Above: The record-setting skydivers gather for a group photo.

On September 17, members of the Parachutists Over Phorty Society and its subgroups, Skydivers Over Sixty and Jumpers Over Seventy, gathered at Skydive Chesapeake in Ridgely, Maryland, for a day of record-setting. The jumpers had enormous success, setting not only POPS, JOS and SOS state records, but also a USPA state record.

The record setting began with three skydivers aged 70 and older—Pete Baer, Stan Kay and Ben Wong—setting the JOS Maryland Record for Largest Formation Skydive. The record also qualified as a POPS and SOS record. On the next attempt, the group added six skydivers over age 40—Butch Chelton, Kevin Grishkot, Jason Krumholz, Mike Lipinski, James Shorter and Rob Yeadt—to build a 9-way, breaking the POPS record set earlier in the day. The jump also qualified as a USPA record for Maryland state.

These Maryland state formation skydiving records were unclaimed until the POPS skydivers held their day of record-setting. Other Maryland state records are still unclaimed, and these skydivers have their eyes set on establishing them.

Pete Baer | D-24105
Bowie, Maryland