Barotrauma is injury that occurs as a direct result of changes in ambient pressure. Boyles Law states that at constant temperature, a volume of a gas is inversely proportional to the ambient pressure.

Executive Director Albert Berchtold updates USPA members on matters of the organization. Learn more at https://uspa.org/ OR https://parachutist.com/.

For many years, most jumpers regarded the parachute as a necessary evil. It was simply the device that stopped the freefall, allowing the jumper to survive the skydive in order to make another freefall.

I was about to ride 533 miles across Virginia—west along the Potomac River, then through the mountains to the famous red caboose in Damascus in the southwest corner of the state. It would be a multi-day ride with 33,000 feet of climbing. My stomach had butterflies.

On June 1, USPA begins the process of having its members elect its 22-member board of directors for the 2022-2024 term.

In 2021, the USPA Sisters in Skydiving program celebrates its 10th anniversary!

One of three main pillars of USPA is the promotion of competition and record-setting programs.

For the first time, USPA is hosting a beginner 4-way formation skydiving competition at Nationals.

Photo by Tim Parrant | D-34622

Wingsuit flyer Dani Roman orbits skysurfer Juan Ventura Sanchez Finguer and belly-flyer Pete Allum at USPA Foreign Affiliate Skydive Empuriabrava in Spain.

It was 8 a.m. on the first day of the year 1984. I was a young guy outside a hangar in Stow, Massachusetts, hooked into a 151-foot-tall tower of helium balloons that I called “Aprealis.”

Just a few years ago, I felt that my dreams of returning to flying were over. I had gotten my private-pilot license in the ’90s, but life got in the way, so I had not been flying for more than 20 years.

Tim Mattson started skydiving in 1991 and soon got involved in freefly, which was just emerging as a discipline. By 1997 he was traveling the globe on the SSI Pro Tour with team MadStyle.

The first and only female executive director for USPA, Laura MacKenzie passed away after a long illness on Saturday, May 22.

It is natural to think that accidents will happen only to other skydivers, those who court disaster by idiotically violating every rule in the book. And although it is true that they will take most of the heat, even the most experienced and responsible skydivers are not immune to a bad roll of the dice. That’s why it’s important to master the few basic skills you learned during training so you can stay calm under pressure.

During the weekend of March 4-7, many of the earliest pioneers of sport parachuting converged in Felicity, California, for yet another grand reunion.

In a May 18 press release, Mike Beck, chair of the Parachute Industry Association Awards Committee, announced that the organization has selected former USPA Director of Safety and Training Jim Couch to receive the 2019 PIA Distinguished Leadership Award.