-like snowboard to the feet and using it as a propeller or wing to reach speeds of 200–250 mph. I developed extreme moves like the "Invisible Man" spin and invented a homemade G-suit. I spent years refining hook-turn swoops to skim above ground and sought to integrate skateboarding-style grinding into skysurfing.
When I called Jerry Loftis, the only guy in America teaching skysurfing, he said I needed 500 jumps to train with him. I had maybe eighty. "Of course," I lied. "I've done that." He said I needed to be an accomplished sit flyer. "Oh, I definitely can do that," I lied again, then went to look up what sit flying was.
Skydiving isn't exactly an area where you should pad your resume, but it turned out to be supernaturally intuitive for me. Within hours, I was doing tricks that should have taken months to master. Jerry later found out I lied, forgave me, and we became great friends. When he passed away years later, I used his workshop to build one final board, the same kevlar-wrapped board with a honeycomb core I've been flying for the past twenty years.
This was after seeing a photo of Patrick de Gayardon skysurfing at eighteen and knowing instantly it was what I was meant to do. Skysurfing is the art of strapping a modified snowboard to your feet and using it to fly around the sky. Unlike regular snowboards, these are extremely rigid and light, more like airplane wings. You can use the board as either a propeller or a wing, shooting across the sky at 200 mph or rocketing down at 250 mph.
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