Kirk Verner

With roughly 35,000 skydives spanning a 33-year career, Kirk Verner, D-11059, epitomizes the standard in formation skydiving. Perhaps the most decorated competitive FS skydiver of his era, he has accumulated 66 gold medals in national and international competition, many as the captain of the legendary Arizona Airspeed team from 2000 through 2006. Verner pioneered modern training techniques in 4, 8, 10 and 16-way FS events in both the sky and the wind tunnel.

Verner—who did a stint running his father’s DZ in Sparta, Illinois, in the late 1980s—is currently the manager of Skydive Paraclete XP in Raeford, North Carolina, and the well-known Paraclete XP wind tunnel. As a big-way participant, Verner was a plane captain on the 300 and 400-way Féderátion Aéronautique Internationale World Records for Largest Formation Skydive. Today, he mentors a long list of competition skydivers who compete at the highest level. A USPA National Director, Verner is the chairman of the Competition Committee and delegate to the FAI’s International Skydiving Committee.