Several changes that came out of the March 2-4 USPA Board meeting in San Antonio, Texas, affect USPA rating holders.

During an AFF Instructor Rating Course at Skydive Phoenix in Maricopa, Arizona, candidate Jason Allison (top) exits with AFF Instructor Examiner Dave Lepka for an evaluation jump. 

Photo by Jeff Agard  |  D-16906

San Antonio, an anchor of the Texas Triangle (an area of the state containing five major cities and 70 percent of its population), attracted Texas-sized crowds for the USPA Board of Directors meeting March 2-4. The winter meeting, one of the most well-attended USPA meetings in history, contained three days of full agendas and an evening of camaraderie along the Riverwalk after Saturday’s annual USPA General Membership Meeting.

It is just before 7 a.m. at Homestead Air Reserve Base in Florida. Sergeant Kyle Pratt, smartly dressed in a black flight suit with the words “U.S. Army Parachute Team” embroidered in gold on his back, glances up at the C31A Fokker aircraft positioned 25 meters in front of him.

Hey you, reading this … can you define the term “MARD”? Do you know what it does, how it works and what distinguishes it from similar systems? If you answered no to any of these questions, you are not alone! As it turns out, jumper knowledge of MARD systems is surprisingly marginal. (Or should we say, MARDginal?)

Operation Enduring Warrior Helps Combat-Wounded Veterans Take Flight

Skydiving Makes a Difference: A Parachutist series on nonprofit organizations that give back to their communities

Photo by Andy Farrington | D-19747

Jumpers take a break from Safety Day activities to make a head-down jump at Kapowsin Air Sports in Shelton, Washington.

On March 10, skydivers across the U.S. and around the world made their way to one of the hundreds of drop zones that hosted a Safety Day event. Now in its 22nd year, Safety Day continues to be a favorite event that draws jumpers both new and old to the drop zone for a day geared toward making everyone smarter and safer. Whether attendees listened to presentations about managing canopy traffic and avoiding collisions, practiced emergency procedures (in a hanging harness using traditional methods or the virtual reality videos newly available on USPA’s website) or learned how a main-assisted-reserve- deployment (MARD) device works to extract a reserve, those who attended Safety Day thoroughly enjoyed it.

Anna Rocca, B-47038, makes her first rodeo jump with Eric Peterson at Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida.

The International Skydiving Museum and Hall of Fame recently announced the names of those it will induct into its Hall of Fame class of 2018.

Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales once again hosted the annual Parachutists Over Phorty Society SpringFest meet. The February 28-March 4 event brought jumpers from around the country together for friendly competition. It also gave POPS members a chance to remember Bob Rhyne, TopPOP #5, who had recently passed away.

Jesse Weyher and Keith Creedy perform over-unders during a tracking dive at GoJump Oceanside in California. 

Photo by Weston Whittaker | C-43600

On February 9 at Skydive Sebastian in Florida, 26 jumpers set the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Women’s World Record for Largest Two-Point Head-Down Formation Skydive.

March 2-4, 32 expert formation skydivers from drop zones across the length and breadth of the United States and from as far away as Brazil, Canada, Norway, Russia and the United Kingdom gathered at Skydive Arizona in Eloy for three days of phenomenal formation skydives.

For the fifth consecutive year, Contadora, a 54-square-mile island in the Pearl Islands archipelago of Panama, hosted the Pepe’s Island Boogie, a tropical retreat that included paddle boarding, scuba diving and, most importantly, skydiving.

When it came to having fun, the Bahama Beach Boogie 2018 in the island nation of the Bahamas delivered! The event, hosted February 3-11 on the west end of Grand Bahama island by Sky’s the Limit in East Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, attracted 60 attendees for more than a week of jumps from a 900-horsepower Super Caravan.

The USPA Board of Directors will hold its summer meeting July 13-15 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. 

USPA recently promoted Stephanie Seidel to become director of its Membership Services department, the department of five that has the most interaction with USPA members.

Beautiful Day | Photo by Timothy Parrant | D-34622

Matej Sakej lands his NZ Aerosports Petra 72 during a sunny winter day at USPA Foreign Affiliate Skydive Empuriabrava in Spain.

Shooting skydiving on film—true film—has a long history. Nearly at our sport’s inception, freefall cinematographers captured it this way. It was the only way to show a skydive in motion. Many of the early movie cameras used in freefall were World War II military surplus, just like early parachute gear. These were gun cameras, which the military mounted on aircraft guns to record a minute or so of footage when the weapon fired.