Photo by Cheryl Brown   |   USPA #244108
Jay Sanders swoops the pond at Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida during the For the Legends canopy piloting event during the International Skydiving Museum’s Hall of Fame celebrations.

Photo by Jeff Agard |  D-16906
Will DeBlois swoops a pond, jumps a berm and swoops a second pond, eventually landing dry, at Skydive Arizona in Eloy.

Photo by David Gerstein | D-28242

Monique Lai (left) and Jeff Harrigan dock on the hill during a sunset 8-way at Connecticut Parachutists Inc. in Ellington.

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.

Real life often gets in the way of skydiving, and jumpers may find themselves away from the sport for 61 days, 30 years or something in between. One of the regular tasks of USPA Coaches and Instructors is to help these jumpers knock off the rust and get back in the air. Every jumper’s situation will be different, so it requires the instructional staff to create a training plan unique to each individual.

Four hundred and forty-nine. That’s a small number by some standards and a large one by others. To me, it is a much larger number than it should be. This is the number of civilian skydiving fatalities recorded in the United States during the 18 years and three months that I was the director of safety and training for USPA. Each one was a tragedy, with friends and family left in shock as they picked up the pieces in the aftermath of suddenly losing a loved one.

A jumper experienced broken suspension lines on his new main parachute that required him to cut away and deploy his reserve. Later, when investigators inspected the main parachute, they determined that tension knots, which most likely developed in the jumper’s semi-stowless deployment bag, caused one line to saw through the other lines. Jumpers must carefully fold suspension lines into the pouch of a semi-stowless bag to allow the lines to pull free in an orderly manner.

At Skydive the Ranch in Gardiner, New York, AFF student Kyle Nielson makes his required hop-and-pop jump from 3,500 feet.

At Skydive the Ranch in Gardiner, New York, Jim Cupples, D-23572, flies his canopy back to the DZ during his 10,000th jump.

Anticipation is high for the 2019 British Parachute Association Skydive the Expo after record crowds attended the 2018 event. The event, hosted at the East Midlands Conference Centre in Nottingham, U.K., will feature seminars from leading skydiving experts, a large exhibition hall and BPA’s annual awards ceremony, as well as after-hours parties. More information is available at skydivetheexpo.com. 

United Parachute Technologies recently introduced its Mutant harness-and-container system, which the company designed to maximize performance in canopy flight. In contrast to familiar systems, the Mutant suspends the pilot in the supine position—resting back with the feet stretched forward—which is an efficient flying position resembling a paragliding pilot’s. This position reduces drag, thus allowing for more speed and range, and is also very comfortable, according to UPT.

Skydive Empuriabrava in Spain hosted a fundraising event for the Sky Family Fund, which raises money for victims of skydiving and BASE accidents, on November 16. The Sky Family Fund is part of the Care-All Foundation, whose mission is to give people the possibilities for better lives. Founded in early 2018, Care-All has already provided educational and business funding for recipients in Nepal, Kenya and Zambia, helped support an orphanage in Kenya and—through the Sky Family Fund—assisted two people injured in air-sports accidents.

Members of Skydive Suffolk in Virginia pose for the camera after performing a demo jump into a Toys for Tots event, where they also donated more than $150 worth of toys to the cause. 

In late October, just before the end of the board election, then-Pacific Regional Director Ron Bell accepted a position at USPA, which made him ineligible to serve on the board. In a special meeting in November, USPA’s board of directors convened to decide how to treat the Pacific Regional Director election since Bell, who received the most votes, was ineligible to be elected. Because Brett Martin was on the ballot and received the second-most number of votes, the board declared him to be the Pacific Regional Director when the 2019-2021 board begins its term on February 1.

When chess grandmaster Timur Gareyev won the 119th edition of the venerable U.S. Chess Open over almost 400 other players, Chess Life magazine knew that it had to do something special with the adventurous player for its November 2018 cover. As an ultramarathoner, yoga enthusiast and blindfold-chess Guinness World Record holder, the Kansas-based player who was born in Uzbekistan could inspire a potentially exciting photo. But it was when his manager Jennifer Vallens told the magazine’s editors that Gareyev is also a skydiver with close to 150 solo jumps that U.S. Chess—the 501(c)3 non-profit that publishes Chess Life—knew a cover was born.

The weather was perfect for the 10th Annual Halloween Carnivale hosted by Skydive Arizona in Eloy October 26-28. Skydivers enjoyed three beautiful days of jumps from the drop zone’s fleet of aircraft, including the DC-3. Vertical formation skydiving team Arizona Anthem organized Crazy Eights, an 8-way VFS event, while Thiago Gomez and Niklas Hemlin of formation skydiving team Arizona Airspeed organized the belly groups. Saturday’s costume contest was spook-tacular, and Danielle Lakota Barlow took home the grand prize, a Rigging Innovations Curv container, for her fortune teller costume. The boogie was a great start to the winter season in Arizona.

Joe Kelly, Tyler Moran and Cathy Leone, all members of the U.S. Air Force, make a patriotic hybrid jump at Skydive Arizona in Eloy.

Jim Tafralian, USPA #1298, started his jump career in 1971 at the age of 20 at Midwest Sport Parachute Club near Monroe, Michigan. Early in his jump career, Tafralian became interested in formation skydiving and competed in 10-way speed on the Beechnuts team. In 1974, he was part of the groups who built a 28-way round and a 20-way night round at Zephyrhills Parachute Center (now Skydive City Zephyrhills) in Florida. He also became a Federal Aviation Administration Master Rigger and Commercial Pilot.