We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Braden Roseborough. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Braden below.

Braden, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Can you talk to us about how you learned to do what you do?

First let’s define exactly what my craft is. If you are discovering me for the first time through this Canvas Rebel interview, it may seem odd that they have chosen to interview me. Most people would likely look at the fact that I participate in the deadliest sport in the world and assume that I would be labeled an “athlete” as opposed to a “creative”. However, I absolutely see my participation as a craft. It is an exercise in combining my passion for this activity and the community that surrounds it, my engineering background, and sharing the result through various media.

My dad started encouraging my use of video cameras and editing software when I was young. He was an educator and provided me with access to an eMac (yes “e” not “i) early in my childhood. I shot video on mini-dv tapes and learned how to edit using iMovie. This also sparked my interest in computers early on and eventually led to me learning to write code in my later teens. The education process consisted of many hours in front of the computer and supportive parents who had to pretend to enjoy my creations.

You might be interested in the process of learning how to skydive and BASE jump as well. Skydiving has a very well defined learning path. It usually consists of a tandem jump attached to an instructor to see if you enjoy the experience. Then ground school and a series of jumps where you receive instructions from multiple instructors who remain with you through the skydives, unattached, while holding onto you for stability and providing hand signals for guidance and instruction. I started this process while I was in university after getting a job at the jump center packing parachutes as a way to make some extra cash that would work around my class schedule. After learning to skydive I did about 200 jumps before starting to learn how to fly a wingsuit and about 500 jumps before learning how to BASE jump.

I started participating in the sport side of things in 2007. Back then process of learning the fundamentals was very similar to the way things are taught today, but average skill level of participants in the sport has drastically increased and has caused the learning curve to feel much steeper to be “good” at it. Flying requires more skill than just falling out of an airplane or off of a cliff. “Being Good” requires flying with a high level of precision, more speed, and in unusual attitudes such as on your back or upside down. Back in the day “being good” only required an ego big enough that you could convince other people of your status in the sport. With the proliferation of action cameras today, you actually have to work hard to back that up. Here are the biggest aids in speeding up the learning curve to keep up:
1. Repetition with minimal delay between executions – When you practice infrequently the skills that you are building atrophy. When you practice frequently with little downtime between repetitions you begin to build muscle memory and the exercise becomes intuitive.
2. More sources of input and feedback. It’s easy to lean toward people who provide positive input, praises, and accolades. It’s really difficult to hear criticism and not feel like your art is rejected. You need both. There’s an interesting rubric for feedback that Apple uses which I learned while working there. General feedback is less fruitful than specific feedback when given as an accolade, it is also more harmful when given as a criticism. Learning to give feedback this way is important to be respected in your community, and learning to seek out feedback in this way is important for your growth in your creative endeavors. This article roughly aligns with what I’m speaking about if you are interested in learning more: https://jdgreear.com/the-quadrant-of-fearless-feedback

The skills that become the most essential in my craft primarily revolve around decision making. Being capable of self analyzing is key to making good decisions. To eliminate risk you have to operate within your known limits, but to grow you have to operate outside of your known limits. These two modes of operation are in direct conflict with each other. So we try to operate in environments that require 80% or less of our skill level the majority of the time with temporary spikes of effort up into that last 20%, while remembering that anything that requires more than 100% of our skill relies solely on luck. We want to be skilled, not lucky.

The biggest obstacles that stand in the way of learning more are time and resources. It’s difficult to describe to someone why the sport which is actually incredibly simple, is so difficult to learn. I like to compare it to an oil painter or musician. First understand that a typical free fall skydive lasts about 60 seconds. Most committed skydivers early in their career participate on the weekends making just a few jumps per weekend. Now imagine trying to learn to play an instrument, but you are only allowed to practice for one minute at a time a few times per weekend. This would be a nearly impossible task. Add the expense of paying for a plane ticket, gear, and the fear that you have to overcome when you are starting out, and you’ll start to see why the progression is difficult.

Braden, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

My name is Braden Roseborough. I participate in the world’s most dangerous sport, and I share my experiences through multi media to share the beauty that I experience in the limits of the human experience.

I primarily share these experiences through social media and demonstrations at air shows and sporting events with live audiences of up to 30 million viewers. I also work with brands to create promotional content for products that I believe are aligned with my mission.

