Tom Ruttle Interview

Ok, so its a bit late, but its never too late for an interview with Hibaldstow regular and superstar jumper, Tom Ruttle who is a founding team member of Rookie class team, Shake Ruttle 'n' Roll:

1. Hello Tom, so how many competitions has Shake, Ruttle & Roll attended so far?
Disregarding an informal Scrambles event that happened to coincide with one of our training weekends, the Hib UKSL Grand Prix has been the first and only competition for our team. Ant (Hill), our team captain has competed before with other teams, but for the rest of us this is our first real taste of competitive skydiving! Considering this and the fact that we’ve done less than 15 jumps together, and I think we’ve held it together well!

2. How is the team matching up to expectations and are enjoying the competition experience?
We managed to get through the first five of the competition rounds today, though with long gaps spent prepping in the oppressive heat it’s been absolutely exhausting (tunnel last night didn’t help), but spirits have remained high and we’ve brought out some of the best skydiving any of us have ever done.
There has been a substantial amount of hype surrounding the team in the last couple of months, though almost all of it has come from you, Simon. Have we met your high expectations? Otherwise, we have a friendly (but absolutely not frivolous) rivalry with fellow rookies Incognito (hereafter referred to as ‘Rival Team’) which has kept us focussed, and our coach has been a tremendous motivator, not least because of his constant threats of serious bodily harm as punishment for making the dreaded “mistakes” (as opposed to errors...)

3. Who is your coach?
Shared between ourselves, Rival Team, Blamin’ Sambuca, Herding Cats, and probably many other teams in other classes, Simon Cathrine (of course!) has worked so hard making sure that we’re all putting as much into our skydiving (and tunnel time) as we can and getting as much out of it as physically possible. I think I speak for everyone who’s been on the receiving end of his coaching this year that without his influence, the overall quality of the skydiving on show today from these teams would be far lower. Our thanks go out to him for everything he’s done for us.

4. If you had to imagine attending this competition without any of the tunnel time that you have all been doing, how do you think you would have performed?
A difficult question to answer. I think we’ve done somewhere in the region of two hours tunnel in total, and it’s undeniably useful to see how points build in such a confined space. For me though, at least for the time being, I still consider the two disciplines distinct. Like any skill, getting better at tunnel flying is rewarding in itself, and I’m sure that as our skydiving becomes more disciplined, the benefits will become more and more apparent. For me though, a jump starts an hour before the plane takes off and finishes with taking off the rig in the packing shed. The mental environment of a jump cannot be understated, and the amount learned over a training weekend especially in the early days of a team is huge. That said, the wind tunnel is an excellent tool and is amazing fun!

Ed - Many thanks Tom and good luck with your final round tommorrow.