Team Future, the world’s youngest skydiving team, is based in Highlands Ranch, Colorado.  Kayla Tinucci (age 11) and Justin Tinucci (age 9) practice several times a week in the wind tunnel at Skyventure Colorado.  All of Team Future’s practice and competition takes place in wind tunnels. Dropzones in the United States require jumpers to be 18 years old, so Kayla and Justin do not officially jump from airplanes yet.    However, the wind tunnel does duplicate the atmosphere of a “free fall” from an airplane, thus allowing people to perfect skydiving skills without actually having to jump from an airplane. o

Kayla and Justin have been skydiving in the wind tunnel since just after it opened in 2006.  They have had many hours of “tunnel time” together and as individuals.   Kayla and Justin have been able to rapidly develop their skydiving/freefall skills since each minute of tunnel time is equivalent to approximately one jump from an airplane.  They practice VRW, Freefly, and 4 way RW though they would really identify themselves as “freeflyers”.  The advantage of practicing in a wind tunnel is that it is possible to master many “jumps” worth of skill in one ten to twenty minute session, without having to worry about your landing, parachute etc!  Kayla and Justin both have the equivalent skill of someone who has thousands of jumps. o

The kids both fly “head down” and they are perhaps the world’s youngest people ever to accomplish this.   They can also do most of the transitions into head down, including back flips, front flips and cartwheels. o

The goal of Team Future is to help gain recognition for skydiving for young flyers and encourage other kids to try it out!  Team Future hopes to help this sport grow and gain more attention over the coming years.  The kids hope to prove that they can fly just as well as adults, even though they can’t jump from airplanes.  They will be competing in tunnel competitions worldwide in the coming years. o