10 Skydiving Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

Your graduation might be well behind you, but nevermind that. Dust off your most scholarly glasses, because it’s always a great day to share fun skydiving facts!

1. Highest Skydive Without A Parachute

This distinction belongs to Luke Aikins, the US citizen who leaped parachuteless from a plane cruising along at 25,000 ft (7,600 meters, for you European types). He landed in a specially-designed net–and ran right into the arms of his relieved family. Luke is a professional stuntman and a sponsored skydiver–so chances are, he’ll do something just as crazy next time.

2. World’s Oldest Skydiver

Centenarians regularly make skydives. Just Google “100-year-old skydiver” and you’ll see just how true that is! The record for the oldest skydiver was recently set in 1023 by a 104 year old woman in Illinois, Dorothy Hoffner. 102-year-old man in New Jersey named Kenny Meyer. The previous record was set in May 2017 by a gentle sir in the United Kingdom who celebrated turning 101 years and 38 days young on a jump at Devon’s gorgeous Dunkeswell airport.

3. World’s Highest Skydive

You’d think that this record would be held by skydiver Felix Baumgartner, who performed the highest skydive ever achieved on Oct. 14, 2012. He jumped from 128,000 feet–24 miles up–for the stunt, which was officially called the “Red Bull Stratos Mission.” Indeed, the energy drink wunderkind didn’t keep that record for long. In 2014, Alan Eustace jumped from a balloon that was 135,890 feet above the Earth, breaking the record by more than 7,000 feet. Take that, taurine!

4. Most People On A Skydive

Really big big-ways are scary for lots of reasons, so it’s no wonder that a creaky old record–set in 2006–still stands today as the most-meat-in-the-sky jump ever jumped. 400 of the worlds most experienced skydivers came together to make this jump happen in Thailand, so the celebratory party afterward was ostensibly boss.

5. Largest All-female Skydiving Formation

In 2009, Jump for the Cause organized an all-female world record, sending 181 women from all over the world up into the skies over Perris, California to raise money for the cancer foundation City of Hope. They nailed it!

6. Most Skydives In A Day

Jay Stokes jumped out of an airplane 640 times during one day in 2006, thereby setting a Guinness World Record for most skydives in 24 hours. To pull it off, Jay performed each one as a very-low-altitude (2,100-foot) jump, landing only long enough to shed one parachute and strap on another while running to a waiting plane to take off again. We’re tired just thinking about it.

7. First Person To Ride A Bicycle Out Of A Plane

Since practically inventing modern trick BMXing in the 90s, American BMX athlete Mat Hoffman has spent a lot of time on his bike in the air. He took it a little higher than the high jumps, however, when he rode out the back of a Skydive Arizona skyvan.

8. Largest Formation Of Skydivers Over Sixty

It’s hard to get 65 people over the age of 60 to agree about anything, but y’know what? At least once, they definitely did. We at Skydive Perris were the proud hosts of the SOS (Skydivers Over Sixty) record for Largest Formation, putting 65 seniors in the spotlight.

9. Youngest-ever Skydiver

The youngest person to have skydived is four year old Toni Stadler, the child of German parents living part-time in South Africa, where the jump was made in 2000. Yeah–we can’t quite figure out who was signing off on that, either…

10. Clumsiest Skydiving Proposal

One day, a nice fireman-skydiver decided to propose to his lovely fiance-skydiver by presenting her with a ring during the jump. He set everything up perfectly–even going to some pains to make sure she was in his arms for the big question*. Then–predictably, if we may be so bold–the ring he’d brought along plummeted to the earth below. We suppose they got married anyway, despite the red flags re: predictive skills and sound judgment.

*The maneuver is called a “Mr. Bill,” and if it doesn’t break your arms, it’s a fun time.