Most Adventurous Indians Part1

2.19.2012



1)Army Hang Gliders Claims World Record


Anki on the move congrats Colonel Saneev Jarial and their team on their non stop 700 km Hand Gliding Expedition.

Flagged Off at:

16th Feb: Sri Ganganagar

Flagged in at:

18th Feb: Eklingarh Army Camp,Udaipur

Sport: Hang Gliding

Distance Covered: 700 km,3 days.

World Record: Naik Subedar Paramjit Singh glided 380 km nonstop for 7 hours from Bikaner to Sanderao in Pali.

Travel Route: Ganganagar to Bikaner -> Bikaner to Jodhpur -> Jodhpur to Udaipur.

Led by Col Sanjeev Jarial, the team consisting of Maj Raman Mishra, Nb Sub Paramjit Singh, Hav Mangal Debbarma, Nk Gurmeet Singh, Nk AK Singh, Nk Ravinder, L/Nk A Selvam, L/Nk Sanjeev Kumar and Gnr P K Pradhan flew their Hang Gliders with special Harness that have 120 CC, 15 HP Motor and a carbon- graphite propeller attached to it.



2)Women Base Jumper from India Sets World Record


Anki on the Move congrats Archana Sardana for setting a record to be the country's first civilian woman BASE jumper.




FACTS ABOUT ARCHANA SARDANA


INDIA’S FIRST WOMAN MOUNTAINEER-SKYDIVER-B.A.S.E. JUMPER

Adventurer of the YearAward by ATOAI in 2010


Archana Sardana First Indian Woman to "Unfurl" Tricolor Under the Sea

Sardana had completed 225 skydiving attempts successfully from an average height of 13,000 feet above the earth's surface.

The BASE jump, her first at a school in Salt Lake City in Utah, USA from a bridge a few hundred feet high shouldn't have scared her at all. Yet the 38-year-old skydiver knew better than anyone else how difficult BASE jumping can be.

BASE stands for Buildings, Antennas, Spans and Earth and jumpers use these points to jump off.


HOW DID IT START?

1)Sardana's interest in skydiving began a few years ago when she met up with a few of her husband Commander Rajiv Sardana's skydiver friends.

2)Rajiv is a submariner with the Indian Navy and an adventure sports enthusiast.

3)Sooner rather than later, Archana Sardana who had by now been introduced to mountaineering and river rafting among other extreme sports found her calling.

BUT EVERYTHING COMES WITH A PRICE

1)The training, followed by the many skydiving and BASE jumping trips she undertook, is said to have cost her over Rs 15 lakh.

2)And since the time she started, Sardana has mortgaged her apartment in Panchkula, her wedding jewellery and her car to help finance her passion.

WAS SHE BORN LIKE THAT...

1)Archana Sardana wasn't always like this.

2)In another lifetime, she grew up in a conservative family in Jammu and Kashmir.

3)As the youngest of four children -- she has two brothers and a sister -- Sardana led a very protected life where adventure sports had no place. In fact the one time she did go trekking, she hated it.

4)She went to a convent school in Srinagar and completed her BSc followed by a diploma in Interior Designing and Computers.

5)Then like most other girls by the time she was 24, she was married off to Rajiv, who was then posted in Visakhapatnam.

6)After marriage, life took a turn in a way she never expected. The adventure sport-loving navy officer egged her on to join him for a trek in Uttaranchal. Since the day almost 18 years ago, Archana Sardana hasn't looked back.

8)Eventually she even completed courses from Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling and Nehru Institute of Mountaineering in Uttarkashi.

THE TRAINING

1)"India doesn't offer any skydiving courses for civilians. To train and get a licence, you have to go abroad. I did a course in Accelerated Free-fall Training at the Perris Valley Skydiving School in California. The course comprises eight levels and it lasts as long as it takes for you to clear those levels. It took me about a month (the average time it takes to pass the course)-she says.

2)My first jump was on October 18, 2007. It was a trial jump with the two instructors holding me on either side," she recollects.

3)When I ask her to describe her first free fall, Archana Sardana confesses that her mind wasn't entirely on the jump.

"I had arrived the previous evening to Salt Lake City and was under the impression that I would have a room to myself."

4)Much to Sardana's horror though, she was sharing a dormitory with the rest of the coursemates, most of them young men.

5)"I wasn't very comfortable (with the idea). All the while that I was in the plane and even the time when I jumped I kept dreading the idea of going back to the dormitory!"

6)Soon after she landed on her feet about five to six minutes after she jumped, Sardana walked up to the course co-ordinator and requested if she could get a separate accommodation. Eventually she did but for all her life, Archana Sardana probably has to live with the fact that during that one life-changing moment somewhere between the earth and the sky the only thing she was thinking was what she would do when she landed.

7)A month later and 51 jumps later, she graduated from the skydiving school and returned with a B licence. (More than 25 jumps earns you an A licence, more than 50 earns you a B, more than 200, a C and over 500 gives you a D.) Archana Sardana currently holds a C licence from the United States Parachute Association.

ACCIDENTS DIDNT STOP HER

1)There have been accidents too. The most recent BASE jump saw Sardana getting injured after a fall after her parachute got stuck in a tree.

2)"I landed on my legs so I didn't injure myself much but I couldn't walk for three days."

3)On the fourth day though Sardana was back to doing what she loved best.

 Archana Sardana First Indian Woman to "Unfurl" Tricolor Under the Sea



1)India’s only female base jumper, Archana Sardana, created a moment in history by diving 30 metres underwater at Neil Island in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands unfurling the national tricolour.

2)Her two sons, Pranav and Ayush, are also enthusiastic about the underwater sport as Pranav recently completed his junior open water dive at a depth of 12 metres, and Ayush has dived up to three metres underwater and has completed his bubble maker course.

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