Cannonball Fun
Newcastle Herald
Saturday May 20, 2006
Stephanie Smith finds herself in the unique position of getting fired every time she turns up to work.
Smith is one of only two females in the world who can lay claim to the title of human cannonball. The other is her older sister, Jennifer.Newcastle will become the first regional show to present a human cannonball after a delegation travelled to Sydney at Easter to negotiate an appearance by the 22-year-old American.Punters can expect an explosive display.Smith positions herself feet first inside a seven-metre cannon set at a 47-degree angle. Her husband hits a button which launches her about 40 metres through the air. She completes a half-somersault mid-flight and lands on her back in a horizontal net which measures about 10 metres long and five metres wide.Placement of the net is determined by a number of factors, including air temperature, wind speed and wind direction.Miscalculation of something as seemingly minor as relative humidity can be potentially fatal.All the while Smith's three-year-old son, Ryder, is cheering from the bleachers."Getting from point A to point B is all about precise mathematical calculation," she says down the line from Missouri."I've been to Australia three times now and it's been great because they always have a big, open field for me. In those circumstances everything's pre-set and the shot tends to run pretty smoothly."Sometimes we shoot over shorter distances or longer distances, over ferris wheels, under barriers. You have to be spot on with your calculations when you're mixing things up like that."Smith says her body endures a g-force of 10 when she is launched from the cannon. To put that in perspective, fighter pilots sometimes experience a g-force of between six and eight, which can cause tunnel vision, temporary loss of colour vision and an inability to interpret verbal commands."I've had a few bruises," says Smith, whose top speed is reportedly close to 100 kilometres per hour."Just recently I did the Royal Easter Show in Sydney. Let me tell you, after 14 days in a row getting fired out of a cannon your body feels very tired."Most of your injuries come from when you land. As long as you land on your back it's pretty comfortable, but if you land a little crookedly it will bend your body in ways you don't want it to be bent."Daredevilry is in Smith's blood.Her father, David, quit school teaching to complete a masters degree in engineering. One of his first projects was building a cannon from which to fire himself great distances at ridiculous speeds."He just decided one day that he wanted to become a human cannonball," says Smith, one of 10 children."I grew up around it, so I thought it was normal. But I do remember the stunned reactions from my friends. They thought it was pretty cool."Two of Smith's elder siblings, Rebecca (now retired) and David, were the first to follow in their father's footsteps."Since I was the third one my father was very supportive," she says."But I remember when Rebecca wanted to try it, he wasn't very keen on the idea. Luckily she was a natural, so that made it easier for the rest of us."Whoever wanted to try it was more than welcome. Some families sail boats together, some go hiking . . . we get fired out of cannons."Smith was only 14 when she had her first shot, in the backyard under her father's supervision."I enjoyed all sorts of crazy things growing up, so I wasn't all that scared. All I could think about was how awesome an experience it would be," she says."Dad made me promise I'd do it three times, otherwise I couldn't have a go at all. The first time I screamed the whole way to the net and didn't want to try it again. The second time was a bit less hair-raising. By the third time I was hooked."Before making the art of human cannonball a full-time career about three years ago, Smith was a professional motocross rider with a recreational passion for wakeboarding, snowboarding and bungee-jumping.She has since travelled throughout the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Asia and Australia doing her death-defying thing.Whenever she needs inspiration she thinks of her father, the patriarch of human cannonballs, and her mother, Jean, who was a professional skydiver."Mum jumped out of planes and Dad got shot out of cannons, but we didn't have much to do with daredevils outside the family," Smith says."Evil Knievel was a hero of mine growing up. I've seen all his videos and read a lot of his books. I remember watching a video of him attempting a record jump in Houston. He announced that he would never do anything like it again. So what happens? He lands it and is immediately planning a more audacious stunt. I can really understand that, overcoming your fear then looking for something else."I don't particularly agree with the types who think doing something stupid is a grand achievement, but I have the utmost respect for people who plan something out of the ordinary, put their mind to it and figure out a way. That level of striving amazes me." ? The Hunter on Hunter Show hits Newcastle Showground next Thursday through Sunday."Let me tell you, after 14 days in a row getting fired out of a cannon your body feels very tired ... if you land a little crookedly it will bend your body in ways you don't want it to be bent."
© 2006 Newcastle Herald