Top Canopy Pilots Head to Zephyrhills for USPA National Championships

Some of the best canopy pilots in the country are spending this week skimming across a pond in Zephyrhills at speeds that can top 60 miles per hour. Skydive City ZHills is hosting the U.S. Parachute Association's 2026 National Canopy Piloting Championships, a weeklong competition running September 22 through September 28 on the drop zone's grounds off Sky Dive Lane.

It is the only piece of this year's USPA Nationals happening in Florida. Every other discipline, including formation skydiving, freefall style and accuracy landing, is being held at Skydive Perris in California. USPA chose Zephyrhills specifically for canopy piloting, the discipline where jumpers deploy high-performance parachutes and race them low across a landing area before swooping through gates set up over water.

For Zephyrhills, a town whose airport has hosted skydivers for decades and calls itself a hub of the sport, landing the national championship is a point of civic pride as much as a sporting event.

How the week is laid out

Registration and official practice opened the meet on September 22, with a second full practice day on September 23. Standard Canopy Piloting competition runs September 24 through 27, while the Freestyle event overlaps and continues through September 28, when scores are finalized and an awards ceremony closes out the championship.

The competition unfolds over what Skydive City describes as a competition-grade "swoop pond," a shallow, purpose-built body of water set inside the drop zone's 1.2-million-square-foot landing area. Pilots aim to cross gates positioned across and beyond the pond, judged on speed, distance and accuracy as their canopies skim inches above the surface.

A destination for spectators, not just jumpers

The championship is bringing more than competitors to town. Campers and RVers have booked into the drop zone's on-site campground and bath house through the week, and nearby hotels in Zephyrhills have been offering discounts tied to the event. The property's restaurant and bar are staying busy feeding jumpers, judges and families who come out to watch.

Spectators don't need a ticket to see the action. The swoop pond sits in full view of the landing area, and the crowd that gathers along its edge each afternoon has become part of the draw, watching pilots dive in from altitude, level off just above the water and carve through the gates at speeds well beyond a highway limit.

This is not the first time Zephyrhills has hosted national or world-level canopy piloting competition, and organizers have built out the swoop pond and landing area specifically to keep bringing meets like this back. USPA has not announced where the 2027 canopy piloting championship will land, but for one week this September, the sport's biggest stage in the country sits just off Sky Dive Lane.

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