Swooping is a spectacular sport to watch, and there are a few parts of it that make it much more fun to watch than regular sky diving. For one thing, the majority of the sport actually happens near the ground. This makes it much easier for a normal audience to experience a swooping competition – you don’t have to jump out of the plane with the swoopers to see what they are doing in order to win the competition.
There are several different types of swooping competitions, and one of the biggest events involves distance. While there are several ways to determine the length of a swoop, most competitions find it easier to do this event over a lake or pond of some sort. As a result, the swooping distance is measured from the point where the swooper’s feet first hit the lake until the moment when they finally land.
Like any distance sport, more and more swoopers will end up breaking the distance record. This is especially likely in a sport like swooping when the equipment can have such a large effect on whether or not it is possible to swoop for long distances.
The upper limit on distances for swooping now is the record that was set by Shannon Pilcher. He managed to swoop an entire 418 feet, or about 125 meters. When you consider that a football field is 300 ft, that’s a long way!
In order to swoop that far, swoopers have to be going pretty fast before they hit the ground – at least a little bit faster than they would be if they were just sky diving normally. Swoopers usually pick up speed again near the ground by making a few turns near the ground. Going long distances is pretty difficult, since these last turns are the hardest part of sky diving.
It might be possible that there is a limit as to how far people can swoop. However, until that limit is reached, swoopers will continue to swoop farther and farther. As it is, however, the distance you can count on somebody being able to swoop depends a lot on their experience and the type of equipment that they’re using.
About the Author
Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.swooping.net. Visit his website for the latest on this new and extreme way to skydive.
Written By: Jakob Jelling
So I am a little nervous about saying this but I will. Swooping started at Perris Valley Skydiving in the early 90′s by a student that never went on in the sport past his AFF release jump. If the video is still in my family I would get it posted. I will see if the tape is around. So this is how it went. I was being directed from the ground on my landing, coming in too fast for my own good. When the instructor called brake and I reacted. In viewing the tape you can hear the guy I jumped with say “Wham” thinking I was going to smack the ground. But by what grace(I don’t know) as I my feet came about five feet from the ground the braking motion came into play. My shoot gave me a slight lift and with lifting my legs forward carried me level off the ground about 1-2 ft for about 25 yards. On the tape you can hear the gal next to my instructor say something in amazement I think it was “Whoa”(I forget what it was). Now I cannot foresee that this hadn’t happened in the world of skydiving before. But if they are saying it started about 20 years ago. This incident that I talk of would’ve been somewhere in the time frame of 90-92. Now I won’t ever really say this again. But I could’ve been the person who put the idea out there by accident. Not sure if I’ll ever jump again. My release dive was my last. But it still crosses my mind. I will say also that if this hadn’t happened I would be the student who broke both legs skydiving at Perris Valley.
Sincerely
Derek Dean Brodie
P.S My last name was Conwell at the time if the school keeps records that long.
Also if I remember right which generally I do. Don Swazye was on the plane that jump and I was the only student.
Interesting info. Apologies for the huge delay in approving your comment, my blog wasn’t e-mailing me for a while, when new comments were posted. Did you ever find that video?