This is a writing sample intended for educational purposes in a communication class at the University of Utah. All views, opinions, and thoughts are my own.
There are more than 20 sports that classify as extreme. You likely wouldn’t immediately picture women in any of them. Skydiving is classified as an extreme sport and unsurprisingly includes a low number of female participants. The reason why, what influences that low number of population, and how to increase it is something people in and out of the sport have long speculated.
Following my time researching, the most impactful things keeping women in the sport is the unparalleled sense of community and culture, the desire to learn and master the craft to possibly hold leadership and teaching positions, and looking up to the women who came before and others who are setting records today.
This paper will analyze the unique skydiving community, how women come together in the sport, and the lasting impacts of women who were groundbreakers and those who continue to break records. Therefore, all of these sections will prove that women do have a positive and important place in the heavily male dominated extreme sport of skydiving.
Ultimately what is at stake in this conversation is making this information available to new female skydivers to seek out mentorship, and know they always have a place in the sport so they feel safe and welcome to ask questions anywhere they go.
Culture and Community
As with all extreme sports, it takes extreme people to join together and call the thrill fun rather than scary. These people make up a unique community of risk takers. The following points discuss that community and how it keeps people involved. The community is such a huge part of the sport that it should be discussed as the foundation. Wade, a young skydiver on his own, researched and wrote about the community as he was starting the sport and learning about the group of misfits and thrill seekers he was becoming a part of.
“In the community of skydiving, risk takers may find a rare group of people with whom they can not only participate in this activity, but also talk about it in a way that outsiders just don’t understand” (Wade, 2011). I experience this almost every single time I mention skydiving to other friends. They all think it’s crazy I do it for fun, that I’ve gone so many times, and that I’m passionate about learning and advancing in the sport. Many people think it’s all just a regular tandem (when a first-timer is attached to an instructor), and are unaware of the actual sport and competition side of skydiving.
Skydivers go through certain rites of passage in order to join the group which earns them a spot in the club of misfits, something outsiders definitely don’t understand. While it’s a highly stressed individual sport in the sense that each skydiver is responsible only for their own life, it’s sharing this experience that brings everyone together. In an article specifically about the culture, the author, who is also a new skydiver, writes about his experience in the sport and interviews other young women about their experiences starting out. “A greater bond and a higher level of trust can be formed when a skydiver knows that her partner has been through the same ordeal that she has. All skydivers share that experience of earning their own way, and can connect almost instantly with other skydivers from across the world” (Wade, 2011).
The Women’s Skydiving Network agrees with the above statements about the community as it discusses the idea of a ‘third place’ in the sport. The term was coined by sociologist Ray Oldenburg to describe a social environment separate from the first place at home and the second place at work or school. Third places are considered essential for community building and social interaction. “As our search for meaningful connections and unforgettable experiences continues, dropzones present an unexpected option as modern-day third places. You may arrive searching for a sense of adventure, but walk away with a diverse and inclusive community, opportunities for personal growth, a sanctuary for mindful reflection, and life-long friendships” (WSN, 2023). This third place, community, and even a sense of sanctuary is especially important for female skydivers joining the sport. I felt very welcome when I was consistently going to my local dropzone in Tooele, west of Salt Lake City, Utah, multiple times a week and this community turned into friends that I talk to and hangout with outside of the dropzone as well. It’s a place where I can relax and chat with friends even if I’m not skydiving that day and I can always learn something new by just being in the environment.
Representation and Learning
Skydiving is a sport that doesn’t physically discriminate between genders, but while women make up half of tandem participants, their path to earning a license drastically diminishes in a sport that’s dominated by men.
According to USPA data, the bulk of membership falls between ages 21-49, 7% are in the military, and 58% of member households make over $75,000 a year (USPA, 2022). With those kinds of statistics, some would say it’s not surprising only 13% of USPA members are female.
Figure 1: Screenshot from USPA.org of the 2021 membership data.
Even with the low number overall, females hold a higher number of leadership positions including judging, instructing, and elected positions (Searls, 2021). Furthermore, industry experts attribute the low number of females to their lack of confidence, lack of funding, and even male aggression toward women. They added societal impacts that women in the prime age of skydiving are also “getting married, raising kids, establishing a career or helping aging parents—roles that men are less likely to take on” (Searls, 2021).
In a journal about sports and social issues, one woman recalls things she’s heard that align with those thoughts that women don’t belong. “I mean, sometimes you’ve just got that, ‘Oh, she’s a chick, she doesn’t know what she’s doing, she’s stupid, yada yada yada,” but she also explains she far more enjoys when males in the sport don’t see her as female and only as a fellow jumper (Laurendeau and Sharara, 2008).
But not everyone can separate gender from things happening in the sport which would help view it as an individual thing for both successes and troubles.
