Tom Jenkins always saw the value of structured competition and record performances in driving skydivers to become more skilled while also having fun.

Around the world, October is the month dedicated to breast-cancer awareness. For many years, the skydiving community marked this month with Jump for the Cause, an event that brought women together to raise money for breast cancer research and set women’s world record formation skydives.

It was a delightful early November evening in DeLand, Florida, when 30 or so friends and family members gathered to honor Raymond E. Ferrell as USPA presented him with its Lifetime Achievement Award.

On December 26, 1959, Dr. John Gaffney (“Doc” to his skydiver friends) led the Central Florida Sky Divers Club to the DeLand Municipal Airport to jump from a Tri-Pacer flown by the airport manager, Bob Lee.

On Sunday, October 27, five parachutists safely landed at 20,200 feet MSL (with a density altitude of 22,700 feet MSL) on the West Col in the Nepali Himalayas.

October 2019 proved to be a banner month for sequential skydiving, as two separate groups of jumpers achieved world-record performances, one in full-break sequential formation skydiving and the other in canopy formation skydiving.

Halloween is all about chocolate, taking candy from strangers and, apparently, flying really fast parachutes at one another—at least for attendees of the debut Flock and Flow camp, held at Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina, during Halloween weekend.

Each year, Safety Day is the second Saturday in March (this year, that’s March 14). It marks the beginning of a new season, and even in poor weather, jumpers flock to this event, their minds filled with fresh ideas and expectations of the warm summer days ahead.

When a competitive skydiver earns a U.S. Parachute Team patch and the opportunity to represent their country at a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale world skydiving event, they are bound to have an amazing experience.

During the first week of October, you could hear a variety of languages anywhere on the drop zone: Chinese in the boarding area, French on the packing mats in the hangar, Norwegian around the pool, German at the mock-up and Russian at the manifest window. 

The USPA Board of Directors chose Bryan Burke, D-8866, to receive its prestigious Gold Medal for Meritorious Service. Every year, USPA presents a select few recipients with this award, which honors “outstanding Americans who, by their efforts over a period of years, have made significant contributions to the skydiving community.”

First things first: There’s a lot of debate surrounding this topic. Global climate change remains a charged topic, season after season … especially since those seasons seem to be, well, changing.

Over the years, Austin’s unique mix of hard-charging and grounded doesn’t just make its mark on the marketing side of the skydiving industry.

The U.S. Navy Parachute Team, the Leap Frogs, has represented the Naval Special Warfare (NSW) community for decades, slowly and steadily developing their craft.

In October, the International Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame held its 10th annual Hall of Fame Celebration at Skydive Perris in California.

Think about the skydivers you’ve met over the years who drifted away. Nothing happened, per se; they just ... well ... disappeared. Some of this attrition is natural. The pressures of finances, family and career come into play. But have you wondered how much attrition owes directly to repetitive stress injuries on these athletes’ minds?

I stood at the deep end of the indoor heated pool while wearing a jumpsuit, helmet, goggles and a training harness connected to a 300-square-foot main canopy and jumped into the water.

The 2019 USPA Parachuting and Skydiving Nationals determined which teams and individuals will represent the U.S. in every discipline at the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Parachuting Championships Mondial (all-events competition) in Tanay, Siberia, in 2020.

It is all about the exit! That’s a phrase you’ll often hear in the world of competitive formation skydiving.

In April of 1968, two months before actual filming of "MOTHS" began, a group of Southern Califorania jumpers were assembled at Elsinore, California to make several hundred rehearsal and equipment testing jumps.

So, late in the fall of 2014, you watched Alan Eustace get tugged 25 miles into the stratosphere by a balloon that for all the world looked like a big, white map pin.

Skysurfing has experienced a comeback in recent years, and fortunately, the drop zones of the world are helping to keep our skies safe by not blindly allowing just anyone to grab a board and attempt it. Most DZs insist that new skysurfers receive proper guidance from those with experience … and for good reason.

The 8th Fédération Aéronautique Internationale European Canopy Formation Championships and 10th FAI World Cup of Canopy Formation took place from August 15-21 at the Romanian Airclub located in the southern part of the country in the town of Strejnic Ploiești.

The name of this year’s giant boogie at Skydive Orange in Virginia—the Apocalyptic Big O Boogie—could not have been more fitting.

From July 26-August 4, the skies over Ottawa, Illinois, blossomed with canopies during Skydive Chicago’s much-anticipated megaboogie, Summerfest. More than 800 jumpers from all corners of the world came to the drop zone resort to get on one of the nearly 700 loads during the nine-day boogie.

The USPA Board of Directors held its second meeting of the 2019-2021 term in Arlington, Virginia, July 12-14.

At its 2018 summer meeting, the USPA Board of Directors chose Mike Horan, D-881, to receive its prestigious Gold Medal for Meritorious Service.

The five members of professional skydiving team ToraTora—Jarno Cordia, Willem de Groot, Rene Terstegen, Martijn Van Dam and Jasper van der Meer—put together a magical week of skydiving and other adventure sports in Slovenia’s Soca Valley, adjacent to Triglav National Park.

Sebastian Alvarez, D-32538, was a pro surfer and a Chilean Air Force pilot (flying helicopters and planes alike) in his home country before he donned his first wingsuit.