GRAND HAVEN, Mich. — The first annual celebration of World Skydiving Day was on Saturday and some of the largest skydiving associations in the world came together with one common goal — setting the first World Skydiving Day Record.
People around the world, of any skill level, were invited to take the leap on July 13 to have their jump count towards setting the record.
Participating organizations included:
One of the hundreds of participating skydiving centers was located right in West Michigan, at Skydive Grand Haven.
Haley Gwinn, the drop zone manager at Skydive Grand Haven, said they had more than 80 tandem jumpers and many sport jumpers making as many jumps as possible to count towards the record.
She said there were hundreds of spectators joining in the fun and one very special jumper that traveled from her home in Denver, Colorado for the event.
Kim Emmons Knor, a Cadillac, Michigan native, is an 85-year-old skydiver on a mission to reach 1,000 jumps to earn her United States Parachute Association Gold Wings.
Knor has been skydiving for 65 years, making her first jumps in 1959. She was also a member of the U.S. Parachute Team in the early 1960s.
For World Skydiving Day, Knor made her 700th jump at Skydive Grand Haven.
"I love, love, love to go skydiving in Grand Haven because you take off and you're out over Lake Michigan and we just cruise around Lake Michigan," Knor said. "I said, 'This is my only chance to come and see Lake Michigan from the sky.'"
Knor has been making jumps in Grand Haven since the 1960s and said to her, Skydive Grand Haven feels like her home drop zone.
"I love the comradeship and everybody's polite and they're good to each other and they're happy and they're smiling and try to help you do things," Knor said. "We call that our 'skydiving family.' So, you can't choose your own family, but you sure can choose your skydiving family and this is the one that I've heard so many great things about."
Knor said her sisters came to Grand Haven to see her jump and her niece made her second jump ever with her for World Skydiving Day.
"I think it's so cool that we have Kim here for her 700th which is a milestone, so that's huge and awesome," Gwinn said. "We had her here last summer, but this is like, even better than before. And I love that her whole family is out here, because we're a small family business, so it's nice to have everyone. It's just a very big family day. So I think that's the coolest part."
World Skydiving Day's website states with the number of jumps submitted worldwide, it's going to take a few days to validate and count all of the skydives.
Skydive Grand Haven said as soon as the official number is released, they'll post it on their Facebook page.
Those who made the jump can order a certificate to show they were a part of setting the record. Forms can be filled out here.
