ARIZONA, USA — World record glory in thrill-defying fashion. Imagine jumping from 19,000 feet, with 80 seconds of freefall, all while hurtling towards Earth headfirst at speeds nearing 200 miles per hour.
This past November, nearly 100 women were brought together over the Arizona desert to challenge skydiving boundaries never achieved before. These women come from all around the world, including one locally in Grand Rapids, to show other women that anything is capable.
Carlye Scheer is a Grand Rapids firefighter, pushing her physical and mental limits daily. She thrives when adrenaline rises.
“I’ve always just had a heart for adventure,” Scheer said.
Skydiving, however, is her ultimate adventure.
“I took the chance went and did a tandem skydive, fell in love with it and then ended up becoming a parachute rigger, a wind tunnel instructor, and then started working some military contracts as well for skydiving,” remarked Scheer.
Scheer’s skydiving journey brought her to Project 19, an organization comprised of the best female skydivers around the world.
“The Project 19 organization is a movement to show the 100 years that women have had the right to vote in the United States of America,” Scheer said.
Hoping to inspire girls and women to live bold, brave lives, Project 19 set its sight on a skydiving feat.
“The women’s vertical world record, which means all of us were flying upside down, linked up. So the formation has to be drawn exactly as it’s going to be flown,” explained Scheer.
The goal was to beat the previous record of 65 skydivers linked together, set back in 2016.
The head-down skydiving attempt required extensive training, including at indoor facilities, such as wind tunnels, around the world.
“Flying head down takes years of practice or hours of skydives,” said Scheer. “It’s a five-plane formation, you’ve got 20 girls in each plane jumping from each plane, and timing has to be perfect.”
Another challenge – communication. The group of women represented 22 countries, with multiple languages to decipher.
“Some of the challenges that we encountered were language barriers, we had girls from all over the world. So sometimes it was a little difficult to communicate and debrief,” she said.
The first attempt at the record jump was supposed to happen back in 2020 on the 100th anniversary of women being granted the right to vote in the United States. But at the time, the pandemic had gripped the nation and put a stop to their plans.
Years of training and setbacks led up to this past fall when the group of skydivers got their shot to break the record over the Arizona desert.
“And this was kind of like the pivotal point like, I’ve worked so hard for this,” exclaimed Scheer.
On the fifth day and twentieth skydive attempt, the group accomplished their mission.
80 women flying headfirst, linked together hand by hand during the midair formation. A new vertical women’s world record.
“And we all knew when we landed on the ground after we got the record, it was a huge celebration, and it was just overwhelming,” she said.
In an extreme sport where only 14% are women, the world record is a major accomplishment from Project 19. Beyond the personal accomplishment as a group, the organization has grown to celebrate women’s rights and issues worldwide.
“We had women from over 22 different countries, and all of us share the same goal. We were there to show other girls around the world that women are capable, and we can do anything that we want.”
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