Jim P. Slaton
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James Paul Slaton (born Dec 31, 1970 in Amarillo, Texas) was a an airborne Ranger with the U.S. Army between 1990-1998 with an MOS of 13F (Forward Observer)but he is better known as Jim Slaton the professional skydiver and producer of the Pro Swooping Tour, Canopy Piloting Circuit, the Ground Launch Center and many forward thinking ideas.
1999-Slaton signed on with Icarus canopies and created the first factory swoop team called "Team Extreme" in 1999 which won many competitions and produced a documentary.
2000-Slaton produced the swooping competition known as the Para-Performance Games (PPGS) in 2000 and hosted the first event at Skydive Houston in Houston, Texas. The idea behind the PPGS was revolutionary at the time since it combined all the elements of a swoop into separate events of the competition. The PPGS had three competition events in Speed, Accuracy and Distance. At the time there were very few parachute swooping competitions and not much structure to the sport. Slaton's idea was to make new events combining the best of the proven swoop competitions into one grand event for the swooping community. Slaton organized and competed at the 1st PPGS that he organized winning the Distance event and getting 3rd place overall.
2001-Slaton produced the one-of-a-kind Canopy Piloting School that teaches parachute swooping at Perris Valley Skydiving, California in 2001
2003-Slaton with his partner Lyle Presse created the first complete swooping competition circuit called the Pro Swooping Tour (PST) in 2003.
2003-Slaton produced, directed and edited the Pro Swooping Tour's 2003 DVD entitled "The year of Canopy Piloting" in 2003.
2003-Slaton with members of Team Extreme produced the documentary "Out of the Blue" which won film festivals and created a whole new generation of canopy pilots. The "Out of the Blue" documentary demonstrated a new type of flying using high performance parachutes as tools to explore some of Europe's highest mountains. The film shows breathtaking POVs (Point of View) of the team skimming down the mountains during the expedition. The highlight of the film is when the team lands their parachutes on the summit of Mount Blanc in Chamonix, France which is the highest point in the European Alps. The team was the first group of parachutists and Americans to land parachutes onto the summit. The film also shows various parachutes stunts including swooping onto moving trucks, motorcycles, boats and jet skis. The film also demonstrated a new type of parachute aerobatics coined "Parabatics". The parabatics in this film showcase the team building formations with flybys performing both "docked" (connect) and non docked formations at high speeds.
2003-Slaton along with his partner Lyle Presse were responsible for delivering the new sport of Canopy Piloting (a.k.a. swooping) to the International Parachute Commission which got accepted at the IPC's 54th annual meeting in Brazil in 2003.
2003-Slaton produced the 1st website community built specifically for Canopy Pilots called www.canopypiloting.com
2003-Slaton with his partner Lyle Presse organized the 1st World Cup of Canopy Piloting at Perris Valley Skydiving, California in 2003. Slaton also competed at this event and got 9th place in the world with an Icarus canopies prototype parachute with code name "778015".
2004-Slaton became the 1st U.S. National Canopy Piloting Champion in 2004 winning the event with his signature series prototype parachute called the "JVX". The first US Nationals of Canopy Piloting took place at Perris Valley Skydiving, California.
2004-Slaton produced the "Ground Launch Center" to teach and promote the sport of "ground launching" which is launching high performance parachutes into flight.
2005-Slaton produced, directed and edited the film "Gravity Pilots" (Swoop Revolution) which highlighted competition swooping and Ground Launching. The film showed Slaton and friends ground launching while swooping their high performance parachutes down mountains. Scenes from the film were seen around the world on various websites which inspired the paragliding community to design and create a spin off of the sport called "Speed Flying" or "Speed Riding".
2005-Slaton produced the World Parabatic Stunt Team (a.k.a. World Parabatic SWOOP Team) which is recognized as the one of the first corporate swoop teams designed for public exhibitions including displays at air shows and other outdoor events.
2005-Slaton produced the first amateur swooping tour called the Canopy Piloting Circuit in 2005.
Feb 12, 2006 Slaton had a serious accident and crashed when he and his teammate Duane Hall flew into each other while filming a stunt in Lake Isabella, California. Slaton survived but was in a coma for three days and suffered a shattered hip, broken leg, broken shoulder and frontal lobe head injury.
