Temecula Skydiver Wins Gold in Canopy Piloting

News release from United States Parachute Association:

TEMECULA, CA – May 13, 2013 – Temecula resident Justin Judd won the gold medal in the advanced distance event Friday at the 2013 U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships of Canopy Piloting at Skydive City Zephyrhills in Florida.

Judd was one of nearly 80 of the country’s finest, fastest, most fearless skydivers who flocked to the Sunshine State to push their aerial skills to the limit and compete for gold, silver and bronze medals in canopy piloting.

In canopy piloting, often called “swooping,” skydivers fly high-performance parachutes that can generate high vertical and horizontal speeds. By performing speed-inducing maneuvers, these very experienced skydivers can glide inches above the ground for hundreds of yards at speeds approaching 90 mph.

The canopy piloting championships include competitions in speed, in which pilots try to fly as quickly as possible through a course; distance, which involves flying as far as possible across the ground; and accuracy, in which canopy pilots must stop on an exact spot for maximum points.

Judd, 24, trains at Skydive Elsinore and has completed more than 2,000 skydives. When he’s not jumping out of perfectly good airplanes, he works as a project manager for the City of Poway and spends time with his wife and one-year-old son.

Later this year, nearly 500 of the country’s top skydivers will head to the 2013 United States Parachute Association (USPA) National Skydiving Championships, the biggest and most thrilling skydiving competition in the country. The event will take place September 12-24 at Skydive Chicago, an expansive skydiving resort in Ottawa, about an hour west of Chicago. These championships are also free and open to the public.

Skydive Like a Pro

For sheer excitement and high-speed fun, no sport comes close to skydiving. Fortunately, this high-flying adrenaline sport is not as extreme or intimidating as it may seem. Just about anyone 18 years of age or older can take to the skies after some comprehensive safety instruction. In fact, all it takes is a half hour of ground school to prepare for a tandem jump, the easiest and most popular way to experience skydiving for the first time. Tandem jumping allows students to experience the thrill of freefall from 13,000 feet while securely harnessed to an experienced, licensed instructor.

Another first-jump method called Accelerated Freefall (AFF) allows students to jump solo right away—with two instructors at their side—after four to five hours of intense ground instruction. Just about anyone can earn a license in as few as 25 jumps!

For more information on skydiving and to find a USPA Group Member skydiving center near you, visit www.uspa.org.

About USPA

Founded in 1946, the United States Parachute Association is a non-profit association dedicated to the promotion of safe skydiving nationwide, establishing strict safety standards, training policies and programs at more than 240 USPA-affiliated skydiving schools and centers throughout the United States. Each year, USPA’s 35,000 members and hundreds of thousands of first-time jump students make approximately 3.1 million jumps in the U.S. USPA represents skydivers before all levels of government, the public and the aviation industry and sanctions national skydiving competitions and records. 

For more information on making a first jump or to find a skydiving center near you, visit www.uspa.org or call 800.371.USPA.