Thirty-eight skydivers, all over the age of 60, linked arms and legs in midair above Rosharon, Texas, this month to set a new world record for the largest full-break sequential skydive by athletes over 60. The group, known as Skydivers Over Sixty, pulled off the feat by building one aerial formation, breaking apart completely, and then reforming into a second pattern before anyone pulled a ripcord.
The record-breaking jump happened between August 17 and 19 at Skydive Spaceland in Rosharon, with all 38 members exiting simultaneously from two airplanes, according to KHOU 11. Houston skydiver Rich Delgado, a 31-year veteran of the sport, spent months organizing the attempt and personally invited senior skydivers from across the country to take part, the station reports. As ABC13 Houston reported, the group's Rennay Blizzard put the appeal simply: “there is nothing like skydiving,” adding that throwing themselves out of the plane is pure bliss.
A Dropzone Built for Big-Way Records
Skydive Spaceland Rosharon wasn't a random choice. The three-generation, family-owned dropzone, run by the Boyd family, maintains the kind of large fleet aircraft needed to launch big-way, multi-plane formations, per the same station's reporting. That infrastructure has a track record with this exact group: in January 2015, 19 members of Skydivers Over Sixty set a previous SOS world sequential record at the Rosharon facility, completing two separate formation points on their fourth attempt, according to Skydive Spaceland Houston.
The dropzone's history with senior formation jumps stretches back even further. In May 2014, 21 SOS members ranging in age from 60 to 78 established a Texas state formation record over Rosharon after jumping from a Shorts Skyvan and a DeHavilland Super Twin Otter flying in tandem formation, per Skydive Spaceland Houston. That earlier attempt took six tries before the group held a 120 mph formation for nearly 25 seconds.
Part of a Bigger Wave of Senior Jumpers
Skydivers Over Sixty, also known as SOS, describes itself as a worldwide group of skydivers, and it operates as an international subgroup of the Parachutists Over Phorty Society, according to POPS USA. That parent organization was founded in the U.S. in 1966 and now includes specialized societies for jumpers in their 70s, 80s, and 90s. The Rosharon jumpers are described by ABC13 as thrill-seekers entering retirement age rather than exiting the sport.
The numbers back up the idea that this is a real demographic trend, not a novelty act. Skydivers aged 60 and older make up roughly 23 percent of licensed United States Parachute Association members, the second-largest age bracket in U.S. licensed skydiving behind jumpers in their 30s, according to Skydive Midwest. Under USPA rules, there is no maximum age for skydiving at all, though all USPA-affiliated dropzones enforce a minimum age of 18, per World Population Review.
Why More Seniors Are Still Jumping
Nationally, skydiving remains a large but sharply divided sport. An estimated 3.65 million total skydives were logged in the U.S. in 2025 across roughly 350,000 unique participants, but the vast majority — about 300,000 — were first-time tandem jumpers rather than licensed athletes, according to Skydiving Statistics. Only around 40,000 are active license holders, the smaller and more experienced pool from which multi-way sequential record attempts like the Rosharon jump are built.
Improved safety technology has helped make that kind of sustained, decades-long participation possible. Annual U.S. skydiving fatalities fell from an average of 42 per year in the 1970s to 10 in 2023, largely thanks to gear upgrades like reserve static lines and automatic activation devices, according to USPA safety data cited by Western New York Skydiving. Those mechanical redundancies have made it far more realistic for jumpers in their 60s, 70s, and beyond to keep building formations in freefall rather than hanging up their rigs.
The Rosharon record adds to a run of high-profile senior skydiving moments tied to the same corporate family of dropzones. Hoodline previously covered Abbott's tribute jump alongside a 106-year-old veteran at Skydive Spaceland San Marcos, a sister location under the same brand. ABC13's Localish visited the group in Rosharon during the record-breaking attempt, capturing the moment the 38-member group made good on months of planning by Delgado and the rest of Skydivers Over Sixty.
