In the photo above, JOS members pose for the camera after their record-setting skydive. Photo by Marco Rossi.
Setting a world record with a team of only Italian skydivers may seem impossible, but that’s just what a group of nine jumpers did on July 15 in Cumiana, Italy. The group—Italo Brizzolesi, Nando Buoso, Roberto Carrani, Carlo De Martino, Eugenio Pizzitutti, Stelio De Vitis, Giancarlo Salvini, Giancarlo Sarti (who participated in the project just after his 80th birthday) and Claudio Serafini—set the Jumpers Over Seventy World Record for Largest Six-Point Formation Skydive, which also qualified as the Parachutists Over Phorty Society and Skydivers Over Sixty World Record. Pilot Roberto Lomonaco flew the jumpers to altitude in a Pilatus PC-6, and Marco Rossi filmed the jumps.
The group was very ambitious. Although JOS rules allow for a partial separation of the formation between points, the organizers decided to attempt formations with total breaks. To achieve a great performance, they created a dive plan that they hoped would be brain-lock free and allow for a rapid succession of points. They created a formation called the Mirzan Cluster, named after the great Italian skydiver Roberto Mirzan.
Although the weather was not cooperative, the group was still able to make six jumps over the two-day event. All of the jumps were very successful, and the group would likely have broken the six-point barrier given enough opportunity.
Carlo De Martino | D-35355
Milan, Italy