Wollongong-based skydiver Scott Hiscoe has his eyes set on gold in Russia in two years time, after winning a breakthrough bronze for Australia at the World Parachuting Championships, on the Gold Coast earlier this month.

With the experience of four world titles and more than 10,000 career jumps, Hiscoe’s finest hour came when the Aussies closed the gap on the two international powerhouse vertical formation nations, the USA and Canada.

For a time, Hiscoe and the team of five, including a cameraman who films the routine from close range, were even a chance of taking the silver from the Canadians.

During competition they are randomly assigned one of 40 routines to complete and judged on formation and style, in a similar way to surfing, diving, or even synchronised swimming.

Except they happen to be falling at more than 350 kilometres-per-hour from four kilometres above sea level. 

“We trained a lot on the harder routines,” Hiscoe said. 

“For the most part, the harder routines involving your head facing down and feet pointing up, while you’re changing formation with your team.

“The hardest part is just remembering what you have to do next, the easiest way to explain is that it’s like trying to solve a puzzle at 300 kilomtres an hour.”

The Aussies finished with 172 points from their 10 jumps, including opening with a score of 22 and recording three other 20s.

They finished four points behind Canada, but still 45 adrift from gold medallists the US.

Hiscoe, who has also worked a stuntman, is a multiple Australian vertical formation champion and has been part of international base-jumping events.

Their sky dive formation training also comes through visualisation and mindfullness techniques, “dirt dives” – practicing their jumps and holds on the ground and using a state-of-the-art indoor facility at Penrith.

“It takes over your life,” Hiscoe said. 

“We really wanted to finish with a 17-point average, so it was huge for us to get to 17.2 and finish third.

“A couple of years ago we didn’t think we could ever come close to second place.”

So is gold realistic when they head to Siberia in 2020?

“Definitely,” he said. 

“We were realistic about our hopes this time and we did it and we really want to be up there chasing gold in two years. The Americans and Canadians have just dominated this sport, so this was a big step for us.

“We’re planning 800 training jumps in between now and then, so hopefully we can really push for it.”