Red Bull proposes skydiving competition in Cloverdale

A skydiving competition featuring wing-suit racers zooming around an aerial course is being proposed in Cloverdale by Red Bull, the energy drink company, which wants to use the small town as a scenic background for an event that will draw athletes from 18 countries.

The skies above Cloverdale would be the venue in October for the second annual Red Bull ACES competition, in which 40 of the best wing-suit jumpers in the world launch from helicopters at an altitude of around 8,000 feet, then race like a super heroes through a series of aerial gates dangled by other choppers.

After staging the video-centric contest last year in the stark Central Valley town of Oakdale, near Modesto, organizers were looking for a more eye-pleasing backdrop. Cloverdale, with nearby Lake Sonoma, the Russian River, mountains, vineyards and the ocean in the distance, fit the bill.

“It’s beautiful - hills and lakes on both sides,” Luke Aikins, Red Bull representative, said of the telegenic surroundings. Plus, “the town seemed to be more than willing to work with us and excited about having us there.”

Mayor Bob Cox said, “I’m excited. I’ve seen kind of a preview film of what they do. It’s going to be really spectacular.”

Red Bull representatives will be at Wednesday’s City Council meeting to answer questions and look for official approval of their event, scheduled for Oct. 22 to 24.

The skydiving competition is geared toward filming and promotions, to be shown on YouTube and other media.

There will be no tickets for spectators, although there will be a public viewing area for those who show up to watch.

As part of staging the contest out of the city-owned Cloverdale Airport, Red Bull proposes to pay the city an event fee of $15,688.

The timing of the request comes at pivotal juncture for the small general aviation airport, which operates in the red and has been subsidized in recent years by the city’s general fund, in amounts ranging from $35,000 to $50,000 annually.

Persistent complaints about noise from airplanes used by the NorCal Skydiving operation there have also brought some negative publicity, along with pressure from a developer insisting the airport be closed if the city wants a $200 million hotel-resort to be built in the vicinity.

The developers of the Alexander Valley Resort say planes from the adjacent Cloverdale Airport would spook the horses at their planned equestrian center, and disturb guests and residents of the high-end resort and homes that are planned.

But developers have yet to formally submit their application and don’t anticipate breaking ground until April if they gain approval for their project from the City Council.

City officials say there is no connection to the airport controversy and Red Bull’s proposal to come to Cloverdale and highlight the town, and by extension, the value of the airport.

Mayor Cox said “I’m sure this outfit - the Red Bull people - had no idea anything was going on between the city and developers and residents complaining about noise.”

Cox, who wants to see the airport stay in business, acknowledged the Red Bull event “is a big boost to the airport itself.”

The participants and support crews in the three-day contest are also expected to fill around 100 Cloverdale hotel rooms and patronize downtown restaurants.

“Anything that comes to Cloverdale and fills up hotel rooms - and those people will be going to available restaurants and establishments - that’s good for Cloverdale and promotes Cloverdale,” said City Manager Paul Cayler.

Aikins said he wanted to go to a small airport where there was an established skydiving operation and where it wouldn’t disrupt airport operations.

He said he was unaware of any controversy over the airport before reaching out to Cloverdale officials, but said it isn’t unusual for airfields to draw noise complaints.

“We’re there for three days, then we aren’t there anymore,” he said. “We will make a little noise for three days between the hours of 9 a.m. and 5 p.m.”

Red Bull sponsors other high-adrenaline sports like motocross and car racing. Aikins, a veteran parachutist, helicopter and airplane pilot, was involved in a well-publicized stratosphere jump in 2012, helping to design and test equipment for Felix Baumgartner, who parachuted from the edge of space, 128,000 feet up.

The event he plans in Cloverdale will draw the top wing-suit athletes in the world, including defending ACES champion Andy Farrington. It’s being called a “global” event with competitors coming not only from the United States, but Europe, South America and Israel.

The surreal-looking webbed suits worn by competitors have inlets that fill with pressurized air, creating a wing profile.

“Instead of falling straight down, you can fly forward at 100 miles an hour,” Aikins said. “You are actually flying around the sky.”

The danger level is much less than BASE jumping, in which daredevil, wing-suited parachutists jump off cliffs and other fixed objects.

Some have been killed, particularly when they navigate too close and slam into rock formations.

Aikins said the Red Bull ACES have two parachutes, including a reserve that senses air pressure and opens automatically at around 2,500 feet of altitude.

They jump out of helicopters four at a time in a series of elimination heats, aiming for four gates staggered at 1,000-foot intervals, between around 6,500 to 3,500 feet above the ground. The gates, suspended from helicopters, are made of weak, nylon-like material.

The aim is for the winged flyers to be level to the gates as they pass, no closer than 10 feet and ?no farther than 200 feet away.

GPS on the parachutists and the gates monitored in real time shows whether they made the pass correctly.

The action is all caught on cameras - from the ground, affixed to gates, as well as point-of-view cameras on the winged flyers.

“They are the top flyers in the world,” Aikins said. “It’s pretty impressive.”

You can reach Staff ?Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or clark.mason@pressdemocrat.com.On Twitter@clarkmas