Staff members at USPA Headquarters have recently unearthed, restored and displayed a piece (or collage) of skydiving history. Though sewn-on patches have fallen in popularity—rather than sewing patches onto gear bags and jumpsuits, today’s skydivers often prefer covering a helmet with stickers—you’ll still more than likely find them somewhere around your local DZ, stuck to a wall or collected in a drawer. Look through our collection at HQ. You just might see something you recognize!

This patch board started out as a pretty informal thing. We had a small cork board in the office in Monterey, California, and as patches were obtained by various means, we just stuck them to the board with a thumb tack. After a few years, we were putting patches on top of each other, so we upgraded to a larger cork board. Some patches were sent to USPA in the mail and others were collected by staff members at competitions, meetings, etc. It’s been so long, I’d forgotten we’d had such a display.

Norman Heaton | D-565
Executive Director Emeritus

Back-Tracking highlights interesting, lesser-known moments in skydiving through the years. These photos are often unearthed from boxes in the attic, old photo albums and dimly lit DZ closets. Please send submissions to communications@uspa.org.