Documentary shows indoor skydiving champs Kyra Poh & Choo Yi Xuan spinning in the skies

The sky's the limit as they embark on learning outdoor skydiving.

Matthias Ang | September 20, 2018, 05:05 PM

Kyra Poh and Choo Yi Xuan have definitely carved a name for themselves in the arena of indoor skydiving.

What's more, earlier this year in June, Poh and Choo headed to Norway to attain their Accelerated Free-Fall (AFF) and A licences for outdoor skydiving.

And despite Poh subsequently fracturing a rib while jumping for the A license, it has not dampened the girls' enthusiasm.

At least if a 14-minute long mini-documentary Team Firefly Singapore uploaded to their Facebook page on Sept. 18 is anything to go by:

Complete with an amazing soundtrack and gorgeous scenic shots of Norway, the video delves into the skydiving duo's interesting backstory, why they wanted to learn outdoor skydiving and their experiences in doing so.

Here are moments of both of them in the sky:

Gif from Team Firefly Singapore Facebook video

Gif from Team Firefly Singapore Facebook video

Absolutely amazing.

And here are the juicier bits of the video to watch out for:

1) How they met and started skydiving indoors

Both Poh and Choo state at the one-and-a-half minute mark that they met in a swimming club, which set up the fortuitous moment in 2011 where they would enter the world of indoor skydiving.

According to Choo, there was a day where her father "was late to pick [her] up."

She adds that:

"At that time, Kyra's mum was helping iFly Singapore to advertise and Kyra had to be there for filming. So I decided to go with them."

The filming turned out to involve indoor skydiving and was the first time both girls had done it.

It turned out to be "really, really fun," according to Poh.

To top it off, the CEO of iFly Singapore, Lawrence Koh, asked them if they would like to perform for the opening ceremony of iFly Singapore.

Poh sums up with a smile, "And that's how we started."

2) Why they ended up doing outdoor skydiving

For Poh, it is the sheer adrenaline rush that outdoor skydiving brings with the view of the world beneath her.

As she details at the opening of the video:

"I think since I started indoor skydiving, I always wanted to skydive [outdoors]. I always like the feeling of exhilaration and all those, like, when you go up a roller coaster and everything, and you feel like, really...I don't know what that's feeling.

I thought the fact of jumping out of a plane and you can see the whole world below you, that's a really, really cool idea."

With regards to Choo, as she states near the four-minute mark, it's somewhat due to Poh's influence:

"The reason why I skydive is really because of Kyra. I wouldn't have thought of skydiving but because she really wanted it, she wanted to skydive at the age of 16, which is the legal age to skydive -- she convinced me, "Ya, you must do it, it's really, really fun!"

And it would seem that it's an influence that has helped her conquer her fear of outdoor skydiving. As Choo later admits at the seven-minute-and-twenty-second mark, she was initially:

"...really, really scared of [outdoor] skydiving because, at the start, I wouldn't think of jumping out of a plane. I'm really, really scared. But the thing is, we are able to see the beautiful sceneries around...it's really, really beautiful, and I wouldn't trade anything for it."

Talk about an incredible friendship indeed.

3) The challenges of learning outdoor skydiving

For all of their experience in indoor skydiving, outdoor skydiving is still a vastly different ball game.

Poh is cognisant "that outdoor skydiving is a lot more dangerous than indoor skydiving" and that "there's a risk we have to take every time we jump".

Choo also points out that canopy flying (i.e. flying with your parachute open) is the most important aspect of outdoor skydiving as "you might end up in the trees".

She also admits that the hardest part of outdoor skydiving for her now is to "fly the canopy properly and to land safely".

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Additionally, the instructor for their AFF license, Jarle Hus, acknowledges that "it's a little bit challenging" when you have someone who is "really, really good at flying in the indoor tunnel" to teach them the basics of outdoor skydiving.

But they seem to be doing well enough.

Gif from Team Firefly Singapore Facebook video

Gif from Team Firefly Singapore Facebook video

Poh and Choo have performed 13 to 14 jumps within three days.

More about Poh and Choo:

Top image collage from Team Firefly Singapore Facebook