Each year for the past decade, the International Skydiving Museum has inducted a select few men and women who have “defined, promoted, inspired and advanced the sport at the highest levels” into its Hall of Fame. This year’s induction ceremony and banquet for the 10 newest honorees will take place during the 2019 International Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame Celebration October 17-19 at Skydive Perris in California.

When Leslie Irvin made the first freefall jump using gear designed for that purpose more than 100 years ago, no one really foresaw parachuting becoming a sport.

A good helmet once seemed like just the ticket to escape such a fate. The reality, unfortunately, is that helmets simply aren’t designed to protect people against traumatic brain injury. They can’t.

Jumpers fly a formation at the Sequential Games event organized by Milko Hodgkinson, Dieter Kirsch and Patrick Passe at USPA Foreign Affiliate Skydive Algarve in Portugal.

Andy Riggs and Ally Lesnick make a 2-way head-up jump at Skydive Milwaukee.

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

On containers using a throw-out deployment system, the elastic or nylon spandex (Spandura) bottom-of-container pilot-chute pouch—aka the BOC—is arguably one of the most important and visible components.

As an AFF instructor, it’s important to present clear, measurable, succinct and, of course, correct goals for your students, particularly during this initial phase. Do you know what those goals are?

Paul Wyckoff (right) gets freefly coaching from P.J. Jackson at Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina.

Tasos Michalopoulos (center), B-45316, celebrates his 38th birthday with 10 friends at USPA Foreign Affiliate Skydive Athens in Kopaida, Greece.

The International Skydiving Museum & Hall of Fame is honoring the Canopy Formation World Record Team with its Path of Excellence Award.

The Performance Designs Factory Team began 15 years ago as a 4-way formation skydiving project composed primarily of PD employees. It later became a high-performance canopy piloting team. For 2019, PD is expanding the team to include classic accuracy.

Red Bull is hosting the fifth edition of its Illume Image Quest photo competition—which incorporates all manner of imagery, including skydiving and BASE jumping—and is accepting submissions now through July 31.

T.J. McGrath (center), D-3581, and his sons Tom (left) and John—who have both made tandems with their dad—get matching “blue skies” tattoos to celebrate T.J.’s retirement from the sport.

The Parachutists Over Phorty Society held its 49th annual SpringFest April 4-7 at Skydive Lake Wales in Florida. Longtime POPS member Dave DeWolf—who passed away the month after SpringFest—supported the event with a generous donation.

In mid-April, like the swallows returning to San Juan Capistrano, members of Skydivers Over Sixty, Jumpers Over Seventy and Women Skydivers Over Sixty returned to Skydive Perris in California. The event kicked off on April 19 with the JOS formation skydiving record attempts.

The organizers of P3—Perris Performance Plus—know that it’s spectacular when a large formation comes together. So, each year in May they host a trifecta of four-day formation skydiving events—the P3 Big-Way Camp, 100-Way Camp and Spring Fling—at Skydive Perris in California.

On Memorial Day, West Tennessee Skydiving in Whiteville joined forces with the Forever Young Senior Veterans and WREG News Channel 3 to honor four military veterans.

Skydive West Plains “the Ritz” in Ritzville, Washington, hosted a great Memorial Weekend Boogie May 24-27. Weather didn’t allow jumping on Friday, but the evening potluck, karaoke and bonfire made up for it.