Keith Paulsen of Morrison, Ill., gets a high like no other when he’s literally floating among the clouds.
The 65-year-old native of DeWitt, Iowa, and retired carpenter will be traveling to Lake Wales, Florida this month to participate in a very special event – a world-record attempt for a global skydiving canopy formation. From November 10-23, 131 skydivers from around the world will gather to surpass the world record set in 2007 -- a 100-person parachute formation in flight.
Paulsen has made 5,027 skydives over his career, since the mid-‘80s. He’ll represent Chicagoland Skydiving Center in Rochelle, Ill., and has spent years training at home and across the U.S. with jumpers from all over the world to prepare for this moment.
Paulsen usually jumps from 13,000 to 15,000 feet up. For the world record attempt, the planes will get up to 19,500 feet. There are usually eight planes altogether carrying jumpers (about 20 in each). Each person is added gradually to the formation, starting with a four-way diamond.
The first year he tried a group formation was in 1986 at Texas A&M. Paulsen’s been working toward the world record for several years, and they got 82 last year in Lake Wales.
“For this one, they’re staging it a little different. The base line may go out and build and while they’re building, I’ll be on the next aircraft – there’ll be two aircraft coming in at 18,000 feet and we’ll pass that diamond hopefully as it’s getting built.”
Each jumper has ear pieces to hear a radio with instructions on where to move.
Jumpers from 19 countries
Paulsen’s been to the record try three times, and it’s by invitation only. Jumpers will include people from 19 nations, including Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Germany and all over the U.S. He keeps in touch with people all year, including at Rochelle. For the record attempts, they do very little free fall – parachutes open within two to five seconds.
“It’s an elation, euphoria. The one thing about skydiving, it clears your head of everything else. You’re not thinking of paying the bills or anything going on anywhere else. You’re in the moment…And your friends; these people are just awesome.”
Last year, on his birthday (Nov. 21), Paulsen bookended his day with a sunrise jump with about 12 people, and at sunset, another group surprised him.
“These guys had all the radios, I didn’t know this was coming, they started singing Happy Birthday to me in a formation, under canopy, in the sky. It was just really cool.”
Paulsen said it becomes like extended family, since they depend on each other with their lives and have to work as a team. He’s not done jumping, but just not doing it as often.
His wife Andi is a master parachute rigger, who maintains all his gear. They first met when she was a student of Paulsen’s. They both are certified, as a rigger and teacher, respectively.
Paulsen is a retired carpenter, working both in residential and commercial. Last year, he still worked 500 hours in commercial construction.
He first saw skydiving when he was a kid at a Clinton LumberKings game, and thought it was cool. Paulsen served in the Army at Ft. Hood, and first tried skydiving there in a sport club on the base in the ‘80s. Beginners always start in tandem with an instructor, held together by a harness and they fly together.
“In that little bit of time, it’s amazing how people trust a brand new person they just met. They have no clue. It’s great fun. When I was a tandem instructor, you get to live through this person right here. They’re attached to the front of you, we’re all facing that way and it’s like there’s energy you feed off. It was a good time. I did that for over 10 years, 1,400 tandem jumps.”
He’s taught all over the Midwest starting in 1986 (for over 30 years), including in Rochelle, Ill. (about a 45-minute drive), through 2018.
Lost weight in recent years
He’s lost a lot of weight the last few years (he used to be 85 pounds heavier), but you have to meet a weight limit to jump with certain parachutes.
“My stamina’s a lot better now,” Paulsen said. “Bigger parachutes are faster than smaller parachutes.”
Only 25 members of the original 2007 record team will return in Lake Wales, showing how long it takes to develop new athletes to this elite level.
In addition, the event will feature Women's CRW Sequential Record attempts from Nov. 12-14, with 21-23 women aiming to set three separate records. Many of these women will then join the main large-formation record later in the event.
The Largest Formation World Record attempt will be Nov. 16-23. After the first record is achieved, the remaining team members will rotate in, allowing as many qualified jumpers as possible to join the formation and earn their place in history - just as in 2007.
Paulsen’s only foreign skydiving experiences were when he jumped in Montreal, Canada (this past September), and Evora, Portugal in spring 2024.
For more information on the record attempt, visit CRWworldrecord.org.
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