AURORA - Aurora skydiver Nick Batsch hopes to defend his title at the 2018 World Canopy Piloting Championships in Wroclaw, Poland, next week the U.S. Parachute Association said.
Batsch, a member of the prestigious U.S. Parachute Team, is the current world champion and will defend his title against more than 80 of the best canopy pilots from around the globe at the World Championships which begin July 3.
He earned his place on the U.S. Parachute Team, the nation’s most elite aerial athletes, at the 2017 U.S. Parachute Association National Championships, a news release from the United States Parachute Association said.
In canopy piloting, often called “swooping,” skydivers fly high-performance parachutes that can generate high vertical and horizontal speeds. By performing speed-inducing maneuvers, these very experienced skydivers can glide inches above the ground for hundreds of yards at speeds approaching 90 mph.
The canopy piloting championships include competitions in speed, in which pilots try to fly as quickly as possible through a course; distance, which involves flying as far as possible across the ground; and accuracy, in which canopy pilots must stop on an exact spot for maximum points.
Batsch, 36, has won multiple national and world champion titles and holds multiple world records. He has completed more than 9,000 skydives. He trains at Mile-Hi Skydiving Center in Longmont.
The Virginia based United States Parachute Association (USPA) is a non-profit association dedicated to the promotion of safe skydiving nationwide.
