Anyone who is familiar with the art of sky surfing will understand the perils of the helicopter, its a spin that can sometimes be a little tricky to escape from, failure to do so leaves one unable to deploy the canopy safely, let alone the velocity you are travelling at.
What we needed was a method of removing the board from my feet should this situation occur.
It was a shame to cannibalise what up until now had been a perfectly good Brabantia Luberon Blue Deluxe ironing board, let alone void the 10 year warranty.
Still the challenge was on to surf this baby.
Pilots do they ever stop whinging, ok so I distorted the fuselage slightly boarding the craft with my new board.
He said he had never seen a board so big, told him he should iron more often.
What a rush didn't feel like I was falling at all, the sensation was like, literally surfing across the sky.
Surfing alright, what I did not realise I was travelling relative to land at 126mph, talk about "dashing away with a smoothing iron". 14 miles from the DZ, canopy is deployed, what a lovely sight .
Could I B*ll*cks shake the damn board loose.
On top of that the bloody legs of the board had come down.
As the words "Nottingham 2001 Flood Defence Project" where passing my eyes, it suddenly dawned on me that I had landed on the Aiger (Trent Bore).
3 miles of this beast through Nottingham centre and I make the bank, as I drag myself from the river complete with gear, I hear the words, " good on you fella, the daft little b*st*rds, they throw all manner of things in the river these days".
Who would have believed
my first sky surf, would end up with results similar to ironing on the Titanic.