Amazing Freefall Suspension Swing

Here’s the latest video — the sixth run — from Sinner Team who have been defining the art of free-fall suspension. In this incredible video they climb up on top of some huge derelict warehouse in Russia that looks like it’s the size of a small city and jump through a skylight to get a just massive swing. I’m always struck by the brilliant and complexity of the rigging in these videos — these guys really know their stuff. If they didn’t, well, they’d be dead. This is not the sort of thing you want to do without massive amounts of experience and expertise keeping you and your team safe. Don’t miss the previous posts on Sinner Team here on ModBlog. They’re all amazing.

Russian Suspension and BodMod Documentary

The full-length body mod documentary below is all in Russian I’m afraid, but I still watched every minute of it and greatly enjoyed seeing so many friends and BME members that I’ve known over the years — Sinner Team for example is broadly featured as are a number of other well-known Ruissian body play icons. I also really liked it because it feels like body modification in America has gotten very “fashion conscious” and gentrified, but most of the people in this video felt very “real” — not all dressed up with lots of makeup and styling for lack of a better way of explaining it. I felt like I could relate to it, and it was just really nice seeing lots of modded people with a real purity about them. Or maybe because I couldn’t understand what was being said I was just projecting what I wanted to see? I can’t say for sure, but I do want to recommend this video. Put on some music if you can’t understand the words.

Free-Fall Knee Suspension

For their 35th free-fall suspension, The Sinner Team changed things up and attempted a difficult six-point free-fall knee suspension, pierced with six hooks, three horizontal placements stacked vertically over each knee (and a back-up safety harness in case of failure of course). There were 10m (32 feet) of free-fall, with the exit point at 25m (82 feet), and Stanislav says he was quite surprised with the amount of stress it put on his leg muscles even though the jump was perfectly staged to minimize this. That said, he was able to walk just fine the next day, although he only weighs 67kg (150 lbs) and warns that if anyone heavier were to attempt this that he feels there is a good chance of injury. Note that the stress on the legs is more because of the jump itself, not the hooks per se, which are of course not passing through muscle tissue!

Amazing, forward thinking, and most of all, responsible work as always. I say it every time, but to me The Sinner Team really does it right, and it makes me so happy to see the way they operate. Following are some screen-caps from the video, and then the video itself on Vimeo. If you haven’t already done so, browse all their videos here. Be sure to note a few things besides just being wowed and writing September 1st, 2012 in your body modification almanac as the first ever free-fall knee suspension — for example, the fact that the hooks didn’t tear at all, the incredibly complex and professional rigging, the many small details to ensure safety, to say nothing of the beautiful documentation they keep. My hat is so far off to these guys that I’m pretty sure it’s colonizing Mars right now.

Three and Four Person Stacked Tandem Suspensions

Stanislav from The Sinner Team, best known for their work with freefall suspensions, just posted a picture of the impressive four-person stacked tandem suspension that they did last summer. It’s especially impressive because it’s done using not just traditionally “sturdy” suspensions, but also suspensions prone to tearing, with the top two suspensions — which bear the most weight — being knee suspensions. This reminded me of over ten years ago when at the third ModCon TSD did a three-person stack. Admittedly it was the biggest we could do in the indoor space we had — The Sinner Team gave themselves more room to play by rigging outdoors from a bridge — but we were still quite impressed with ourselves and to the best of my knowledge it stood for some time as the tallest stack. Here is last summer’s photo from Russia, and the earlier photo from Canada.

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Free Fall Suspension: The Challenge (4th Run)

The pioneers of free fall suspension at Sinner Team in Moscow have just put together an amazing new video (vimeo.com/47674716) documenting nine new free fall suspension jumps. I’ve said it before, but this to me is the most exciting thing to happen in suspension for a long time, and on the scale of “fun” in suspension, blows away spinning beams, while also being incredibly pure and profound. Not only that, but the way they do it is a pinnacle of safety and professionalism. It makes me very proud to be a part of this community when I see things like this. Watch this full-screen!

There’s also a video folder here — vimeo.com/album/2041995 — that contains all four long videos they’ve done, which show lots of different jumps from people of all different ages, weights, genders, and lifestyles doing them without problems. Anyone can do this with the right training and attention to safety.

On that note I want to mention that on the 28th to 30th of September they are planning one more jumping event, and these are all legal jumps from a building near the Moscow centre, which also coincides with a party they’re throwing to celebrate the team’s 4th birthday (how thrilled am I that my birthday coincides with this team and this event!). The third day will be fairly open and will provide information to those planning jumps in the future, making it the final open event of “The Challenge”. After this they are starting to make a full movie which will accurately tell the story of how this all came about. A flight from New York City to Moscow is only about $500 according to a quick check on Expedia, and I’m sure it can be found cheaper with a minimum of searching. What’s stopping you?

If you are interested in learning more, contact facebook.com/TheSinnerTeam.

Latest Free Fall Suspension Trailers

Speaking of the Sinner Team and their amazing free fall suspension work in Russia, a few days ago they posted trailer numbers four and five from this summer’s work. They’re very short clips, but more than worth the watch nonetheless — and of course if you have not yet seen the other recent videos (or their even earlier work), do not miss their Vimeo gallery here: http://vimeo.com/sinnerteam/videos

The first video is of Josh Fike’s 30 meter freefall (watching him fly past is crazy hilarious), which was also the first head-down free fall suspension. There were small tears on all hooks, but the skin held him and his spine is fine too — they put safety measures in place to protect him in case of overflip. Video two is Switzerland’s Don Lucius (who also paraglides, so I assume he’s completely fearless), the first after Stanislav to jump twice in one day. Sinner Team are one of my favorite groups in suspension, pushing forward hard, but doing so with a keen eye for safety.

Sinners in Love

Here’s a charming portrait of Stanislav and his wife in Moscow. You probably know Stanislav best from his work with Sinner Team, the pioneering Russian suspension team who has introduced and pushed forward the idea of free fall suspensions.

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It’s coming

The thaw has hit Russia, which means it’s time for The Sinner Team to go outdoors and do what they do best.  Get ready for a summer filled with incredible free-fall suspensions, and whatever else those crazy kids come up with.

From Stanislav:

NEXT JUMPING DAYS are 22 and 24 JUNE, we are going to jump from the bridge. The exit point: 25 meters. Free fall: 10-15 meters. JUMPS ARE MAKEING OVER WATER this time. Contact us [email protected] to join.

Help out the youngest member of the BME family. Get a limited edition 2012 BME Classic Logo t-shirt. Read all the details here.

Sinners in the sun

When you think of Moscow’s Sinner Team, the first thing to come to mind is probably the free fall suspensions.  If not that then any number of the other incredible suspensions they’ve put together at their space in the city, or out in the cold Russian air.  The last thing you’re going to think of is hanging by a tree over the ocean on an island off the coast of Thailand.

Now this is The Sinner Team, so you know Stanislav had his camera rolling for all of the suspensions.  So here’s the video they took of their time in Thailand.