We are proud to honor Skydivers Over Sixty (SOS) as the 2023 Path of Excellence Award winner!
Skydivers Over Sixty, a subgroup of Parachutists Over Phorty Society, was formed in 1992 at the annual POPS Wintermeet held at Jimmy Godwin’s drop zone in Umatilla, Florida. The first SOS 10-Way included many notables of the sport, such as Max Miensopust, Danny Hupert, Bill Wood, Lew Sanborn, Pat Moorehead, Tom Morrison, Bob Sinclair, J.D. Williams, Len Zak and Walter Ross, some who are still active jumpers. The occasion was a celebration of the 60th birthday of SOS founder Pat Moorehead, and the decision was made that all dues and sales from the SOS store would be donated to support the U.S. Parachute Team Trust Fund. In the ensuing 27 years, SOS has donated over $32,000 to the fund. In addition, SOS has donated over $5,000 to the International Skydiving Museum. Interestingly, SOS includes people with thousands of jumps and some with just a few, and they do what they do because of the camaraderie and good times. SOS takes great pride in knowing that many skydivers who reach this special age continue to hone their skills and actively participate in POPS and SOS competitions around the world. The World POPS Meet has, for many years, included a SOS Division, and the U.S. World SOS teams have collected gold several times. The U.S. chapter has also inspired many other countries to form their own versions of SOS with the same results: camaraderie and good times. SOS has inspired skydivers of “a certain age” to remain active in the sport—or to rejoin the fun after years of not jumping because of various issues. There are over 2,650 members of SOS from 30 countries, most still skydiving. And they truly believe that “60 is the new 40.”
SOS will be honored at the Path of Excellence BBQ sponsored by Sun Path Products Inc. during the 2023 Hall of Fame Celebration at Skydive Arizona the weekend of October 5 - 7. Click here to register and join in the Celebration!
Photo on left: the very first SOS 10-way accomplished at Umatilla, Florida, on March 20, 1992 at the annual POPS Spring Meet. Kneeling from top left to right: Len Zak, Danny Hupert, Max Miensopust, Lew Sanborn, Tom Morrison. Standing left to right Walter Ross, G. D. Williams, Bill Wood, Bob Sinclair, Pat Moorehead
Photo on right: SOS was able to complete a 1-point 101-way on Saturday 4/15/2023 beating the previous record of a 75-way at Chicago in 2018. Then they wondered why stop there? So they went back up and completed a 2-point 95-way on Sunday 4/16/2023 beating the last record of a 60-way at Perris in 2017. Photo by Norman Kent
