JOE JENNINGS AND ROB HARRIS : ‘All Our Concentration Is on the Moves’

The first time Joe Jennings and Rob Harris jumped out of an airplane they felt a rush so strong that when they landed, each plunked down his credit card to do it again.

Little did they know where that first jump would take them.

Jennings, 33, and Harris, 28, were the sky-surfing champions at the ESPN Extreme Games and held the 1994 world title before that. Sky surfing is free-fall sky-diving taken to the max. Two people jump from a plane simultaneously; one has a small board strapped to his feet and does aerial maneuvers like spins and flips, the other has a camera strapped to his helmet and videotapes him. Judging is based on both the moves and the quality of the taping.

Sky-surfing is definitely one of the more on-the-edge sports of the Extreme Games, but to Jennings and Harris, who have logged thousands of jumps between them, it’s really no big deal.

“Who knows?” says Jennings. “Fifty years from now when I’m telling my grandchildren what we did, they’ll be saying, ‘That’s how we get to school!’ ”

In an office at Jennings’ video production facility in Redondo Beach the two describe what led them to the sport: Harris, an L.A. nightclub deejay, saw the film “Point Break,” thought sky-diving looked fun and four years ago made his first jump. He graduated to freestyle moves, then started “jumping the board” three years ago.

Jennings started sky-diving 10 years ago and almost immediately saw the potential for adding video.

The two met at a drop zone a few years ago and began jumping together. The chemistry seemed right, and they became a team.

“It’s an interactive team,” Harris explains, “so you don’t just pick anybody who jumps video. You try to find someone who flies well, and has the ability to do maneuvers and tricks with me as well.”

Jennings and Harris have appeared on television shows and commercials and hope to continue that while competing. Harris spends weekdays in Arizona City, Ariz., training at Skydive Arizona, which sponsors the two. He commutes to L.A. on the weekends to deejay. Between film and video projects Jennings joins Harris at the drop zone.

“People watch our videos,” Harris said, “and they think our mind-set is, ‘Oh, wow! What a rush!’ In fact, all our concentration is on the moves. . . . We’ve done it thousands and thousands of times, and the act of jumping out of a plane is kind of like rolling out of bed. It’s normal.”