Wexford native earns skydiving gold
As soon as Kris Hayhurst turned 16, he knew exactly what he wanted to do. Go skydiving. “Made my first jump,” Hayhurst said. “Haven’t really stopped since then.”
No, he certainly has not. It’s basically the family business. An extremely successful one, too.
Back then, the 22-year-old Wexford native and North Allegheny graduate needed parental consent. Zero problem there, as Kris’ father, James, has logged nearly 12,000 jumps, a personal passion that dates back to his time at the United States Air Force Academy.
Kris — who will graduate from West Point in May — recently won gold at the U.S. Parachute Association National Collegiate Parachuting Championships, held Dec. 27, 2017-Jan. 2, 2018 at the Florida Skydiving Center in Lake Wales, Fla.
The competition drew more than 80 collegiate skydivers and included four disciplines: formation skydiving, vertical formation skydiving, sport accuracy and classic accuracy.
Hayhurst won gold in classic accuracy, which entails jumping out of a plane more than 3,000 feet in the air and landing on a dimesized dot.
In case you’re wondering, scoring is determined by who gets the most exact hit, Hayhurst said. There’s an electronic pad that measures proximity to the middle in centimeters.
“If I hit the pad and my foot was two centimeters away, it will show up as such,” Hayhurst said.
Talking skydiving can be a fun experience with Hayhurst, who was in the marching band (played trumpet), ran cross country and participated in the JROTC program at North Allegheny. SEE DIVING, PAGE LX-9
Some athletes will talk in complicated terms about their sport, even if it’s one that might be a little bit unique. Not Hayhurst. He’s eager to explain why he loves skydiving and what makes it so special.
For example, Hayhurst practices with his West Point team from roughly 3:30-6 p.m. daily, when they’ll complete as many as six jumps, although three or four is usually the average.
During the week, they’ll jump from a helicopter and focus more on accuracy. The weekends offer more time for altitude-focused jumps that “require a little more preparation and thought.”
Hayhurst, who’s majoring in defense strategic studies, has logged more than 1,400 jumps. The West Point team, Hayhurst said, practices five or six days a week, weather-permitting.
What kept him coming back after that first jump?
“At first it was the exciting aspect of it,” he said. “It’s an extreme sport. It looks really cool. It’s really fun to do. You get an adrenaline rush every single time.
“As that has slowly worn on, and it’s become second nature, the competitive side has definitely played a big role. It’s the one sport I think I can actually compete really well in.
“Apart from that, I just meet some of the best people in the sport. They’ve really kept me in it, too, whether here at West Point or across the civilian side of skydiving.”
One of the things Hayhurst does, and really enjoys, is called six-way speed. It’s basically six people jumping out of a plane at the same time and trying to build a formation in the sky as quickly as possible.
It sounds almost like a football play.
“It’s exactly like a football play,” Hayhurst said. “You know where you need to be and what you need to do. Your whole entire jump is getting there. If everyone gets there as they should, then it works great.”
A favorite feeling for Hayhurst is the time spent in the air, obviously. While most people might be filled with terror, Hayhurst relishes the freedom it provides. And it’s longer than you might expect, or at least it feels that way to him.
“You would think that things move pretty quickly, but sometimes it can feel like an eternity,” Hayhurst said. “It feels great.”
Next for Hayhurst will include the actual Army. He’ll commission as an infantry officer in May and head to Fort Benning, Ga., for about a year of training starting in early September.
Hayhurst remains optimistic — he’ll find out in February — that he’ll go to the 82nd Airborne Division at Fort Bragg, N.C., a highly trained and widely recognized and respected infantry division.
That doesn’t mean an end to competitive skydiving, however.
Much like his dad, who competed on the U.S. parachute team, Kris has earned a spot on the junior U.S. team. Army-permitting, Kris could compete this summer at the world championships in Bulgaria.
“I love it,” Hayhurst said. “It’s a lot of fun.”
Especially the team aspect.
“I think the coolest part of being at this competition was the whole school, West Point, our team placing first and getting the title of national champion,” Hayhurst said. “That was great. That’s probably stood out more than anything else in this recent competition.”