Top 5 Skydiving World Records

Creating a list of the Top 5 Skydiving World Records is tough because there are so many. What people often don’t understand – skydiving is a sport that includes many different disciplines. For example, there are skydiving world records for:

• Accuracy Skydiving (the target is the size of a nickel)
• Style and Accuracy Skydiving
• Speed Skydiving (fastest free fall speeds)
• Canopy Piloting (there are sub-disciplines – distance, speed, zone accuracy, and freestyle)
• 4-Way Formation Skydiving
• 8-Way Formation Skydiving
• 10-Way Formation Skydiving
• 16-Way Formation Skydiving
• Big Way Formation Skydiving
• Big Way Sequential Formation Skydiving
• 4-Way Vertical Formation Skydiving
• Big-Way Vertical Formation Skydiving
• Canopy Relative Work (CRW) Skydiving
• Wingsuit Skydiving (different sub-disciplines, here too)
• Big-Way Wingsuit

See where this is going? There are so many different skill sets within the sport of skydiving that setting a record becomes a much-sought-after achievement. And not just for the top-tier of professionals. There are a ton of World Record Skydives that focus on all-women records, Jumpers Over Forty, Sixty, Seventy and Eighty Records.

So from all those skydiving world records, we’re going to list the Top 5… the Grand Daddies of them all, if you will. And not only will we tell you about them – we’ll explain what makes them so great and World Record-y. Ready?

The Official List – Top 5 Skydiving World Records

NUMBER 5

Discipline: Canopy Relative Work (CRW)

Record: 100 People!

Location: Florida Skydiving Center, (Now known as Jump Florida Skydiving) Lake Wales, Florida

While 100 skydivers may not sound like a lot compared to some other world records, this one gets massive respect because of the technical difficulty involved. Canopy Relative Work involves no free fall… it’s all about flying your parachute linked to one of your buddies – and in this case times 100!

Many skydivers look at CRW Dogs (a common nickname) as a little insane. It’s as if whoever came up with this discipline thought, “Skydiving isn’t dangerous enough. Let’s entangle ourselves with each other to make it more spicy.”

What makes this record so incredible:

Making something like this work requires a lot of math around wing loading. A 225lb person and a 150lb person flying a 150ft² parachute will not have the same flying characteristics. To make 100 people fly together means the wing loading ratio needs to be similar for everyone in the formation. Some people have to wear extra weight (weight belts) while others have to fly bigger parachutes in relation to their body weight to get to the necessary wing loading ratio (canopy size to body weight).

NUMBER 4

Discipline: Insanity Discipline

Record: Highest Skydive Without a Parachute

Location: Somewhere in the Desert, USA

There isn’t an official discipline for this, but it has gone down in history as one of the most ballsy skydives ever made. Luke Aikins willingly exited an airplane from 25,000 feet without a parachute and hit a net – which was not nearly big enough for our comfort level!

What makes this record so great:

Despite the obvious, Aikins was so confident he’d pull this stunt off that his wife and child were there to witness the feat. He pulled it off and set a skydiving record the world won’t soon forget!

NUMBER 3

Discipline: Big-Way Vertical Formation Skydiving

Record: 65 Women

Location: Skydive Arizona, Eloy AZ

This record consisted of 65 of the most bad-ass women on the planet – coming together in the desert and doubling the previous world record!

What makes this record so incredible:

The skill set required to fly in a head down position is off the charts. In a sport where women are a clear minority, it was a challenge to bring together so many women from around the world, with matching skill sets. But they did it! Boom.

NUMBER 2 – The Penultimate Skydiving World Record

Discipline: Big-Way Vertical Formation Skydiving

Record: 164 People!

Location: Skydive Chicago, Ottawa, Illinois

In July of 2015, 164 skydivers set the new world record for vertical formation skydiving. What does that mean, exactly? It means that all 164 people were in a head to earth body position (ie, everyone is upside down!).

What makes this record so incredible:

The level of skill required for this record was insane – because everyone is falling head to earth. Unlike a belly-to-earth body position, a head-to-earth position means less surface area – which means less stability. To be able to fly stable requires tons of hours in the wind tunnel, developthe skills necessary to not fly wildly out of control and collide with someone else. The risk for this kind of skydiving is off the charts and is why the media (and GoPro) love it!

NUMBER 1 – The Greatest Skydiving World Record Ever!

Discipline: Big-Way Formation Skydiving

Record: 400 People!

Location: Udon Thani, Thailand

This is the big one, the Big Kahuna, the one we all marvel at… the 400-Way – built all the way back in February of 2006. It was the brainchild of a guy called BJ Worth. He is best known for being the stunt double for the James Bond franchise through the years. If you’ve seen James Bond skydiving, you actually saw BJ Worth.

What makes this record so incredible:

a). The Location. Getting 400+ skydivers (that’s a bench squad) from all over the world to assemble in Thailand is no easy feat. It required a ton of communication and logistics to make it happen… also everyone had to purchase new, color-coordinated jumpsuits for this skydive as it was a tribute to the King of Thailand on his birthday.

b). Lift Capacity. Many records are conducted using multiple CASA 212’s (which hold 32 skydivers), but to do this with 400 skydivers… that’s a whole bunch of CASA’s! To make 400 people come together in the sky required a whole new level of aircraft support… in this case military-grade C-130s. The US government has a whole heap of these planes, but they don’t let recreational skydivers jump out of them (taxpayers would probably not appreciate it). This is a major reason this record had to be conducted in Thailand as the military (and King) were cool about jumping from these flying ships.

Plans were in the works for a 500-way to be held in Dubai in 2016, but issues with securing the required planes didn’t allow for the record to come together.

So, there you have it… the 5 Greatest Skydiving World Records!

Want MORE? Read about the highest skydive ever made (FROM SPACE!)