Michael Erickson (black and yellow rig) coaches John Kidd Sr. at Skydive Spaceland-Dallas in Whitewright, Texas.

Karen Bodin (purple helmet), D-37818, makes one of a series of birthday jumps organized by Kevin Kierce at Skydive Perris in California.

Firebird, maker of the EVO harness-and-container system, has issued a product service bulletin after a pillow-reserve-ripcord cable separated from the reserve pin during assembly on a newly delivered EVO. Although Firebird says it is confident that this is an isolated incident, the company has taken additional steps to ensure the safety of its users.

United Parachute Technologies and Sun Path Products are joining forces to co-sponsor the development, training and sale of the Mutant supine harness, which is geared toward highly experienced canopy pilots. This is the first time the direct competitors have worked together to this extent in the sport market.

At Skydive the Gulf in Elberta, Alabama, Leigh Miller makes a tandem jump with DZO Luke Church to raise awareness of sexual assault survivors.

At Skydive the Gulf in Elberta, Alabama, Leigh Miller makes a tandem jump with DZO Luke Church to raise awareness of sexual assault survivors.

Phil Mayfield, D-2629, first joined USPA in 1969. He made his first jump on March 9 of that year with four of his teenage buddies in Cedar Hill, Texas, and never stopped. Exactly 50 years later, he made a 2-way formation skydive with his son, Aaron, at Skydive Spaceland-Dallas in Whitewright, Texas, to celebrate the occasion. In the past, he’s also had the opportunity to jump with his other son, Jake.

Skydive Arizona in Eloy held its Elemental Easter Festival April 19-21. During the event, attendees played with the four elements: water (a swoop ‘n’ slide and Zorb ball), fire (a full-moon bonfire and fire dancers), wind (an LED night huck in the onsite SkyVenture Arizona wind tunnel) and earth (planting flowers in recycled art vases).

Rattlesnake Mountain Skydiving is a new USPA Group Member drop zone located in Prosser, in the heart of Washington, a place that has been dubbed the birthplace of the Washington wine industry. Seated in the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains, Prosser boasts more than 200 days of sunshine each year and, from full altitude, offers views of three of the Pacific Northwest’s most recognizable mountains, as well as the Columbia and Yakima rivers below.

On March 1-3, Guy Wright and Arizona Airspeed’s Niklas Hemlin joined forces for the third installment of Eloy Team Elite. Once again, jumpers traveled from all over the United States and beyond for a fast-paced weekend of challenging multi-point 36-way skydives from 16,500 feet.

Jumpers at Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina, fly a missing-man formation in honor of Justin Lowell Goff, who passed away April 21.

The weekend of April 28-29, Skydive Suffolk in Virginia hosted the Magical Neon Rampage, a Sisters in Skydiving event. Load organizers Carlye Barto and Chazi Blacksher focused on individual skills in group settings. The ladies earned sweet jerseys and leggings from Kua Sky and scored a neckie courtesy of Kua Sky in their boogie bags. A few participants met for dinner after jumping on Saturday and enjoyed talking about the day’s jumps over wine and chocolate chip cookies.

Kevin Kierce leads the base down the hill during the Top Flite formation skydiving event at Skydive Perris in California.

John Mitchell, D-6462, started skydiving in 1974 and has been a positive presence in the sport since the first day he set foot on a DZ. He is a longtime AFF, static-line and tandem instructor and a weekend fun jumper who is always willing to jump with others, regardless of skill or experience.

Ever since I was young, I’ve been the adventurous type. I constantly seek new experiences and never let “no” get in the way. I’ve never had the mentality of letting life come to me; I’ve always chased it. I’d see something I wanted to try and go after it, whether it be acting in movies (I was in two), doing stand-up comedy or excelling in my career.

In February, I survived a low-altitude canopy collision with another parachutist while skydiving at a busy drop zone in Southern California. We wrapped and came spinning down to crash land on an RV supply parts warehouse. I punched a hole through the roof and was knocked unconscious, yet miraculously, the worst injury I suffered was a badly broken wrist. The other jumper hit a second or two after me and broke two ribs.

Thank you, Ed Scott, for your “Gearing Up” in April’s Parachutist. We need to report our incidents so we can understand potential problems and deal with them early. Our personal influence on safety can have an overall impact of reducing injuries in the sport. It isn’t the rules; it’s the behaviors. With the fatality rate being less than 1 per 100,000, we need to focus on near misses. Incident reporting increases our opportunity to get ahead of our injuries and fatalities.