Get to know Andy, from Belgium, one of the best flyer in the world
Do you have any mentors or other athletes that you admire?
Sure do, I have many people that inspire me. Many of the old Airspeed era. (Dan BC, Kirk Verner, Jack Jefferies, Mark Kirkby, Craig Girard, Eliana Rodrigez, Andy Delk), Majik (Gary Smith, Joey Jones, Solly Williams, Doug Park), France (Martial & Marin Ferre, Julien Losantos) my ex teammate Sven Ibens, and so much more.
From a mental perspective, how has sport impacted your life?
I was very impulsive and energetic when I was young. And trough years in the sport I calmed down a bit because I mastered to channel my energy for the required focus each jump.
What are your favourite disciplines or rounds?
I think I am not different from other flyers, we like it fast. So if a fast sequence comes up, like a full random, or 3 randoms and a block, it gets interesting.
Tell us a bit about your true passion of using sport as a medium for development.
I love skydiving and windtunnel flying, and I love to share my passion for it. I wish our sport can expand so it gets more media recognition that it should. And teams could get easier sponsorships and benefits. Skydiving is thrill, adrenaline, focus, excitement, teamwork and I want everybody to get a taste of it.
What do you do right before a competition to prepare yourself to compete?
Firstly, I calm down my heart and emotions. So I can get a clear picture of the jump through visualization. Then take in as much details of the surroundings to get myself into my zone.
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Flying has a huge mental aspect. How do you keep your motivation and mind sharp to compete?
Time outs. I’ve noticed that when I am contstantly thinking about a jump it wears the brain out. And this is necessary energy that we need when we skydive. So it’s important to find the time to laugh and relax. To find that balance between focus and timeout is important because everybody is different
Having funny teammates can really help with that 😉
Tell us a bit about your upcoming World Championships competition.
Well, so far we have had the ride of a lifetime winning every competition against any oponent that we attend. But competition is fierce and everybody wants to win. We have had big challenges from Weembi last winter and we look forward to go up against them again in Canada. These are the WORLD Championships, which means its the most important competition in our sport, so we will do whatever it takes to go for another win.
Tell us about your team mate/mates
My teammates, the worst!!! Hahaha
Nah. I can only tell that I have the best teammates and wouldn’t change them for any other flyer out there. We are all diferent from each other but we all complete one another. We make silly jokes that nobody thinks is even funny, argue like little girls and are extremely serious when we need to be.
Credit Windoor Empuriabrava (Spain)
