FLYING TO INFINITY
AND BEYOND
MEET THE LOCAL 11-YEAR-OLD BOY
WHO BECAME AN INSTANT INDOOR SKYDIVING STAR
BY MICHELLE BLANCHARD ARDILLO
A sk any 11-year-old boy what he wants to be when he
grows up and his ﬁ rst answer will often be, “I don’t
know,” followed by professional athlete, video game
tester or police oﬃ cer. Ask 11-year-old Parker Davis from
Silver Spring what he wants to be when he grows up and the
answer is crystal clear: indoor skydiving trainer.

When not training at iFLY, Parker likes to train on a trampoline
or do slacklining, which is doing tricks on ﬂ at, stretchy
webbing suspended between two anchors such as trees. For
now, his training is done at iFLY facilities in Gaithersburg or
Loudoun, usually once a week with an additional training
session on the weekends.

A relatively new sport, indoor skydiving, also called body
ﬂ ight, is “ﬂ ying” above a “smooth cushion of air” inside an
enclosed, vertical wind tunnel. It’s becoming increasingly
popular, as evidenced by the brand-new iFLY facility, which
opened recently in Gaithersburg.

On a recent weekend, Parker was at iFLY Montgomery
training with Josh Ruiz-Velasco of Seatt le in preparation for
his next two competitions: the Rosemont Rumble in Chicago
in November and the H-Town Throwdown in Houston in
December. Ruiz-Velasco is a two-time world champion in
indoor skydiving and for the last six years has traveled the
world coaching and training. Using hand signals inside the
tunnel because speaking is impossible amidst the fast-moving
wind, Ruiz-Velasco worked with Parker to ﬁ ne-tune his skills
and moves, such as outface carving.

Parker, a rising sixth-grader, only started indoor skydiving
in August 2017, but has quickly become a local sensation
within the iFLY community. “It’s amazing that (Parker) has
already done as well as he has in such a short time. They are
creating their own sport, inventing new moves,” says iFLY
Montgomery’s Elizabeth Sturrock, who works as an instructor
and a “wind driver.” Parker is currently working on an
original move he calls the tornado, which is going around the
tunnel in a circular motion while spinning vertically. One of
his best moves is the inﬁ nity breaker, which is a barrel roll
from stomach to back.

Making his National Indoor Skydiving competition debut
at the 2018 U.S. Indoor Skydiving Artistic & VFS National
Championships held in Virginia Beach in May 2018, Parker
ﬁ nished second with teammate Ben Roane in the Dynamic
2-Way Advanced, and ﬁ rst in the Freestyle Junior Intermediate.

Commentators noted his “textbook ﬂ ip twist” and called
Parker’s inﬁ nity breakers “ridiculous,” saying that “they rival
prett y much anybody, even adults.” His quick progress in the
sport was called “extremely impressive.”
Before being introduced to indoor skydiving by his
grandfather last year, Parker’s favorite sport was motocross
racing, as shown by his Instagram account, which has over
4,600 followers. Outside of indoor skydiving and motocross,
Parker doesn’t participate in any other sports or watch sports
on TV because he ﬁ nds it boring. With his quiet and reserved
demeanor, it’s easy to see that this is a young man who would
rather “do” than “watch” or “talk.”
24 August 2018
Parker.indd 24
“It’s ﬁ ne,” says Parker, a young man of few words, when asked
if he minded being called a “tunnel rat,” the nickname for
indoor skydivers. His father, Steven Davis, ﬁ lls in the blanks
on most of the conversation, including Parker’s favorite food,
Chinese, speciﬁ cally Orange Chicken from Panda Express.

It was somewhat easier to coax out his favorite movies —
recent blockbuster Ready Player One and much older Major
Payne. When asked about the 2016 gold medal winner in the
junior freestyle category, Singaporean Kyra Poh, whose shoe
ﬂ ew oﬀ during her routine, Parker shared that girls are more
ﬂ exible than boys, which is a good thing in this sport. He also
commented that his shoes have elasticized no-tie “Lock Laces”
to prevent them from ﬂ ying oﬀ .

A recent post on Parker’s Instagram account shows a fortune
from Panda Express, “Your talents will earn you the highest
status and prestige.” Given his short time training in the sport
of indoor skydiving, Parker’s talents and fearlessness in the
tunnel will indeed help him soar above his competitors.

Michelle Blanchard Ardillo is a freelance writer and middle school
language arts teacher who prefers to keep both feet on the ground.

Follow her @michardillo on Twitt er or Goodreads, or on her website
at michelleardillo.com.

washingtonFAMILY.com 7/25/18 5:27 PM