Swooping: A spectator-friendly parachute sport
Parachuting has become a very popular activity with the passage of time. Over the years, many people with a taste for the extreme have decided to turn the activity of parachuting and skydiving into a proper competitive sport. The result is swooping; a new
sport that tests the skills of a canopy pilot and makes parachuting a more spectator friendly affair. There is now a Pro Swooping Tour that governs the burgeoning sport and organises the different events that take place. This interesting and exciting sport
looks likely to become the newest extreme sport around.
Swooping, as a random activity, started to take place in 1996 but no one is sure when it actually first originated. In 1996, two parachute enthusiasts named BJ Worth and Reggie Eastaugh organised a swooping event down a mountain in Montana and a new sport
was born. The same year a few friends got together and organised the first ever pond swoop where pilots would fly their canopies as low to the water in a pond as possible without landing in it. This new crazy sport continued to grow for the next few years
and then in 2003 the Pro Swooping Tour was formed for the proper organising and running of the different events that were taking place. In late 2003, the Pro Swooping Tour tried and was successful in getting swooping introduced into the roster of sports of
the International Parachute Committee (IPC).
Soon competitions started occurring all over America and the sport started to spread. Swooping is basically using skills to manoeuvre and guide a parachute or canopy either to the farthest distance or through an obstacle course or be the first to a certain
point before landing. The sport entails a skydiver jumping out of a plane 5000 feet in the air and then deploying the canopy. By turning dramatically in midflight the pilots can greatly increase their speed and enable them to perform tricks and stunts and
fly for long distances. The sport requires immense skill and very strong control of the canopy to be able to manipulate it as needed. The objective is to level out the canopy in order to pass through gates or glide over a pond of water.
There are three different disciplines that are contested in the sport with a fourth on the horizon. The first is Speed; the goal here is to see how fast a pilot can get his or her canopy to travel at after the parachute has levelled out. Average speeds can
be in excess of 90 mph. The next is Distance; this discipline sees a pilot trying to reach the farthest distance that is possible with a parachute. The next is Accuracy, which sees a pilot showing off their skills in making a canopy travel through gates and
over ponds or other designated points on a course. The fourth category that is slowly emerging is called Freestyle and this is when a pilot flies over a pond or body of water and the pilot and the canopy are skimming the surface of the water leading to a spectacular
display of talent.
It takes 1000 skydive jumps and a 1 to 2 years training course in order to learn how to become a swooping competitor. The appeal of this sport is the fact that it is one of the few parachute related sports that can be enjoyed by spectators. The displays
of skill and manoeuvres that pilots do make for a great viewing experience and fans of the sport love it. There is also an element of risk involved in the sport because there is always danger in parachuting. There is the added danger of swooping over water
because at the speeds that the canopies are travelling, any crash on the water can prove fatal.
Over time, this interesting extreme sport will continue to grow and spread across the world. The popularity of the sport will bring to light new competitors that will introduce new moves and crazier stunts in their quest to reach the pinnacle and become
world champions. Technological advances in parachute material and design will enable greater distances and more accuracy in swooping in the next few years. This cool sport will be one to watch out for.
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