To further reveal those ideas amongst men, a video from the 2017 Parachute Industry Association Symposium breaks down the misconception with the appropriately titled event “Girls Can’t Fly Parachutes.” Male attendees stated they’ve thought women struggle with flying parachutes and landing safely for various reasons including they “have worse depth perception,” or “aren’t strong enough to flare” or “women aren’t mechanically inclined to fly parachutes” (Golly and Reay, 2017). The women leading the class, who work for Performance Design, a popular parachute company, disputed this with information on the challenges of smaller jumpers, usually females, who go through a canopy downsizing process that is much more intense than males. They explain that women don’t show up to the dropzone for the first time thinking they aren’t going to be good at the sport, but other jumpers, almost exclusively males, tell them they aren’t good. This video supports the point that women can learn better from other women because they’ve experienced the same issues in many aspects of the sport that men don’t go through equally. Figure 2 below provides the data to explain how different the challenge is for a 175 pound male, and a 125 pound female on the same learning track. The female is pushed to downsize drastically fast from the Navigator to the Sabre parachute models as seen in the first column to the right of the photo. While the 150 is an equal 1 to 1 ratio for the woman of 125 pounds, plus an average of 25 pounds of gear, its likely a quick drop from what gear she learned on as a student.
Personally, I jumped with a Navigator 200 as a student and want to downsize my canopy, but it would be reckless and dangerous to go to a 150 and I may not get there for 100 more jumps as I slowly work my way to a 190, 180, 170 and so on.
Figure 2: Screenshot from the “Girls Can’t Fly Parachutes” seminar.
There are many programs in place designed to help teach and recognize women in the sport. Specifically the article “Breaking Barriers—A Look at Women in the Sport on the 10th Anniversary of SIS” highlights the Sisters In Skydiving program and their purpose to pair students or novice female jumpers, called Little Sisters, with experienced women skydivers, the Big Sisters, at their dropzones. The goal for the group was to support the already present community of female skydivers, while hoping for representation to increase.
Figure 3: Screenshot from USPA.org of the SIS program homepage.
“Little Sisters can expect several benefits from the SIS mentorship program such as being invited on social outings with your Big Sister, help with equipment selection, someone to share your concerns and fears with and a shoulder to lean on that may have already been through the same things or had the same concerns you did when she first began in the sport” (ASN, 2016).
Beyond SIS is the 2016 founded Women’s Skydiving Network, and Project 19, a privately funded project created to celebrate the 19th amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The project’s goal was to set a new world record of female skydivers to celebrate 100 years since the addition of the 19th amendment and to highlight womens contributions. These programs acknowledge the need for women to join together and through the process of both fun events and formal classes, they can learn better alongside one another that they may not benefit from as easily in a group of men.
Trail Blazers and Award Winners
Before acknowledging the future, one should reflect on the past. The Women’s Skydiving Network wrote a thorough article about women’s history in the sport highlighting several women who paved the way not just for women, but made huge contributions to the sport as a whole.
Figure 4 & 5: Photos from WSN Women’s History Month website blog.
From Katharina “Käthe” Paulus who designed a packing system that influenced World War I, to Georgia Ann “Tiny” Thompson Broadwick who was the first to deploy a parachute manually rather than on a static line and conduct an intentional freefall. (WSN, 2022). “Women have been in skydiving right from the start, from the days of the barnstormers like Georgia Ann Thompson, aka Tiny Broadwick, who in 1913 was the first person—not simply the first woman—to freefall from a plane” (Searls, 2021).
WSN’s article included Adeline Gray who was the first person to jump with a nylon parachute in 1942, and Monique Laroche who set the first ever FAI parachuting record and later in 1951 at the age of 22 she set the record for an altitude jump with a delayed opening only 400 meters from the ground. As a student at Skydive Utah, we did several jumps where we opened our parachute at 5,500 feet. Now, after earning my license and knowing my gear better, I pull my parachute at 4,000 feet. Something called your ‘decision altitude’ is at 2,500 meters which means you have to decide by then if the parachute you have opened is landable and safe, if not, you cut away and deploy your reserve, and if something catastrophic goes wrong your automatic activation device will deploy at 1,000 feet if you failed to open a parachute on your own. So a young jumper opening her parachute at 400 feet sounds absolutely insane, even to experienced jumpers today. Lastly Deanna Kent was the first to perform freestyle when she “skydanced” in her husband Norman Kent’s 1989 film “From Wings Came Flight” (WSN, 2022).
Furthermore, that history includes women who changed language used today in the sport to be inclusive regardless of gender. “In 1967, formation skydiver Clarice Garrison spurred the change of lexicon from “10-man” to “10-way” by winning the first 10-way FS meet as a member of the Arvin Good Guys team” (Searls, 2021).
