Eight Skydivers Over 80 Execute a Formation for Guinness World Record

Longevity may be the most important trend we’ve ever experienced. It’s driven by — and in turn, it affects — everything from health to housing, money to technology, lifestyle to social policy. There’s so much to be aware of — and it’s just getting started! Now you can keep up with all the latest developments in this weekly column.

 

Not every story has to do with dazzling, new medical breakthroughs, billion-dollar investments in age tech, or transformative social trends like what’s happening to “retirement.” Often I come across something that’s just pure fun — yet brings to life the themes I’m writing about.

On Oct. 10, eight skydivers — all of them older than 80 — jumped out of a plane above Florida and “unofficially” broke the Guinness World Record for the biggest formation of jumpers in their age group. You can find out more about it here.

The achievement was interesting in itself, of course, but my first reaction was, ‘Wait a minute — there’s already a Guinness category for this? There’s already a record that they broke?’

It turns out, there’s a whole group of over-80 jumpers, known as the JOES — Jumpers Over Eighty Society — who organized the attempt. One of them, Cliff Davis, is quoted in the article: “Many of us have made significant contributions to the modern sport of skydiving over the years, and we are proud to represent our sport with a demonstration that illustrates how the skills and expertise of our team is timeless and are always evolving.”

I dug a little deeper and discovered there’s a similar organization for jumpers over 70 and for jumpers over 60. In fact, this past April a group of 107 skydivers, all over the age of 60, assembled in southern California to simultaneously jump out of planes, narrowly missing a world record. A world record? Meaning that it had been done before? Yup.

They all belong to SOS — Skydivers Over Sixty — whose president, Dan Brodsky, told news media how tough the stunt was. “The trick of doing large formations is that all 107 people have to have a perfect minute at the same minute.” The group missed out on the world record — currently 75 people, set in Illinois in 2015 — because just one person was out.

Here’s the money quote, from participant Fredrick Winsser, who is 75:

“Just because you are over 60 doesn’t mean you have to sit down and not participate in activities. There are all kinds of possibilities you can do. I scuba dive as well, I used to ski, skydiving is the cat’s meow.”

I can’t think of a better example of the reinvention of aging, can you?

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