USPA remains committed to serving our membership during this growing pandemic.

On December 16, just days before the start of the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, beloved DZ Manager Betty Hill succumbed to cancer after a battle of 20 years.

Kasha Farrington flies in a wingsuit stack over Katie Hansen at the She Flocks event at Skydive Perris in California.

Photo by Laszlo Andacs | D-22468

Matthew Lovetri sets up another on-target landing on his way to taking gold in the open sport accuracy event, as well as the Most Competitive Collegiate Skydiver award, at the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales.

The 50th anniversary of my first jump is next month and I can’t tell you how much fun it was to watch the 1969 film “This is a Sport?” that you included in the recent USPA Update!

Jake Jensen, D-30450, is a two-time Fédération Aéronautique Internationale World Champion and five-time USPA National Champion in vertical formation skydiving with team SDC Core.

Levity founder Leah Levy product tests her company’s Pocket Swing, which is made from upcycled parachute fabric, underneath a Droplyne balloon flying over Arizona City, Arizona.

On January 31, at its winter meeting, the USPA Board of Directors elected Al King as a national director to fill the vacancy created when Shanon Searls joined the USPA staff. The board chose King from a slate of candidates nominated by other board members. King previously served two terms as Northeast Regional Director and was chairman of the board for the 2016-2018 term. A full report on the winter board meeting will appear in the April issue of Parachutist.

Canopy formation skydivers fly a 16-way at the Freeze Your Buns Off Boogie at Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida.

In November, demonstration team Skydiving Innovations had the opportunity to make jumps over downtown San Francisco as part of a guerilla marketing campaign by Freshworks, a software-development company.

During the Turkey Boogie at Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida, McKenna Knipe looks on as Per Bjorn Poulsen and Kimberly Bailey practice a jump that they’ll make during their upcoming wedding.

At the 2018 DC-3 10-Way Speed Money Meet at Skydive Arizona in Eloy, an all-female team called Seek This!—comprised of some of the most accomplished female skydivers in the U.S. and headed up by Ellen Monsees—chalked up an impressive victory.

Tyler Buffington swoops in for landing at Skydive Arizona in Eloy.

Marie Clark and Jessica Maviano created the She Flocks event so women could fly, learn, share and meet others who share a passion for the discipline.

In January, AXIS Flight School announced the release of a new app following three years of development in partnership with Good Goblin Games.

USPA Foreign Affiliate Skydive Empuriabrava in Spain, one of Europe’s largest drop zones, is now offsetting its carbon dioxide footprint by supporting certified climate-protection projects.

James Rick Highsmith, D-5863, recently published “In Search of Christmas,” an illustrated children’s book   that touches on Highsmith’s love of skydiving.

A jumper came to me after his first cutaway, concerned about damage to his reserve system.

As a Safety and Training Advisor, it’s important to take a leadership role during your drop zone’s Safety Day activities.

Safety Day presents the perfect opportunity to strengthen the relationship between jump pilots and skydivers.

In 2019, the USPA Board’s Compliance Group received reports of 63 possible infractions of USPA policies that could merit disciplinary action.

Brought to you by three-time British Freefly Champion Joel Strickland. Strickland is a full-time freefly coach and tunnel-flying professional and a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Artistic Events Judge. Jumpers can read more of his writing or contact him for tunnel camps in Europe at joelstrickland.net.

Kasha Farrington flies in a wingsuit stack over Katie Hansen at the She Flocks event at Skydive Perris in California.

Ingvild Finvåg, D-34774, celebrates her 600th jump by hanging from a hybrid with friends at Skydive Spain in Seville.

At Skydive Elsinore, Brian Hromin leads an angle jump toward the Santa Rosa Mountains. 

Over the last two years, the skydiving fatality rate in the U.S. has reached record low levels. Overall, skydivers across the globe are also doing a better job with safety. (Thank you all for that.) But when even one of us is lost or injured in a skydiving accident, it is one too many.

As chief judge at the 2019 USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Kirk M. Knight chose to receive USPA’s prestigious Gold Medal for Meritorious Service—bestowed on him by unanimous acclaim of the USPA Board of Directors earlier in the year—at the banquet following the event.

USPA tasks each Safety and Training Advisor with filing an incident report when a skydiving death occurs, but S&TAs are not the only people who can file a report, and a death is not the only reason for filing one.