The temperature was chilly but hearts were warm as women from the Parachutists Over Phorty Society met on December 22 to set records during the Skydive Arizona Christmas Boogie in Eloy. During the one-day event, the women set numerous POPS records, including the Tiny Broadwick Memorial POPS World Record for Largest Five-Point Formation Skydive with a 12-way. (POPS named its women’s records in honor of Tiny Broadwick, the first person to deploy a parachute manually.) Beth Bryan, Lori Kraemer Clark, Anna Clarke, Susan Evans, Alice Hicks, Sandy Holland, Carol Jones, Ginger Kuhlman, Yvonne Owyeong, Jennifer Pierce, Bekie Thompson and Lori Zito are the new world-record holders.

For the event, organizer Kraemer Clark brought together hard-hitting female rock stars of the POPS organization, some of whom are also members of Skydivers Over Sixty and Jumpers Over Seventy. The women flew a three-point 10-way on their first jump and continued to improve their performances throughout the day. Anna Clarke, a jumper from Israel who was in Eloy to attend the boogie, signed up as a member of POPS on the day of the ladies’ event, and her husband, Taff Clarke, filmed all the jumps. 

The next POPS event is SpringFest, scheduled for April 3-7 at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales. SpringFest will include 4-way team formation skydiving competitions, as well as 4-way scrambles FS competitions, so FS jumpers who attend with or without teammates will be able to join in on the fun.

James Davis | TopPOP and D-28216
Wildomar, California