The United States Parachute Association held its first quarterly meeting last month, and it was perhaps as exciting as that sounds. For those waiting with rapt anticipation on the status of a wingsuit-instructor rating proposal, the bad news is that it wasn’t adopted, but the board is considering other training requirements for first wingsuit flights.
On the other hand, amidst the more dry results of the meeting, we were intrigued by a change in 2013’s National Skydiving Championships. Or more accurately an addition; a 2-way vertical formation skydiving test event was approved, and will make its debut at this year’s event, being held at Skydive Chicago in September.
As a quick refresher, vertical formation skydiving is much like other formation skydiving competitions, but it also uses high-speed body positions. Instead of solely belly-to-earth positions, the competitors will also fly in upright, inverted and sitflying positions.
The entry of this 2-way vertical formation skydiving event functionally doubles the number of VFS events at the USPA Nationals. In 2012, the only other VFS events were a 4-way VFS Open and a 4-way VFS Advanced. In 2012, the VFS Open was won by SDC Standard XP while Cross Keys Cross Control won the VFS Advanced.
In other news related to national competitions, Skydive Chicago also got a bit of good news from the USPA Board of Directors, as they will also be hosting the 2014 Nationals as well. The Board of Directors also awarded the 2014 Canopy Piloting Nationals to Skydive City in Zephyrhills, Florida, and the 2014 National Collegiate Parachuting Championships to Skydive Arizona.
