2018 Swoop Freestyle World Championships Descend on the Embarcadero Waterfront

San Diego CA—The world’s most dynamic and visually spectacular skydiving event heads to downtown San Diego, September 14-15, as the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale Swoop Freestyle World Championships comes to the Embarcadero Marina Park South. Eighteen of the world’s best canopy pilots will fly their parachutes mere inches above the water at speeds approaching 90 mph, and spectators will have a front-row seat for the high-speed action!

In canopy piloting, often called “swooping,” skydivers fly high-performance parachutes that can generate intense vertical and horizontal speeds. By performing speed-inducing maneuvers, these skydiving pros can glide inches above the ground and water for hundreds of yards, while showcasing dynamic and complicated moves.
Free to attend and open to the public, the world championships will also include a variety of entertaining air, land and water demonstrations, including a Friday night exhibition – with solo and team canopy swooping, wingsuit skydiving, powered paragliding and more – live music, athlete meet and greets, and food vendors. See the full schedule below.
Spectators can enjoy all the adrenaline-fueled action firsthand throughout the two-day event, and audiences around the world can watch the action broadcast and streamed live on multiple digital and social media channels
A Sports is organizing the event and working closely with the City of San Diego, the San Diego Tourism Authority and the Port of San Diego. Previously, the championships were held on the downtown Copenhagen lakes with a live audience of more than 100,000 people.
“The high-adrenaline sport of swooping is growing rapidly in popularity and is a thrilling spectator sport,” says FAI President Frits Brink. “Following the success of 2017’s inaugural Swoop Freestyle World Championships, the FAI is delighted to work with A. Sports again to showcase swooping in 2018.”
For more information about the event, visit www.swoopfreestyle.com. And to see what swoop freestyle is all about, check out this video.
Schedule of events (subject to change based on weather conditions):
Friday, Sept. 14

• 5-7 p.m.: Training
• 8-9 p.m.: Friday Night Display

Saturday, Sept. 15

• 1-3 p.m.: Qualifying
• 4-6 p.m.: Finals

About USPA

Founded in 1946, the United States Parachute Association (USPA) is a non-profit association dedicated to the promotion of safe skydiving nationwide, establishing strict safety standards, training policies and programs at more than 230 USPA-affiliated skydiving schools and centers throughout the United States. Each year, USPA’s 40,000 members and hundreds of thousands of first-timers make roughly 3.2 million jumps in the U.S. USPA represents skydivers before all levels of government, the public and the aviation industry and sanctions national skydiving competitions and records.
For more information on making a first jump or to find a skydiving center near you, visit www.uspa.org or call 800-371-USPA.