Dean Ricci breaks down how quickly skydiving evolves, and why the fundamentals are what keep it all working
One of my favorite things about our sport is how quickly things change. Each “generation” of skydivers seems to come up quicker than the last, and with each come all kinds of new.
“But wait,” you say. “Nothing in skydiving has really changed in years! Our rigs have the same three handles they’ve had forever, the parachutes are basically the same, and the jumpers are still jumpers, even if they do different stuff.”
I’m going to push back pretty solidly on this one, and I’ll do it by talking very briefly about a couple of other sports.
Other Sports Move Slowly
In 1845, the sport of baseball officially laid out the written rules for what would become one of the most popular games around. In 1876, the first real professional structure, the National League, was established. And then, in a surprise move by the fledgling sport, absolutely nothing substantial changed until they started using instant replay in 2008. That’s basically 163 years with no real changes to the overall structure of the game (not including who could play or changes in uniform styles).
Now let’s look back to 1457 and the advent of golf in Scotland. The rules for the game were officially laid down somewhere around 1744. Then they changed the way they made the balls around 1900, and the clubs in the 1960s (and again, who could play and what they wore). Not exactly lightning fast with change.
But now let’s take skydiving into consideration.
In 1797, Frenchman André-Jacques Garnerin made the first recorded parachute jump when he exited a hydrogen-filled balloon from about 3,000 feet over Paris. The first packed parachute in a container came in 1887. Then, in 1903, a key ingredient to the sport got mixed in with the advent of a little thing called an airplane. In 1912, Albert Berry made the first jump from a powered aircraft, just shy of WWI, which jump-started development of parachutes and equipment, leading to 1963 and the first ram-air canopy.
Then Bill Booth, the lord of the three rings, introduced what was arguably the single most significant advance in the sport in the late 70s. The three-ring system dramatically simplified emergency procedures and ushered in an era where skydivers had to get a bit more creative about how to get themselves killed.
It’s kind of a free-for-all after that. ’75 saw RW competitions kick off. In the 80s, it was freestyle and the beginnings of AADs, with CYPRES hitting the market in ’92.
The Explosion Era
But c’mon… where do I even start with the 90s?
Tandems became widely available and were almost single-handedly responsible for not only keeping the sport alive but ushering in a new mainstream fascination with what was previously seen as a crazy, extreme activity. Advancements in camera equipment and flying skills made us highly visible. In ’94, the disciplines that grabbed me by the balls, skysurfing and freefly, kicked off in the newly formed X Games. Troy feeding Pepsi to a goose during the Super Bowl gave us real credibility.
Outside of team stuff and RW suits, fashion (or the lack of it) became a real thing as the counterculture of freeflying kicked off a bit of a hippy feel. You knew you were looking at a badass flyer if their jumpsuit (or lack of it) hadn’t seen a washing machine yet that season, and their obscenely tiny rig looked like it had been stored in a ditch.
The canopies were getting faster and smaller, earning nicknames like “Spinletto,” with jumpers toggle-whipping themselves into the ground in record numbers.
Modern Progression
In the 2000s came the rise of the modern wingsuit with Patrick de Gayardon (although BirdMan started up first in ’99), along with huge leaps in canopy design that kicked off the swoop revolution. Who doesn’t remember the first time they saw (and heard) a Velocity coming in for landing? Mind-blowing and life-changing.
The 2010s saw wingsuit proximity flying. In 2012, Felix broke Kittinger’s altitude record. In 2014 came the mainstream adoption of the modern wind tunnel (even though old-style tunnels like Las Vegas had been around since the 80s). Fashion flipped from dirtbag freefly culture to an almost F1-style look: custom rigs, helmets, the works. We started looking sharp.
Safety Catches Up
Throughout all of that, safety and training jumped leaps and bounds ahead. Systems like the Skyhook were not just introduced but embraced. The low-pull, “hook it like you stole it” mentality has slowly been replaced by increased awareness, better training, and a culture that rewards safety over going big just for the hell of it.
There are dozens of smaller advancements I haven’t listed, but you get the point. As a sport, as a tribe, as a collective, we are pretty damn good at not only pushing advancement but adapting as it comes.
The Community Advantage
Knowing that a new jumper obsessively watching YouTube could soon find themselves on a load with their hero, learning, gaining experience and respect, then eventually becoming that mentor to the next generation, is one of the coolest things about this sport.
What lifelong baseball fan ends up sitting on the bench with their hero? Never happens. In skydiving? Daily.
The Double-Edged Sword
“Okay, we get it. Lots of cool stuff has changed over the years, but is that a good thing?” Change in our sport has absolutely been a double-edged sword.
But here is where the skydiving community has always been top shelf. When change heads in the wrong direction or comes too fast, we…whether instructors, coaches, DZOs, competitors, pilots, fun jumpers, or ground staff…are good at getting back to fundamentals. And when safety is involved, checking ego isn’t optional.
Safety and training, although evolving, have always had one central pillar: keep jumpers safe. In the aircraft, in the sky, and on the ground. It’s that commitment, jump after jump, that has allowed the sport to progress as far as it has in such a short time. Even better, safety continues to improve as jumpers speak up and share where things can get better.
Moving Forward
Embracing change while holding onto the basics is the best way for experienced jumpers to guide newer ones.
We all know there will always be advancements in skydiving. That’s part of what makes it exciting. But it also highlights how important it is to know our history and hold onto the lessons that got us here.
In my 30 years in the sport, I don’t think we’ve gone more than a few years without some kind of meaningful advancement—whether in equipment, training, or skill. For me, the most constant thing in skydiving has been change. And it’s something we’re really damn good at.
I mean… look where it’s gotten us so far.
