Zephyrhills Skydiving Team Wins National Championship

BRANDON, FL – Five Central Florida athletes fell to the ground and won a national championship. It helps when the victory was at the 2017 U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships.

The team called Collective Pitch won gold earlier this week in advanced vertical formation skydiving at the national championships at Skydive Perris in Southern California. The five-member group work at the iFLY Tampa indoor skydiving wind tunnel and jump at Skydive City in Zephyrhills.

Members of Collective Pitch are Alex Lupson, 32, and Tyler Roemer, of Brandon; Curtis Weaver, 26, of Brooksville; and Brad Hunt, 42, and Lane Paquin, 28, of Orlando.

In vertical formation skydiving, four-person teams exit the airplane more than 2 miles above ground and perform acrobatics in freefall to complete as many pre-designated formations as possible in time. A videographer jumps with the team to capture the maneuvers for the judges on the ground.

The 2017 USPA National Skydiving Championships, which continue through Saturday, Sept. 30, has drawn more than 500 of the country’s top skydivers for the biggest skydiving competition in the United States.

The USPA National Collegiate Parachuting Championships are scheduled to take place at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales from Thursday, Dec. 28 to Tuesday, Jan. 2.

For more information, visit http://competition.uspa.org/Nationals.

Images courtesy of USPA/David Wybenga