Moruya local George Sheather is on cloud nine following an outstanding performance at last month’s 2019 Australian Canopy Piloting Championships in York, WA. George brought home Gold in the skydiving category of Zone Accuracy.
A first time competitor in Canopy Piloting, George went on to beat out 25 other competitors to take the Silver Medal - Overall in the Intermediate Division. George, 23, only began jumping in 2015 after completing his AFF (solo skydive) course at Skydive Oz in Moruya. He took to the sport quickly and has over 1,400 skydives since that time. It wasn’t long before he starting competing. When asked why he got into skydiving George says simply “I was bored and had too much time on my hands. "A friend suggested I check out skydiving - which I’d never heard of - and I found a drop zone, Skydive Oz, just down the road. The rest is history.” George states, “Training for competitions has become one of the main reasons I stayed in the sport." "I love setting goals and working to achieve them. It takes time and effort to be good at what you do and I’ve had great coaches and influences at Skydive Oz. Of course, jumping out of an airplane is just an amazing experience I’ll never get tired of.” In 2018, his team Hook It, took Silver at Nationals in 2-way Sequential Canopy Formation and represented Australia at the 2018 World Parachute Championships in Queensland. Then in March 2019 he and his Hook It teammates, Nathan Ravenscroft and Will Rosner, again took Silver in the 2-way Sequential Canopy Formation at the 2019 Australian Skydiving National Championships held at Skydive Oz in Moruya.
George is now taking a well deserved break before heading overseas to train for competitions beginning early next year. “It’s been an intense but rewarding eight/nine months, now I’m just looking forward to kicking back and doing fun jumps with my friends.”
(Photos: Steve Fitch)