There are varying degrees of capability and professionalism that you might find when trying to hire someone in the parachuting industry. I’m proud to be part of a team that holds the value of professionalism to a high degree. My content is sometimes a bit humorous, but I take what I do seriously. I’m also lucky enough to have experience with many types of demonstrations including the use of pyrotechnics, large flags and banners, and other visual elements that elevate our performances. Being capable of manufacturing gear and equipment also allows me to more effectively support my clients vision. Sometimes we will do things like printing logos and slogans on banners, or directly on to a parachute. Other times it might mean manufacturing bespoke equipment like a football heavy enough to fall with a skydiver at exactly 120mph.

You asked what I’m most proud of. It’s the moments when someone has come up to me and said “You inspired me to step out of my comfort zone, to challenge what I thought my limits were, and try something new.”. If I could make a sales pitch, it’s not that we might be able to create and advertisement for your product, it’s that a collaboration with your brand might be at the core of this kind of inspiration and change in somebody’s life.

You can find out more about me and my team at the following locations
My website: https://broseborough.com
Instagram: @broseborough
My team’s website: https://dauntlessskydiving.com

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

I tell people that I have lived several different lives. When I was younger I threw myself into music. I used to carry drumsticks around school practicing constantly thinking that I would become a professional musician. While I was passionate about music, I wasn’t well prepared to pursue it professionally. Then through the loss of two people in my life who were basal to my experience, I found myself starting to have a negative association with my identity as a musician.

I later found myself forming an identity as a software engineer. There are a lot of former or current musicians working in software because of the similarities in the way that these two groups of people are trained to think. I had previously had an interest in programming and this interest developed into a career. I now use the knowledge that I gained from that experience and apply it to my creative endeavors in the sport. For example I built a helmet embedded altimeter long before the AR/VR scene became common place. I created a tool to aid in finding the best route to a BASE jump by analyzing the ruggedness of the terrain from lidar and elevation data. And now I’m working on prototype of a mixed reality AR training tool for flying wingsuits in demanding environments.

Each of these experiences has allowed me to gain skills that have transferred into the next. I have successfully avoided getting stuck feeling like I have to pursue any one thing. I have never regretted following my passion as it changes from one thing to the next. Now I feel that I’m able to focus and combine those things into something that is long lasting.

Any resources you can share with us that might be helpful to other creatives?

Mentorship. We don’t talk enough about leaning on the people who are older, wiser, and more experienced than us. I still don’t quite feel that I have totally cracked the code on mentorship, but I know that there’s incredible value there.

We are creating a mentorship program for beginning skydivers at our drop zone. This is distinctly different than coaching. Mentors are not necessarily there to teach these jumpers new skills. Instead they will focus more on helping to guide them through their “career” by providing encouragement, matching them with other skydivers to promote skill building, and opening doors and opportunities for them, helping them build their network in the sport.

I think there’s an even bigger opportunity to grow this into a mentorship program even for experienced individuals like me. There are many people who I feel like I have a lot to learn from, and even with the connections that I have it is difficult to know how to ask for guidance without feeling like you are asking for someone to just donate their time and expertise. I think a more formal program will encourage more collaboration.

The opportunity economy grows as we collaborate together. I think we often look at opportunities as a fixed (and rare) commodity. As we “compete” for opportunity we become jealous of each other and bitter when someone else gets the opportunity. This simply isn’t how the opportunity economy works. We can create opportunity. As we learn to create opportunity for ourselves we can then learn to share that opportunity with others. The things you can accomplish when you share it with others is so much larger than what you can accomplish alone. I think more formal mentorship will provide a framework to promote this type of collaboration.

As I said before I don’t think I’ve really cracked the code on this tool so if you are still reading this and have implemented or participated in a successful formal mentorship program please reach out to me to share your experience.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://broseborough.com
• Instagram: @broseborough
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/broseborough/
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/broseborough/
• Other: https://dauntlessskydiving.com

Image Credits

Photos provided by

Racheal Baker – Hot air balloon photos, Airplane mockup photo, Primary profile photo
Nikko Mamallo – Bridge base jump photo,
Zooey Souligney – Racetrack photos