Photo by Tom Sanders | D-6503

Plane owner Marcus Bastruck, pilot Oliver Wermann, camera-wing-mount fabricator Mike Bess and camera assistant (and wife) Denise Sanders helped Tom Sanders capture this photo of freefall camera flyer Bruno Brokken filming a formation skydiving group exiting a Super Caravan during Tsunami Skydivers Exotic Boogies’ event in the Maldives.

USPA remains committed to serving our membership during this growing pandemic.

On December 16, just days before the start of the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, beloved DZ Manager Betty Hill succumbed to cancer after a battle of 20 years.

Kasha Farrington flies in a wingsuit stack over Katie Hansen at the She Flocks event at Skydive Perris in California.

Konstantin Kunts rips up the pond at midnight on New Year’s Eve at Skydive City Zephyrhills’ Z-Carnivale.

Air Force Boomers turns points on its way to taking the silver in open 4-way formation skydiving at the USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales.

For the past several years, the U.S. Naval Academy Parachute Team has been in a building phase, and 2019 was a banner year.

The 2019 USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships, held December 26-January 1 at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, was bittersweet, as longtime DZ manager and valued member of the skydiving community Betty Hill lost her 20-year battle with cancer shortly before the event.

Amy Benton and Chazi Blacksher of The Working Girls event organizing team, along with a team of heroic volunteers, created the wonderful superhero-themed Super SIS Weekend at Skydive Arizona in Eloy January 24-26.

USPA tasks each Safety and Training Advisor with filing an incident report when a skydiving death occurs, but S&TAs are not the only people who can file a report, and a death is not the only reason for filing one.

As chief judge at the 2019 USPA National Collegiate Skydiving Championships at Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Kirk M. Knight chose to receive USPA’s prestigious Gold Medal for Meritorious Service—bestowed on him by unanimous acclaim of the USPA Board of Directors earlier in the year—at the banquet following the event.

Over the last two years, the skydiving fatality rate in the U.S. has reached record low levels. Overall, skydivers across the globe are also doing a better job with safety. (Thank you all for that.) But when even one of us is lost or injured in a skydiving accident, it is one too many.

At Skydive Elsinore, Brian Hromin leads an angle jump toward the Santa Rosa Mountains. 

Ingvild Finvåg, D-34774, celebrates her 600th jump by hanging from a hybrid with friends at Skydive Spain in Seville.

Kasha Farrington flies in a wingsuit stack over Katie Hansen at the She Flocks event at Skydive Perris in California.

Brought to you by three-time British Freefly Champion Joel Strickland. Strickland is a full-time freefly coach and tunnel-flying professional and a Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Artistic Events Judge. Jumpers can read more of his writing or contact him for tunnel camps in Europe at joelstrickland.net.

In 2019, the USPA Board’s Compliance Group received reports of 63 possible infractions of USPA policies that could merit disciplinary action.

Safety Day presents the perfect opportunity to strengthen the relationship between jump pilots and skydivers.