Reviewing the history of the sport, especially as it pertains to how women were included from the start, matters for all of those who follow along. It gives newcomers the encouragement that they too belong in this sport and it’s significant that so many articles noted this. They all agreed it’s important to remember those who came before us so that more women can make lasting impacts in the future.
In the incessant argument that women have the same potential as men in the sport, one woman said, “Women could be every bit as good as guys. There’s no gender differences in terms of skydiving. You know, women could be as good or better than the guys, right?” (Laurendeau and Sharara, 2008).
And some women are proving their space in the sport. “The recent growth in all-women formation skydives seems to challenge social relations in certain respects, advocating a way of skydiving that ostensibly speaks to the emotional need of women jumpers. In addition, the kind of publicity generated by these jumps may go some way toward challenging assumptions that skydiving is more the purview of men than women (Laurendeau and Sharara, 2008).
Figure 6: The Project 19 all-female skydiving team world record. Photo by Norman Kent.
One of those all-women formation skydives, which certainly received great publicity was the Project 19 all-female skydiving team who broke a world record in November 2022 when they successfully achieved an 80-way formation, shattering their previous record from 2016 (Brosh, 2023). The team was made of women from 22 countries, proving that unity can do great things. “We want our record to be felt as resistance against any effort to limit the rights of women. We’re going to show up. We’re going to speak up. We’re going to take up space. We’re going to vote. We invite every woman out there to join us” said Melanie Curtis, the executive director of the Women’s Skydiving Network which sponsored Project 19 (Brosh, 2023).
Just a couple weeks ago, 19 women set the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) – the World Air Sports Federation – Women’s Wingsuit World Record Nov. 2-5 at Skydive Perris, a dropzone in southern California. According to the Sports Illustrated article, the team held the perfect formation while traveling at the same exact speed of about 110 miles per hour. A digital overlay of the formation back on the ground showed that the 19 women had successfully slotted into their respective quadrants.
Women involved in the record expressed their excitement of accomplishing this lofty goal. “We gathered as a group on Thursday morning and in just four jumps we were able to set the world record,” said wingsuiter Alina Borovika. “Being part of the Women’s Wingsuiting World Record this past weekend has been the most amazing experience of my skydiving career so far.” Others are very experienced skydivers, who are part of other female only teams including Shayni Couch. “So honored to have been part of this all female team, breaking wingsuit skydiving records and creating pathways to new ones,” wrote Shayni Couch, who is a part of the all-female airsports team The Joy Riders.
These women prove that so much more is possible when women get together and work toward an audacious goal, and in turn crush it and try to make it better the next time. The team also broke the California State and US National records, and achieved the feat flying bigger and faster suits than previous wingsuit records.
Figure 7: Women’s World Wingsuit Record With Flat Formation. Photo by Will Kitto.
Seeing women being awarded for their talent and skill in the sport is persuasive to keep learning and progressing. These articles matter to newcomers, and provide inspiration, notably with knowing about Melissa Lowe, “a PRO-rated skydiver with 23 world records who is also the founder of the competition 4-way vertical formation skydiving discipline” (Searls, 2021).
“One of the female gender’s best assets is the ability—actually almost the need—to collaborate, cooperate, network, socialize, inspire each other,” said Jen Sharp, once the USPA’s Director of Information Technology, and co-creator of Female Skydiving Instructor Network (Searls, 2021).
While increasing the percentage of female jumpers that make up the registered USPA numbers would be nice to see, if current members aren’t connected and cared for then it won’t be a positive community for newcomers.
Conclusion
Increasing female membership in the sport of skydiving will likely always be a goal for those already in the sport. This research covered how the skydiving community comes together and provides a place for fun activities, competition, and self improvement amongst all the members of the community; how women make up a low percentage in the sport but how much more they benefit when coming together and learning from each other for their own safety and advancement; and lastly how there are so many women who have proven themselves in the sport from the very beginning which validates each new female’s desire to start the sport and excel in their own way.
These topics covered a lot of perspectives and experiences in skydiving, discussing how welcoming the community is and how newer women are taught well even though in some ways it contradicts some women in other articles and their experiences. I would dare say that each dropzone location has their own issues, among all experience levels, and each person’s experience, male and female, will vary greatly, especially to include European locations.
My ground school instructor was a female and she was very excited there were three females in the class that day. I continued to see more females in classes the following weekends. So while females may take longer to get their licenses, I can say with confidence that the three men in my ground school did not earn their licenses this season but the females did.
While I’ve had no problems at my own dropzone, earned my A license this past season, and am looking at buying my own gear soon to continue the sport, I will continue to do my own research on these issues discussed about the separation between males and females. I’m attending a female-only three-day skydiving event in Arizona after the new year and I’m eager to see how different the environment is with only females jumping, flying the plane, and operating the ground side requirements. Females play a vital part in the extreme sport of skydiving.
So, Live; Through Travel 