Sport All Sports

Why just ride in a plane when you can jump out and “FLY”. Sport skydiving is a wonderful recreational activity enjoyed regularly by more than 34,000 people in the U.S. Approximately 300,000 people make their first jump each year. There are over 6 million jumps made each year worldwide. Over 3 million jumps are made in the United States alone.

The modern history of the sport began in the late 18th century with Jacques Garnerin from France who performed display jumps from balloons flying over Europe. Later in the 19th century, women, who still number only between 15 and 20 percent among skydivers, began to appear on the scene. Kathe Paulus from Germany jumped professionally in Germany around the turn of the 20th century. Tiny Broadwick, another professional parachutist in the U.S., became the first woman to jump from an airplane in 1913 and the first to make a freefall in 1914.

After World War II, an abundance of surplus parachutes and former soldiers with the courage to jump for sport resulted in the growth of parachuting as a hobby. Competitions began to develop and gain acceptance among the international air sports. People first heard the term “skydiver,” coined by Raymond Young in the mid-1950s, as the first commercial skydiving centers opened. By 1957, the first commercial skydiving schools began to appear, and the National Parachute Riggers-Jumpers, Inc., started in the 1930s, became the Parachute Club of America. PCA renamed itself the United States Parachute Association in 1967.

Skydiving equipment has advanced considerably over the last several years. Round parachutes are seldom seen these days and have been replaced by modern, rectangular “ram-air” canopies that have better directional control and offer softer landings. Reserve parachutes are typically worn on the back above the main parachute, as opposed to the older front-mount assembly, and parachute fabrics today are more durable. Parachute canopies are usually made of zero-porosity nylon fabric that lasts for thousands of jumps.

Skydiving comes with a greater risk than lots of sports out there, but the rush that you get after your jump doesn’t compare with anything else you have ever done guaranteed.

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