Formation skydiving
Formation skydiving is a skydiving event where multiple skydivers attach themselves to one another by grabbing each other's limbs or by the use of "grippers" on their jumpsuit while free falling through the sky. The goal of this skydiving program is to build a formation of multiple divers arranged in a geometric pattern. Skydivers take pride in this event as they say it creates order in an extremely chaotic environment.
Formation skydiving can be further divided into several sub-categories, so named for the number of members in a team:
4-way sequential
4-way vertical sequential (VFS, Vertical Formation Skydiving)
8-way sequential
16-way sequential
10-way speed
Large formations (Big-ways)
A competition in 4-way formation skydiving (FS-4) takes place like this:
There are two kinds of formations, called randoms and blocks. The randoms are singular formations with full separation of all grips both before and after building the formation. The blocks are double formations with a special designated movement pattern in between, called an inter. The start formation may, or may not be similar to the ending formation. The inters are differently performed. Here are some examples: