Competitions




World Championships are held every two years both Indoor and Outdoor in the competition disciplines Artistic Events (Freestyle and Freefly, indoor and outdoor), Canopy Formation (outdoor only), Canopy Piloting (outdoor only), Dynamic (indoor only), Formation Skydiving (indoor and outdoor), Paraski (outdoor only), Style & Accuracy Landing (outdoor only) and Wingsuit Flying (outdoor only). Continental Championships and World Cups can be held in alternate years.

Artistic Eventsedit

There are now two competitive Artistic Events, Freestyle and Freefly. Freestyle teams consist of a performer and a videographer, Freefly teams have two performers and a videographer. Skysurfing is no longer a competitive event after insufficient competitors entered in two successive World Championships. The history of these events is on this Freeflying page.

Accuracy Landingedit

Often called "Classic accuracy", this is an individual or team contest performed under an open parachute. The aim is to touch down on a target whose center is 2 cm in diameter. The target can be a deep foam mattress or an air-filled landing pad. An electronic recording pad of 32 cm in diameter is set in the middle. It measures score in 1 cm increments up to 16 cm and displays result just after landing.

The first part of any competition take place over 8 rounds. Then in the individual competition, after this 8 selective rounds, the top 25% jump a semi-final round. After semi-final round, the top 50% are selected for the final round. The competitor with the lowest cumulative score is declared the winner.

Competitors jump in teams of 5 maximum, exiting the aircraft at 1000 or 1200 meters and opening their parachutes sequentially to allow each competitor a clear approach to the target.

This sport is unpredictable because weather conditions play a very important part. So classic accuracy requires high adaptability to aerology and excellent steering control.

It is also the most interesting discipline for spectator due to the closeness of action (a few metres) and the possibility to be practised everywhere (sport ground, stadium, urban place...). Today, classic accuracy is the most practised (in competition) discipline of skydiving in the world.

Canopy Formationedit

Previously called Canopy Relative Work, or CREW for short, is a skydive where the participants open their parachutes very quickly after leaving the aircraft with the intention of flying in close proximity to each other. The goal is to create various formations by "docking" with other parachutists on the jump. The dock is often accomplished by placing ones feet into the lines of another person's parachute. Formations require at least 2 people, but can have many more.

Due to the close proximity of the canopies, care has to be taken by all participants to ensure the safety of the jump. It is common for a CREW jumper to carry a hook knife to use in case they become entangled in another jumpers lines.

Formation skydivingedit

Formation Skydiving (FS) was born in California, USA during the 1960s. The first documented skydiving formation occurred over Arvin, California in March 1964 when Mitch Poteet, Don Henderson, Andy Keech and Lou Paproski successfully formed a 4-man star formation, photographed by Bob Buquor. This discipline was formerly referred to in the skydiving community as Relative Work, often abbreviated to RW, Relly or Rel.

Styleedit

Style can be considered as sprint of parachuting. This individual discipline is played in free fall. The idea is to take maximum speed and complete a pre-designated series of maneuvers as fast and cleanly as possible (speed can exceed 400 km/h / 250 mph). Jumps are filmed using a ground-based camera (with an exceptional lens to record the performance).

Performance is timed (from the start of the manoeuvre until its completion) and then judged in public at the end of the jump. Competition includes 4 qualifying rounds and a final for the top 8. Competitors jump from a height of 2200 m to 2500 m. They rush into an acceleration stage for 15 to 20 seconds and then run their series of manoeuvres benefiting to the maximum of the stored speed. Those series consist of Turns and Back-Loops to achieve in a pre-designated order. The incorrect performance of the manoeuvres gives rise to penalties that are added at run time.

The performance of the athlete is defined in seconds and hundredths of a second. The competitor with the lowest cumulative time is declared the winner.

Notice the complete sequence is performed by leading international experts in just over 6 seconds, penalties included.

Tunnel flyingedit

Using a vertical wind tunnel to simulate free fall has become a discipline of its own and is not only used for training but has its own competitions, teams, and figures.

Wingsuit flyingedit

'Wingsuit flying' or 'wingsuiting' is the sport of flying through the air using a wingsuit, which adds surface area to the human body to enable a significant increase in lift. The common type of wingsuit creates an extra surface area with fabric between the legs and under the arms.

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