The principal responsibility of the S&TA is to promote safe skydiving.

PHOTO BY Justin Duclos | D-33248

Jevin Johnson makes his first AFF jump instructed by his father, Jeff Johnson (right), and Austin Larman at Kapowsin Air Sports in Shelton, Washington.

For many college students, the winter holiday break was a time to spend with family and to eat, drink and be merry, but for 82 competitors from 11 colleges, it was also a time to compete. Whether the students had 25 jumps or were seasoned competitors, there was a place for them at this event.

Late Tuesday night, the chairman of the House Transportation Committee announced that he was dropping his push to privatize air traffic control. Opposition by general aviation users, including members of USPA, prevented the idea from getting any traction within Congress.

Dusty Hanks is a family man, four-time USPA Nationals gold medalist, world champion, world record holder and all-around good guy. Like Jason Russell and Jake Jensen, two of his teammates on 4-way vertical formation skydiving team SDC Core, he is a former motocross racer turned professional skydiver. SDC Core successfully defended its 4-way VFS national championship at the 2017 USPA Nationals and will represent the U.S. at the world championships in 2018.

Photo by Daniel Dupuis | D-33713
Wes Sandler (top) and Anthony Zerbonia back fly in their wingsuits at Skydive San Diego in Jamul, California.

PHOTO BY James Hatch | D-21729

Coach Carlye Bartolomeo (right) helps student Lauren Pfeifer work on her freefall skills.

Brought to you by Niklas Daniel and Brianne Thompson of AXIS Flight School at Skydive Arizona in Eloy. Photos by David Wybenga. Information about AXIS' coaching and instructional services is available at axisflightschool.com.

I hit 50 alone and depressed. My life was not what I expected or wanted. There were some big issues, and I realized I needed to step outside my comfort zone. As someone who always wanted a foot on the ground and needed to know where the next foot went, I thought a skydive might shake up my world. And it certainly did!

The 2017 USPA National Collegiate Parachuting Championships wrapped up Tuesday, January 2, at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales. The competition, the longest-running collegiate event in history, drew 82 college skydivers from across the U.S. As always, The U.S. Military Academy and U.S. Air Force Academy were well represented, as were the U.S. Naval Academy and University of Connecticut. Students also competed from Fort Lewis College, Georgia Tech, Iowa State, Kansas State University, Northeastern University, University of Georgia and University of Massachusetts Amherst. Despite some clouds and rain, jumpers completed at least the minimum number of required rounds in all events.

A senior parachute rigger discovered this incorrectly closed reserve container during a gear check of another jumper. The reserve ripcord was on the wrong side of the grommet, and the reserve closing pin was flipped opposite of the correct orientation.

A jumper puts on his rig, boards an airplane and exits the plane at 10,000 feet for a formation skydive with three other jumpers. Soon after the exit, one of his teammates points out that his chest strap is flapping in the wind. It is unthreaded and trailing uselessly behind his back. At deployment time, he manages to hold the two main lift webs together with his left hand and deploy with his right. He lands otherwise uneventfully. The jumper was sure that he checked his chest strap when he went through his multiple gear checks. So if he really checked his gear, what happened?

As adult human beings, we make approximately 35,000 decisions a day … 35,000! That’s a ton of decision making! If you’re a skydiving coach or instructor, a lot of those decisions involve the safety and wellbeing of skydiving students, and hopefully, your decisions are based completely on those considerations. 

Craig O’Brien, D-19294, is a world champion skydiver, world-class freefall photographer and Hollywood stuntman and camera flyer. In the late 1990s, O’Brien and his then-soon-to-be wife, Tanya, formed the skysurfing team Firestarter. With Tanya on the skyboard and Craig flying camera, they were virtually unbeatable in national and world competitions. Later, O’Brien began working in Hollywood. His credits include filming and doing stunt work on “Kingsman: The Secret Service,” “Iron Man 3,” “Godzilla,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “The Bucket List” and many other movies, as well as commercials, documentaries and other productions.

From the first jump, all skydivers know the value of being prepared. We train, retrain, review the Skydiver’s Information Manual, practice in a hanging harness, perform gear checks before every jump, read incident reports to educate ourselves, seek out experts and take myriad other steps to be as prepared as possible for any skydiving eventuality. Doesn’t it make sense that we should also prepare for other eventualities, even bad skydiving outcomes?

Photo by Norman Kent | D-8369

Caroline Layne chases rainbows with her Aerodyne Pilot canopy over New Smyrna Beach, Florida, during the Disappearing Island Boogie (so named because the island in the Intracoastal Waterway is above water only a few hours a day due to tides) organized by Martin Sutton with aircraft from Skydive DeLand.

Whether we realize it or not, we are all trying to find balance between risk and passion. Have you ever thought about why it is you do what you do? What it is that you love about it? Well, part of it is the unique state of mind that comes over us. It feels unlike anything else we do.

When a canopy pilot moves through air that is itself moving, that air continuously affects the parachute’s speed and path over the ground. When you are trying to make it back to the landing area, merely pointing the canopy’s nose toward the target may not be enough. If you do not compensate for the effects of the surface winds, you will most likely miss your target. Given that wind conditions change constantly, being able to properly read and compensate for them is an important skill set for students and competition pilots alike. 

Photo by David Wybenga | D-31862

SDC Core launches a formation on its way to earning the Vertical Formation Skydiving National Championship at the USPA Nationals at Skydive Perris in California.