Nick Barson doesn’t just say he loves animals. He proves it. In fact, more than 700 animals owe their lives to Barson and his nonprofit rescue operation charmingly named “Paws Landing.” Barson’s plan is to keep that number growing.

Danji “DJ” Marvin, D-22292, is an influential and safety-conscious AFF Instructor Examiner, Tandem Instructor Examiner and Coach Examiner who owns and runs The Ratings Center instructional ratings school. Marvin, along with co-host Nick Lott, also shares his enthusiasm and passion for the sport on Gravity Lab Radio. 

“The Perfect Nightlight”  
Aluminum, brass and steel rotating sculpture with LED lights

Timothy Uhl    |    A-79945
Walden, New York

This is an election year for USPA, meaning that each of the 22 seats on USPA’s board of directors is up for grabs by any USPA member who is qualified to run. 

Photo by Norman Kent  |  D-8369
Richard Scheurich (foreground) and Luis Prinetto from Team Fly4Life fly their Performance Designs Valkyrie Hybrid canopies in formation after a jump during the Fly4Life Flight Camp at Skydive DeLand in Florida.

In a sport that requires correctly functioning equipment for your survival, how much do you really know about your skydiving gear? Each year, fatal and non-fatal accidents stem from issues with skydiving equipment. The vast majority of these could have been avoided had the jumpers simply known more about their gear or performed basic gear checks to discover the problem before boarding or exiting the airplane. 

On April 18, The Fédération Aéronautique Internationale announced that the World Games 2021 in Birmingham, Alabama, will include canopy piloting. 

At Skydive Carolina in Chester, South Carolina, Sisters in Skydiving members Amy Milhorne and Christina Horner added a new activity to the drop zone’s SIS events: Dive-Flow Bingo! 

On March 9, a bright and sunny day, 90 skydivers and their friends and families gathered at the Museum of History in Granite in Felicity, California, to make some skydives, to enjoy a reunion of the Pioneers of Sport Parachuting and to attend a dedication of monuments. 

Photo By Ellen Morris | D-26655

Neither wind nor the threat of a late-season snow storm could dissuade DZO Ole Thompson (second from right) and other intrepid jumpers from Vermont Skydiving Adventures in Addison from attending Safety Day, which the DZ traditionally holds in April rather than March due to the climate. 

The energy and warm buzz at Skydive Perris in California on Easter weekend was so tangible you could gift wrap it! The drop zone’s Full Moon Masquerade—a Sisters in Skydiving event—drew Big Sisters, Little Sisters and even some guys. 

Skydive Puerto Rico in Arecibo, a two-year-old USPA Foreign Affiliate DZ, hosted the island’s first USPA Coach Rating Course in April. 

Sweet 16 | Photo by Zach Lewis | D-21616

At Skydive Arizona in Eloy, 16-way formation skydiving team Dallas Disturbance attends a training camp in anticipation of the upcoming skydiving season. 

This year, when Skydive Arizona in Eloy hosted its annual Easter Boogie, the event proved to be quite busy. Three hundred-plus people made the trip for the promise of “more sun, more jumps and more fun,” and the desert drop zone did not disappoint. 

Skydive Atlas in Holdrege, Nebraska, recently won the Visionary Rising Star Award from the Holdrege Area Chamber of Commerce. The award goes to a Chamber member who has been in business five years or less and has demonstrated business success and community leadership.

Katie Hansen and Roberta Mancino teamed up to host the no-stress Ladies Sequential Weekend April 7-8 at Skydive Perris in California. With help from Daniel Croft, Bryan Gile, Chad Ross and David Wybenga, 18 ladies formed three groups on day one to fly freefly formations just for fun.

On June 1, USPA begins the process of having its members elect its 22-member board of directors for the 2019-2021 term. 

Oh My! | Photo by Karen Lewis Dalton | D-24575

At Skydive Perris in California, the drop zone’s organizers, a few world champions and some friends build two formations to celebrate the 12th anniversary of the Chinese company My. The team built the formations on the first attempt and then built them again on the second attempt for good measure. 

Canopy collisions are a fairly common cause of skydiving fatalities. The sport has seen improvement in recent years because drop zones have become more diligent about separating high-performance and standard landings and have also spent more effort educating jumpers on the importance of proper landing patterns, exit separation and separation during deployment.