The Start of Her Journey: Inka Cagnasso
It’s easy to see skilled, amazing athletes crushing it at this sport and to forget that everyone started somewhere. In honor of the journey to grow and learn in pursuit of the passion of flight, we’re talking with some of our favorite lady legends of skydiving to understand the start of their journey. Next up Inka Cagnasso….
Inka has over 3,000 jumps, 4,500 hours in the tunnel, was the 2015 Indoor Skydiving World Champion, the 2016 World Cup Winner, has appeared in an advert for Apple, performed on America’s Got Talent, appeared in music videos for Stargate, Sia, and Pink, and worked motion capture for two movies: Alita Battle Angel and X-Men: Dark Phoenix.
In her own words here is Inka’s story:
I started skydiving in 2009 because of a dare. I had never considered jumping until a friend told me that I was ‘too much of a girl to be brave enough to skydive.’ My only question during my static line course days before the first jump was if it’s possible to arch too much.
A throwback to being a bit of an overachiever in the arching game in 2009
I started at a small Cessna DZ and it was pretty tricky to get jumps in there. In Finland, the dropzones are not commercial but what we call clubs, and all the members have to participate in running the operations.
Boogie Girl in 2010
I loved skydiving and I was jumping as much as my wallet allowed, but the tunnel was the true gamechanger for me. I have always had an athlete mindset towards jumping and the tunnel finally allowed me to feel like I was training for something.
I wish however that I would have sought more high-quality skydiving and canopy coaching in the early days. During those times it was more boogies than skills camps available, and I think my flying skills from the tunnel just threw me into some crazy advanced jumps from pretty early on and I missed a lot of the foundational stuff. I just had to figure it out on the go. I think nowadays a lot of load organizers are better at dealing with tunnel rats, but ten years ago it was a very different game.
Photo By: Lindsay Miller
