General
Scotty Carbone and Steve Haley made the first naked plane formation during the summer.
Also during the summer, Esa ”Kunkku” Mikkonen and Jukka Heikkinen made the first canopy contact in Finland. They jumped in Malmi, Helsinki. The jump was made on April the 8th. Later in the summer some other Finns made CRW jumps as well.
”The Ken Preble Memorial CRW Award” was introduced on the East Coast, USA. More than 300 awards were given before 1980.
”Know-Sense Team” introduced new awards – CCR (Canopy Crest Recipient) for jumpers who had been in 8-way formation and in CCS (Canopy Crest Soloist) for jumpers who had docked eighth or later.
Events
The first known 8-way (or bigger) attempts were made in September. Jumpers in California tried 8-stacks and even an 11-stack. The best result of that weekend was a 6-stack. ”Know-Sense Team” organized the attempts in Antioch, CA.
Records
US team ”Know-Sense Team” from Antioch, CA introduced the new technique of docking from below. That made it possible to increase the size of the formation. Quite soon the first 8-stack was done. In Livermore, CA those jumpers kept a record weekend. The fourth attempt, on October the 23rd, was successful and the first 8-stack was completed.
Jumpers in docking order were:
Steve Haley,
Dave Correia,
Jon Grant,
Jim Schubert,
Keith Carter,
Richard Kjar,
Neil Baker and
Norton Thomas.
The main organizer was Tom Courbat. He saw that record from the hospital. He was injured in a landing accident during the second attempt when he tried to dock at a low altitude and wrapped his canopy around the last jumper. Both jumpers landed under one canopy and Tom was injured.
The next jump after record was also an 8-stack. In that stack there was also the first female jumper who took part in an 8-way. She was Lynda Ballard.