Skydiving Taroudant

The inspiration of generationS of skydivers !

REMEMBERING PATRICK DE GAYARDON
January 23, 1960 to April 13, 1998

Often hailed as one of the greatest all-around skydivers of the twentieth century, Patrick de Gayardon left an indelible mark on the sport through his groundbreaking innovations and fearless pursuits.

Born in Oullins, near Lyon, France, de Gayardon came to skydiving after first studying law. At the age of twenty he began BASE jumping, and the sky soon claimed him entirely. Drawn first to freestyle and then to skysurfing, he carved aerobatic lines through freefall with a mastery that earned him global recognition.

He was never content merely to participate. In 1992, he BASE jumped from Angel Falls in Venezuela, the highest waterfall on Earth. In 1993, he descended into the vast Sòtano de las Golondrinas sinkhole in Mexico. Over Moscow, he set a record by exiting above 40,000 feet without a respirator, a feat made possible only through meticulous planning with a team of technicians.

Yet his most enduring contribution was to the science of flight itself. Inspired by the flying lemurs of Madagascar and building upon the work of earlier pioneers, de Gayardon designed a self-inflating suit with fabric spanning the arms and legs, granting a flyer unprecedented horizontal movement through the air.

In 1997, testing his design over Chamonix, he glided more than three and a half miles in a single three-minute freefall from 4,000 meters. The achievement proved the viability of the human wingsuit and paved the way for all that followed. Between 1995 and 1998 he made close to a thousand test jumps in pursuit of that vision. He performed the first wingsuit proximity flight, skimming the mountain terrain of France, and famously exited and re-entered the same aircraft in flight to demonstrate what his design could do.

His influence reached far beyond his own jumps. Yves Rossy, later renowned for his fixed-wing jetpack, traced his inspiration to a chance meeting with de Gayardon in 1992. Jari Kuosma and Robert Pecnik, the pioneers who would bring the wingsuit to the wider world, resolved to pursue its development after seeing his designs. The discipline of wingsuit flying, as the world now knows it, grew from the door he opened.

On April 13, 1998, Patrick de Gayardon's life was cut short while skydiving in Hawaii to film a promotional flight for his wingsuit design. He exited the aircraft alongside two friends and did not survive the jump. He was 38 years old.

He is remembered as a pioneer who forever changed the way we think about human flight. In 2019, he was posthumously inducted into the International Skydiving Hall of Fame, securing his place among the legends of the sport. The lines he drew across the sky are still being followed today.

Blue skies.

A must read.

A canopy malfunction doesn’t just create a mechanical problem. It creates a physiological one. The brain interprets the malfunction as a threat, and within milliseconds the nervous system reacts. “Oh %$ #*” is the cue that the startle response has begun. Adrenaline surges, breathing quickens, vision narrows, and cognitive processing slows. You are not only running out of altitude, you’re losing your ability to think effectively. Some jumpers experience time distortion. Others freeze altogether......

Learn more about creating composure under chaos by clicking the link below 👇🪂

Article by: Dr. Jeremiah Palmer

https://parachutist.com/Article/safety-check-composure-under-chaos

Embracing Close Calls Are we embracing close calls as an opportunity to learn?

On encourage Mehdi Chen, qui se prépare pour les championnats du monde en octobre aux US, en participant au NORDIC MEET 2026. De supers performances en distance !
Suivre les résultats en direct :

https://www.intimescoring.com/Results/EventResults?dbid=116&mid=97&smid=0&mdcid=306&dseid=0&fbclid=IwY2xjawTC00NleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZA80Mzc2MjYzMTY5NzM3ODgAAR7Cya7A2ySEtwepIKm4HjOPvjRRcI1LRl1n3s0q8QTUQJibCZ5pK31kZAN9dg_aem_BTAJsurEu-8kljVZPF1wRg

Ruelles dorées, souks et oasis secrètes : à l’ombre des remparts, Taroudant cultive un art de vivre ancestral, loin du tumulte de Marrakech.

« Nous sommes poussière et nous retournerons a la poussière. »
« Nous sommes a Dieu et a lui nous retournons »
Même si ces paroles, acceptées et digérées, nous font écho en tant que parachutistes, cela n enlève en rien la douleur des disparitions.
L effarement devant la soudaineté !
Ce mois de juin a été extrêmement difficile pour notre famille parachutiste, que ce soit aux états unis, en France ou en Belgique. nous avons perdus des ami(e)s, des collègues, des frères et des sœurs. Honorons leurs mémoire en parlant de ce qu’ils ont fait, de ce qu’ils représentaient pour nous, de combien nous étions heureux d être avec eux, de partager ces bouts du ciel au quatre coins du monde….toute la joie que nous avons eu a les connaître n effacera jamais la douleur de la perte, mais souvenons nous de ces sourires et du bonheur partagé de pratiquer la chute libre……..
Blue skies to all

A must read ! (Like almost all articles)Thank you Skydive Mag

When Planes Fail A look at recent jump plane crashes, their causes, and what skydivers should watch for. Ed Scott shares decades of research.