Thrill Seeker: 15 Remarkable Women in Extreme Sports
Maximum Sky mountain was constantly discharging noxious gases and heat But Roberta and her team had lucked out So far the volcano was calm that day The weather conditions were perfect too Roberta stepped outside the helicopter and balanced for a moment on a narrow platform built over the wheel It was time She dropped into the air spreading her arms and legs to engage the wings of her suit With wrists bent she gripped the sides of the arm wings to keep them as rigid as possible The heart of the volcano roiled red and orange below her and tur bulence from the terrific heat gave her extra lift She was flying Roberta Mancino has received worldwide recognition as a model skydiver wingsuit flyer and BASE jumper BASE jump ing is taking off from a stationary object on earth rather than jumping from an airplane or helicopter Born on August 3 1980 Roberta grew up in Anzio Italy about 30 miles 48 km south of Rome along the coast She had an active childhood starting with dance classes at the age of four Her training in clas sical ballet and Latin American salsa helped her later when she participated in freestyle skydiving a subgenre of the sport that involves acrobatic maneuvers during free fall When she was 15 Roberta had her first boyfriend a boxer who introduced her to his gym There she tried boxing and kickboxing for the first time It was just what her energetic body craved Practicing for hours every day she earned a black belt in mixed martial arts 4
Roberta Mancino Roberta was swimming one day when a scout approached her and asked if she wanted to try modeling She said yes and participated in her first modeling gig at the age of 16 It was fun but it wasn’t enough Roberta continued to try different adventure sports such as scuba diving and paragliding At her modeling sessions the director would frown over the inevita ble bumps and bruises on Roberta’s body As the team covered the marks with makeup he admonished her No sports for two weeks before the next shoot But Roberta yearned for action and she wanted to experi ence all life had to offer the faster the better She set her sights on skydiving when two friends showed her some online vid eos They teased Roberta You’re too little You’re too young You had to be 18 to try it And Roberta’s mother had a message for the boys You’re not taking her skydiving But of course the moment she turned 18 Roberta signed up to go skydiving Her first jump was in Italy just outside Rome When she showed up there were only men in the course mostly from the military The system they were using was called a static line She would jump solo but there was a line connected to the airplane that would automatically pull open her parachute as it grew taut Of course I was scared Roberta recalled But I had waited so long I didn’t have the attitude that I was going to do this just once I knew I wanted to be a skydiver Roberta jumped From that moment she confirmed what she’d suspected all along She had found her passion Flying 5
Maximum Sky was a feeling like no other The adrenaline rush the speed and the challenge to her body were all things Roberta loved and couldn’t get enough of I feel free in the air she said I love the feeling with my body flying in the air Once she had completed 6,000 skydive jumps Roberta decided to try wingsuit flying At first she jumped from an air plane and found that the experience was not that much differ ent from skydiving Soon after she took things a step further and tried BASE jumping BASE Jumping Through the Ages People have been jumping from fixed structures for cen turies Inspired by Leonardo da Vinci’s parachute sketch many inventors modified his design and even tried it themselves often ending in catastrophe In 1783 Lou is-Sebastien Lenormand successfully jumped from the tower of the Montpellier Observatory in France using a homemade parachute Others followed designing their own parachutes and finding new places to jump from For example while modern parachutes weigh about 20 to 25 pounds 9 11 kg in 1912 Frederick Law jumped from the Statue of Liberty wearing a 100-pound parachute and lived The birth of contemporary BASE jumping began with Carl Boenish in 1978 He coined the term that describes the four possible jumping-off points buildings antennas spans 6
Roberta Mancino bridges or earth features such as cliffs The technique for leaping off one of these structures and landing safely requires a lot of expertise Since the jumper has less time to deploy a chute than if she were in an airplane timing is critical Another danger is the proximity to where you start and the possibility of hitting something on the way down For these and other reasons BASE jumping is ille gal in most cities Roberta didn’t try BASE jumping until she had completed 200 wingsuit jumps from an airplane She needed to be satisfied that she could successfully manage anything that went wrong It was one thing to jump from a plane wait for the requisite alti tude and then pull a chute It was another thing to start from a cliff jumping far enough away to clear any protruding rock and then fly horizontally maintaining control at a terrific speed until it was time to deploy the parachute close to the ground The first time she tried it Roberta was scared She knew she could die but she wanted to try flying more than she feared the risk After all it was a chance to experience flight like a bird In free fall from a plane it wasn’t obvious how fast you were going When flying along the edge of a cliff in a wingsuit you could track the scenery beside you as well as below you This bird’s-eye view provided much more awareness of speed and distance She had been dreaming of flying really flying since she was a kid Now was her chance Roberta adjusted her gear one last time She was perched on a cliff at Brento a favorite BASE location in Italy As she 7
