The Drop

The 2027 USPA National Skydiving Championships finally have a complete venue map! For speed skydivers, the news is worth circling on the calendar: WNYSkydiving in Albion, New York will host both Speed Skydiving and Wingsuit Nationals next year. The rest of the meet—formation skydiving, artistic events, accuracy, canopy formation, and canopy piloting—will go forward at Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina.

It follows that, if you’ve been waiting on this announcement to make travel plans, book training time, or finalize your competition calendar, the wait is over. Boom.

A little behind-the-curtain context

If your spidey-sense is telling you that some of the details didn’t make the headline, you’re…well…right about that.

Speed and Wingsuiting were the only two disciplines without a 2027 host DZ when the original bid landed. Paraclete XP picked up everything else. Speed and Wingsuit were left looking for a home. For a stretch, it wasn’t clear they’d find one in time.

That’s worth understanding, because it points to something the speed community has been aware of for a while: Speed and Wingsuit tend to get bundled together in bid logistics—partly because of shared airspace and altitude considerations, partly because they sit outside the more conventional event blocks. But, as we know, the two disciplines are operationally very distinct. Speed has a small, focused competitor pool, a tightly defined performance window, and a comparatively light logistical footprint. Bundling the two as if they’re the same package can make hosting a much bigger lift than Speed actually requires on its own. And that’s…no bueno.

WNYSkydiving’s willingness to step up for both events broke the impasse. (Thanks, y’all.) Our hope going forward is that more DZs come to see Speed for what it is: a discipline that’s genuinely manageable to host, with a friendly, professional, and flexible community that’s deeply invested in making it work.

And yeah, this matters for the speed community

For anyone planning to compete in 2027: it’s most definitely not too early to start thinking about your training. Speed skydiving rewards consistent reps, careful body position work, and methodical GPS debriefing—none of which happen well in a rushed pre-comp scramble. We don’t have to tell you that the athletes who tend to do well at Nationals are the ones who’ve been logging deliberate, coached jumps for months beforehand.

An East Coast venue also reshapes the access picture. For jumpers in the eastern half of the country who’d otherwise be looking at a cross-country trip, WNYSkydiving makes Nationals a more realistic target. That’s good for the discipline’s growth, and good for the size of the field that shows up in 2027.

The AXIS take (if you’re interested)

AXIS Flight School was built around the conviction that serious skydiving disciplines deserve serious, structured training—and speed skydiving is one of the disciplines we care about most. We’re competitors (obvs), but we’ve also spent years developing coaching methodology specifically for this discipline.

That commitment shows up in a few ways:

• One-on-one speed skydiving coaching at Skydive Arizona, with year-round flyable weather and the aircraft fleet to support high-volume training blocks.
• ISSA speed events we host at SDAZ, which AXIS will continue to host through 2027. (Watch this space—we’ll announce dates as they’re confirmed.)
• A growing library of speed skydiving education in our articles and resources, written by competitors who are actively in the discipline.

If you’re targeting Nationals 2027 — whether it’s your first comp or you’re chasing a podium — we’d love to help you get there ready. Reach out about speed coaching and we’ll talk through what an effective training program could look like for you as an individual.

One more thing worth flagging: SSScore is getting an update

For speeders who use GPS debriefing tools, a quick heads-up: Eugene Ciurana—world-class skydiver, software developer, and 2018 USPA National Speed Skydiving Championships bronze medalist—has a new version of speedskydiving.app (also known as SSScore) coming soon.

SSScore is purpose-built for speed skydiving debriefs, which makes it considerably more useful for our discipline than general-purpose flight data viewers. The new version is in final testing and worth keeping an eye on if you’re serious about getting more out of your GPS data between jumps.

Blue skies, fast times, and we’ll see you at the DZ.

Have questions about training for Speed Nationals 2027, or want to know more about ISSA events at Skydive Arizona? Get in touch—we’re always happy to talk speed.