Beaufort hosts Skydiving World Championships

Beaufort, NC — The FAI Skydiving World Championships are being held in Beaufort this week.

The competition occurs every two years and this year it was supposed to be in Israel. Due to the current conflict, it was moved with the help of three skydiving companies coming together, landing in Beaufort.

Planes, parachutes, and athletes from across the world have gathered here in Beaufort for the Skydiving World Championships. We spoke with a few different athletes who told us that being here has been a great experience.

The views are stunning, this is one of the most beautiful locations I’ve jumped at.

It’s awesome to see this new location, it’s so beautiful here.

The Skydiving World Championships have brought athletes from across the globe here to Beaufort, North Carolina.

“Actually, supposed to be held in Israel, but due to the conflict that broke out, it had to be relocated,” said Niklas Daniel.

Executive Director for the United States Parachute Association, Albert Berchtold, says that finding a new location for the competition was no easy task.

Is there anyone who can host a world championship in about 10 months from now which is a very short time frame to put together an event of this caliber. So, two drop zones—actually three drop zones in the United States came together.

Those drop zones are Crystal Coast Skydiving, here in Beaufort, Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford NC and Skydive Chicago in Ottawa Illinois.

The two larger companies found the location in Beaufort to be a perfect fit.

They came together and said let’s see if we can solve this problem for the world.

This week skydivers from across the globe have been competing for world titles in their events.

We compete in a discipline in skydiving called wingsuit performance which basically means, we jump out of an airplane at about 11,000 feet, we wear nylon suits called wingsuits which inflate as soon as we jump out of a plane, and then we compete in essentially our piloting skills.

Alexy Galdi is a multiple time U.S. champion and last year’s champion in his event. This was just one of many events in the competition.

We just participated in the world championships, of speed skydiving specifically and so what we’re doing in that competition is basically we try to reach the highest speed that we can after we jump out of the plane.

Niklas Daniel who has been skydiving for twenty years took home the hold in his competition.

All the athletes we spoke with said they have enjoyed the beautiful views and vibes of downtown Beaufort. Although they faced a wind delay to the competition this morning, they were able to get back to it at 2:00 today.

The competition will continue to run through the rest of the weekend.

For more information on the schedule, click here.