5 years ago
Since Horacio Llorens set the latest record in 2012 with 568 turns, Veso was working on beating it but did not have much luck with his attempts due to different reasons.
Veso's past attempts:
2010: Peru, Lima, 249 turns jumping out of a helicopter.
2014: Black see, Bulgaria, 289 turns jumping from an Antonov airplane.
2017: Bulgaria, 397 turns jumping from a hot-air balloon at 5000 meters.
2017: Bulgaria, the next day jumping out of a balloon at 7000 meters. No record due to struggles with his paraglider.
2018 August: Bulgaria, jumping from a hot-air balloon at 7000m with a brand new 16m2 Supersonic 3DX. 120 and 80 turns, struggling with his glider and destroying his neck in the attempt.
2018 September 20th: NEW WORLD RECORD with 613 turns.
Veso was sharing us all the details about his record flight in a phone call. Here is what he shared with us:
"To set the last record in 2012 Horacio jumped from special helicopter called the Eurocopter. They climbed to the extreme altitude of 6500 meters. In Bulgaria we don't have such a helicopter so I had to exit from a hot-air balloon. I really wanted to do this in Bulgaria and needed maximum altitude so I choose to do this over the flatlands where the ground level is really low, only 150 meters over sea level. This way I had some advantage in elevation over Horacio who flew over higher grounds with 400 meters AMSL in Guatemala. He also lost some time after between jumping from the helicopter and entering the Tumbling so I was quite positive that the altitude will be enough to break the record.
During my last attempt in August we climbed to 7000 meters and I was able to enter the Infinite at 6800 which would have been perfect. But my brand new Sol Supersonic was 'waving like a toilet paper'...It was so unstable and I had to keep correcting really hard that resulted in serious pain in my neck...I had to exit after 100 turns...then I triend again without success. I was devastated...After this I decided to change my entire equipment again. I got a new harness and fixed all my settings by sewing them to a fixed position so it would not change at all. And I also had to change the glider once again. After seeing my friends flying it I went for the new Ozone Session 17m2 because it looked really solid in the maneuver.
Emotionally I was having some difficulties both in my private life and also with the balloon pilot who was not able to decide if he will fly me up or not due to missing permissions. In the very last moment he finally said yes and luckily the project was on! We climbed to about 6400 meters and I was already standing on the edge of the balloon ready to jump when the balloon started to sink and my glider begin to move around underneath me. I had to wait until the balloon stabilized loosing precious time, altitude and nerves. Finally I jumped at 6280 meters but got a cravat in the opening which also cost me some altitude to resolve.
Looking down into my box I saw 4 sets of power lines right on my course line so I also had to reposition a little bit. Finally at around 5900-6000 meters I entered the Infinite. It was going so well with the Session that I did not feel much joy Tumbling for so long. In fact it was actually quite boring somehow. I did not have to work much to correct the maneuver so I was barely even looking up at my glider but just locked my neck looking forward to avoid hurting my neck. 
I was really planning on exiting the maneuver low, at around 200 meters above ground level but the lower I got the clearer that I was drifting exactly towards those high voltage powerlines...Finally I had to exit at 400 meters and missed to perform at least 20-25 turns more. In that moment I had the feeling that I did not make enough turns for a new record and was pretty upset...but after looking at the video it turned out that I was wrong! I am really happy but already planning the next attempt because I want to extend my own record even more - before someone else would do it!"
Congratulations Veso!
Chronology of Infinite Tumbling World Records:
108 turns: in 2006 by Raúl Rodriguez (ESP) - inventor of the Infinite Tumbling
122 turns: in 2007 by Antoine Montant (FRA)
158 turns: in 2008 by Chrigel Maurer (CHE)
211 turns: in 2009 by Chrigel Maurer (CHE)
281 turns: in 2009 by Horacio Llorens (ESP)
287 turns: in 2012 by Hernan Pitocco (ARG)
374 turns: in 2012 by Max Marien (USA)
568 turns: in 2012 by Horacio Llorens (ESP)
613 turns: in 2018 by Veso Ovcharov (BG)
Latest Comments
Who is first to 1000 turns? ;)