Next up in our Sound Off chats with friends, fans and customers of Flare Audio we talk to professional skydiver Dominic Roithmair, who is a member of the Red Bull Skydive Team. He was born in Innsbruck, Austria, in 1990 and by 2004 he was throwing himself out of aeroplanes.
FA: How did you become a skydiver?
DR: I was kind of born into it. I’m a second generation skydiver. My mum and dad both did it, although they both stopped when I was born. Even though they weren’t directly involved when I was young, I still got attracted by their interest in it. I started going to the airfield aged 11 and I did my first jump when I was 14. After school, it was a choice between studying and trying to become a professional skydiver. I tried studying geology for a bit, but the blue sky kept calling me when I was sitting in the lecture room!
What does a typical day involve for you?
A typical day is to train at the airfield. We’re based at a small airfield in the Austrian mountains, so we go up and down eight or nine times a day to do practice jumps. On the ground, we try to keep fit and make plans for jumps. We make formations, visualise what we’re going to do, talk through it and walk through it. But you have to stay pretty flexible because things can change very quickly during a jump, and that’s okay. Then at weekends we fly from one event to another to perform either as the main act or a support act.
What’s the most exciting jump you’ve ever done?
There’s been a couple. I’ve done 5,000 jumps to date, but there are a couple of highlights. One was over an active volcano in Indonesia in 2015, which was amazing.
The other was last year when we did Mega Swing, which was like a playground swing but from two hot air balloons.
On the other hand, all skydives are fulfilling and sometimes an easygoing training session might not have the most adrenaline but is the most fun and will stay in my mind for different reasons.
How did you hear about Flare Audio?
It’s a funny story actually. I saw the name and, in skydiving, the deceleration just before landing, like a bird when it breaks and lands softly, is called the flare. I thought it was a cool name and logo, so I clicked through and found out it was high-end audio equipment, which was great because I’m always looking for something to isolate my ears from the noise that surrounds me at work and looking for the perfect sound equipment for the music that I listen to when I’m going about my business.
You can find Dominic on Instagram: dominicroithmair.
