Twenty-six skydivers will try to build the world's largest vertical stack canopy formation over Lake Wales starting Veterans Day, chasing a record organizers say has stood for 40 years. The attempts are scheduled for November 11 through 13 at Jump Florida, with jumpers leaving an aircraft one after another and connecting beneath their open parachutes to form a human chain in the sky.
According to organizers, as reported by Daily Ridge, the current record is a formation of 24 skydivers established by the British Royal Marines in 1986. That claim lines up with earlier reporting on the Royal Marines' skydiving exploits: the Los Angeles Times reported in 1986 that the unit claimed a parachuting world record by forming a stack of 24 men during a jump at Dunkeswell airfield in southwest England, a feat that followed a 22-way CRW stack the Marines built the previous year.
A preparation day is planned for November 10 at Jump Florida ahead of the main event. Participants will travel from the United States, Canada, Argentina and Australia to take part, per the Daily Ridge report, and formation planning accounts for parachute size, canopy load weight, equipment age and other factors that affect how the stack comes together in the air.
Veterans and Active-Duty Jumpers in the Mix
The group taking on the attempt includes eight active-duty U.S. military members and veterans representing the Army, Marine Corps and Air Force. One of the military participants is an active-duty member of the U.S. Army's Golden Knights parachute team. Jorge Chacon, a Florida resident and Marine Corps veteran, is also among those jumping, according to information provided by event publicist Megan Custodio.
Organizers plan four or five attempts each day across the three-day window. Participants are scheduled to begin their day at 6 a.m. local time, with the first record attempts expected between 6:15 and 6:45 a.m., and additional attempts planned throughout the morning as the team tries to nail a clean build.
How the Record Has Moved Over the Decades
Canopy relative work, the discipline behind these stacked formations, traces back to the mid-1970s. According to the International Skydiving Association, it is widely believed that Bobby Gray and Mike “Beanpole” Barber performed the first successful two-way canopy dock in 1975, and the first 8-stack was completed in Livermore, California, in 1977 after four attempts. A 13-stack completed in England in 1980 marked the first time the record left the United States.
Beyond the stacked formations the Lake Wales jumpers are chasing, skydivers have also pushed a related discipline: side-by-side canopy formations. The International Skydiving Association lists the current world record in that category as a 100-way diamond, while the FAI has stated it ratified a 104-person canopy-formation world record set at Jump Florida in Lake Wales on November 22, 2025, and local coverage from the Highlands News-Sun described 104 skydivers from 20 countries setting that mark. Coverage of that 2025 effort in Skydive Mag noted the formation took 11 minutes and 15 seconds to build and was held for 20 seconds, following roughly two years of training, and that organizers had previously described the mark they beat as a 100-person diamond formed at the same Lake Wales site in 2007. A follow-up attempt at an even larger 111-way formation came close, but the team made mistakes.
Across the Atlantic, British jumpers have chased similar milestones. A 27-person team set a new British canopy-formation skydiving record during a jump at Langar Airfield on Saturday, August 15, according to Lincs Online, surpassing the Royal Marines' 1986 benchmark that the Lake Wales team is also targeting.
Spectators Welcome as Drop Zone Keeps Running
Jump Florida plans to continue its regular operations during the event, and the drop zone opens to the public at 7 a.m. each event day. Spectators are encouraged to watch the attempts unfold in the sky above Lake Wales as the team works through its scheduled jumps each morning.
