Indoor Skydiving Championships 2009

Paraclete XP SkyVenture, located in Raeford, NC, sponsored the first annual “Indoor Skydiving Championships”, and the event included 4-way FS, 8-way FS, 2-way freefly and 4-way VFS.

In 2007, owner Tim D’Annunzio sponsored an outdoor money meet, as Paraclete was still under construction, and in 2008 the money meet was both an outdoor and indoor competition.

Now, in its third year, Paraclete XP Money meet is an indoor competition only. The Indoor Skydiving Championships posted rules and divisions in April, taking place over the weekend of June 12-15th, 2009. Teams trained and practiced their free routines to compete for the championship status, and several world class teams such as Arizona Airspeed, Perris Fury, and the Golden Knights attended. Prizes included large amounts of cash, and many hours of tunnel time.

During the weekend a crew from National Geographic joined us, capturing some footage of the championships, covering a story that will explore terminal velocity and adjusting wind speeds in flight.

Competition practice flights started 8am on Saturday morning before the draw at 10:00am.  We completed seven of the ten rounds of the Open 4-way division, and all six rounds in the Rookie division.  VTSD, a rookie class 4-way team from Virginia tech, took 1st place with an average of 29.2.  Extended Play won the 2-way Freefly Intermediate competition and team AP took first place for the Open division.  Awards and speeches were done and a buffet dinner was served Saturday evening.

Sunday morning started at 8:00am completing the 4-way Open division, Perris Fury scored a total of 298 points over the 10 rounds, putting their team in first place.  Paraclete’s 4-way team consisted of Tim D’Annunzio and his son, Josh D’Annunzio and Kirk Verner and his son, Alex Verner.  The team competed in Open with a 15.3 average.

“4-way FS competitors with winners Perris Fury centered.”  Photo by: Wendy David

More teams were arriving Sunday afternoon, for Monday mornings events.  Two teams arrived from California, Team EOS being the first 4-way VFS all girls team in the USA to compete in the Open division.  NorCal iFly took 1st place in the VFS division, with Paraclete’s team in 2nd place.

Paraclete’s 8-way team took 1st place in their division on Monday.

“Team EOS, the all girls 4-way VFS team, competed in Open division” Photo by: Wendy David

54 competitors joined Paraclete this year for the “Indoor Skydiving Championships”, making it a great success.  As the disciplines in skydiving continue to grow in number we can look forward to even larger events at XP.  We would like to thank everyone involved for their participation and support.

All photos below by Colleen D'Annunzio