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Key Takeaways
Swooping in skydiving is a high-speed, low-altitude parachute landing maneuver. Skydivers do it for fun as well as competitively to show off their canopy control prowess. To start swooping, it’s recommended that a jumper has years of experience and hundreds of jumps to build the necessary skills.
If you’re looking up “What is a swoop in skydiving?” chances are you’ve already seen some pretty cool videos of skydivers coming in for a crazy fast landing. Or, maybe you’re hoping to learn how to skydive and overheard someone bragging about their skydiving swoop landing. Whatever brought you here, we’re excited to tell you about one of the most thrilling disciplines within our sport: parachute swooping.
A skydive swoop is exactly what it sounds like: jumpers perform a special type of landing that causes their parachute to swoop down to the ground quickly and with style. Swooping is first and foremost considered extremely fun. It’s also a competitive discipline within the sport that demonstrates prowess in canopy control. To begin, you’ll need years in the sport combined with hundreds of jumps – if not more.
Let’s swoop right into the basics of this high-stakes discipline.
Parachute swooping is a high-speed, low-altitude maneuver performed by the skydiver while landing their parachute. Jumpers use toggle and harness inputs to generate lift, increase forward speed, and quickly glide inches from the ground.
For someone new to the sport, that loosely translates to: the skydiver makes a particularly large, rapid turn at a certain altitude in order to make their landing faster with a longer glide along the ground before coming to a stop. This differs from the typical, more predictable skydiving landing pattern, in which jumpers make no larger than 90-degree turns and come to a relaxed, slow stop where they want to land.
To understand swooping, you’ll need to understand the mechanics of a parachute system and how it affects the flight dynamics. First, let’s address what skydivers call their parachutes: canopies, wings, main, chute – these terms are all used interchangeably.
Modern parachutes are RAM-air wings, so they inflate with air to create lift, performing similarly to an airplane wing. Skydivers can manipulate the canopy with different inputs:
Toggles: Pulling down on the toggles changes the shape of the wing. Toggles are often referred to as the “brakes” as well since they’re used to slow down for landing. Front risers: Pulling on the front risers pitches the wing downward, increasing dive speed.
Rear risers: Pulling on the rear risers allows for more subtle control of the glide path and recovery arc.
Harness inputs: Shifting weight in the harness can initiate or fine-tune turns.
A skydive swoop generally follows three steps:
Prepare for a rapid turn: Usually, the skydiver will pull on their front risers to initiate their swoop.
Dive with the turn: This turn is generally anything 90 degrees or more to increase downward speed.
Adjust the pitch: As the parachute levels out, the jumper converts that downward speed into forward speed, zipping across the ground before flaring for landing.
Technically, the answer is no. Any RAM-air parachute follows the canopy dynamics explained above; therefore, any RAM-air parachute can swoop! That being said, high-performance canopies will generally provide better results.
The differences between standard and higher-performance canopies are usually found in the trim, size, and shape. For example, a semi or fully elliptical-shaped canopy will behave more aggressively in swooping than the more docile non-high-performance designs.
Size factors in when you consider a jumper’s wing loading – the more weight suspended under a parachute, the faster it goes. A skydiver will go faster under a smaller wing than they would under a larger wing.
The most important difference to note: there is way less margin for error the more advanced in a canopy you go. Swooping in skydiving has very little room for mistakes, leading to the most injuries in the sport year after year. This might make you wonder – what is the most common injury in skydiving? Ankle injuries are among the most common, but the most hurtful injuries are those endured by swoopers due to the decreased margin for error.
Before you rush ahead and buy yourself a pair of skydiving swoop pants, it’s important to know that most jumpers have hundreds of skydives before they start swooping. It takes that much skill. It’s the most dangerous discipline in the sport, so you need to talk with canopy coaches and take swoop-specific courses before you get started.
The abilities you need to hone to become a swooper include depth perception, advanced canopy skills, a confident attitude, and a deep (emphasis on deep) understanding of canopy dynamics. While you may not get to start swooping right away, the good news is that you can start working on these skills from day one as a skydiving student.
The Mutant harness manufactured by UPT (United Parachute Technologies) is the next generation in swooping technology. This unique harness is freefall-safe while enabling a jumper to modify their body position to reduce drag during a swoop. The harness acts similarly to those for paragliding or speedflying, allowing for a supine position. They’re also the next generation harness for flocking – another popular skydiving discipline.
Just to acquire a Mutant, there’s a required approval process by UPT and Flight-I. With different flight dynamics and adjusted emergency procedures for deploying the reserve parachute, it’s important that only qualified, specially trained jumpers fly the Mutant harness.