Started Skydiving: 1993
Home DZ: Everywhere
Licenses/Ratings: PRO Exhibition Rating, Coach Rating, D-20558
Total Skydives: 10,000+
Freefly: 1,100
RW/FS: 700
Camera and CReW: 3,600
Hop and Pops: 4,300
Other: 300 (wingsuit, demos, CreW and sky surfing)
Base: 4
Cutaways: 10

HISTORY/TEACHING EXPERIENCE

Started jumping in 1993 in Sydney Australia, where the Aussie four-way team would come and say hello under a canopy. This is where I really started to enjoy flying with other parachutes. With only a little more than 500 jumps, I moved to the United States to skydive full-time at the Ranch in New York, home to the then famous annual pond swooping nationals. I was hooked!

Doing camera and a lot of CReW made me even more interested in canopy flight. I started dedicating a lot of fun jumps to hop and pops and entered many pro competitions at both the national and international level. We formed Team Slipstream (formerly Fastrax Swoop) and, in addition to training and competing, regularly coached other jumpers in both basic and advanced canopy flight. I really enjoy seeing people ‘get it’, learn and have fun flying their wings. I’ve now been coaching with Flight-1 for 10+ years.

As an experienced Canopy Coach now what piece of advice do you wish you were given as a new jumper trying to learn good canopy skills?

Learn to fly a good and predictable pattern with a pre-determined target for each landing. If you over or undershoot, take note and make corrections as needed on the next jump. Be aware of other canopies in the pattern and be willing to adjust accordingly - safety first. This will give you the confidence of knowing you can land wherever you need to, especially when landing off the drop zone or in a tight spot. It also makes you predictable, keeping things safer for everyone.

And always keep learning. The more you learn, the more comfortable you will be and the more fun it will be to fly your canopy.

Kaz Sheekey

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