Bob "Feisty" Feisthamel, Daryl S. Dassinger, Robert Suchor, Rocco Varriano and Jim Christensen build a 5-stack during the West Coast CRW Championships meet (see story, page 39).  The photo was taken by Kari Seppanen, C-8092, a Seattle-area jumper who has logged some 1800 skydives and is a USPA Instructor and master rigger.

Washington, DC artist Clarence Thorne featured the 20th anniversary theme in creating this year's official U.S. National Championships emblem.  The design appeared on T-shirts, souvenirs and now this month's cover, highlighting the special report on the Nationals, skydiving's biggest competitive event each year.

Rod Stafford, who painted this month's cover for PARACHUTIST, is an illustrator with Eastman Kodak.  He also does free-lance work, doing everything from technical illustrations to portraits.  Stafford, whose painting represents his brief general impressions of sport parachuting, has himself taken up jumping recently.

U.S. Army Parachute Team photographer Phil Rogge captured this shot of the Golden Knights in a unique formation:  four rodeo-rider 2-ways with all grips complete.  A full story on Wild and Crazy Skydives appears on page 45.

Carl Boenish snapped this shot of a color-coordinated 16-way donut flake against the clouds.  The jump was one of several made in preparation for the 60-way built in Florida Easter Weekend.  Joe Svec's story on the 60-way begins on page 37.

USPA President Larry Bagley captured this shot of new U.S. Para-ski Champion Tom Heinecke about to bury the disc at the Park West Para-ski meet.  This month's story about the Para-ski Championships begins on page 21.

Alaric R. Sampson, D-6127, caught this shot of Jeff Hicks, Walt Knodle, Tony Cory, Elizabeth St. Goar and Chip Port exiting a Sikorsky S58-T helicopter over Livermore, CA.  A member of the California Parachute Club at LIvermore, Sampson recently made his 900th jump there.

Norman Kent designed a special camera mount to capture this shot of an exit from Kennie Gibson's five-place balloon over Perris Valley. That's Kent on the bottom, shooting up at Robin Lopez and Kent's wife, Diana.

"Diver" Dan Gonzales displays the typical reaction to the typical pie facial after his 1,000th jump at Pacific Parachute Center in Sheridan, OR.  The 1,000-jump load was a 16-way Jewel, with Diver Dan backing the 16th.  Pictures at left are participants on the load: left to right kneeling—Paul (Rastus) Siemienczuk, Terry Kowing, Randy Kerr, Mike Milota and Tim Davies; left to right standing—Diver Dan, Terry (Bonz) Dean, Nancy Smith, Mike (Michigan) Sandberg, Marty Scott, Steve Wells, Lance R. O'Mance, Sally Wenner, Larry (LDK) Kelley and Jack DeChristopher.  Not pictures is Russell Rallens.  Both photos by Susan E Ferrell.

Rick Snow caught this shot of Mitch Decoteau leaving the formation early becausae of an inadvertent opening over Zephyrhills.

Pat McGowan touches down on snow capped Sibley Pond in West Pittsfield, ME.  Photo by Helen Godin.

Russ Armbruster, coming down in the November dusk.  Photo by Don Hinton.

Tony Gonzales clicked this shot of Valerie Thal (top) and Wayne Snyder flying a biplane in front of the water jet during a demonstration jump at Fountain Hills, AZ.

The official emblem and design for this year's National Championships was created by a non-skydiver, artist Butch Thorne of Washington, D.C., who was asked by USPA to suggest the "flavor" of skydiving—which evidently he did successfully, since official 1980 National Championships T-shirts were part of every competitor's daily uniform in Richmond, IN this summer.  (These official championships T-shirts are available to all members, for personal wear and as gifts, through the USPA Store.  To order see page 50.)

Official National Championships photographer Haney Martin caught 1980's new Individual Champions Matt O'Gwynn and Cheryl Stearns as each was presented with medals and trophies:  Matt holds the "Big Shot Glass", emblem of men's supremacy and Cheryl the sterling silver-and-crystal women's championship award.  The presentations were made at the individual awards banquet in Richmond, IN, on June 30th.  Both O'Gwynn and Stearns are now training with the 1980 U.S. Team, preparing for the World Championships in Bulgaria later this month.

The Golden Knights build an 8-way Frisbee in the skies over Yuma, AZ.  USAPT photo.

Thundering into the pea gravel at the Tahlequah, OK drop zone is George McCandless  Photo by George Frey.

Photo by Carl Nelson, courtesy Roger Nelson.

A flying carpet of jumpers over Limerick, PA.  Photo by Tom Dunn, courtesy of Jerry Irwin.

Rick Ellwanger, D-3634, tracks off into the sunset after a skydive over the Coolidge, AZ Parachute Ranch.  Rick, by the way, holds a PhD in Chemistry and is Technical Director for American Cyanamid in his hometown of Tuscon, AZ.  Photo by Tony Gonzales and courtesy of Adventure/Travel magazine.