Above: The Washington POPS record team poses for a group photo.

Jumpers from Washington, Oregon and British Columbia teamed up to set a Parachutists Over Phorty Society Washington state sequential record on September 11 at Kapowsin Air Sports in Shelton. It took the team six attempts over two days to accomplish the two-point 23-way that broke the previous record, set in 2018.

Co-organizers Pat Chapman and Edirae Thatcher developed a challenging but achievable sequential formation after evaluating the skills of each jumper and adjusting when needed. Most of the jumpers warmed up for the event three weeks prior to the record attempts at Kapowsin’s annual Big-Way Belly Weekend, where they practiced jumping on formations as large as 33-ways out of two planes. One of the biggest difficulties of the record attempt weekend turned out to be heavy smoke that blew in from regional forest fires that prevented most jumps from exiting at full altitude. Despite the poor air quality, Caravan pilots Dave Kaiser and Larry Yount flew perfect formations that enabled the new record.

The new record-holders are Josh Aikins, Travis Aikins, Pat Arthur, Pat Chapman, Paul Cooley, Dan Engholm, Jessie Farrington, Kasha Farrington, Terry Fischer, Dean Gehnert, Erik Gordon, John Hardy, Jared Jorgenson, Julie Jorgenson, Dan Kahler, Lee Lewis, Kat Molik, Doug Montgomery, Josh Pringle, Edirae Thatcher, Charles Wallsmith, Dustin Weimerskirch and Shawna Williams. Jacob Bennett flew camera for the group.

Pat Chapman | D-36615
Olympia, Washington