Unpacked

Unpacked jumps are those where the canopy is not in the container. There are many different types of unpacked jumps, and this page lists some of them.

Most unpacked jumps are for fun. They are great if you don’t feel like packing at the end of a long day. However, there have been incidents where people have succesfully used an unpacked type of jump to rescue themselves from a ledge (after hitting a cliff). This is not necessarily a recommended technique, and it is usually better to wait for a rescue team. Nonetheless, it is worth mentioning because in the hands of an experienced unpacked jumper, it can be a useful technique.

All unpacked jumps except the WAD have been attempted successfully slider up, slider down, and with and without a tailgate.

The WAD

This was one of the first unpacked jumps to be successfully attempted. The Lemmings Extreme Bridge Day video shows it. Sometime around 1995, back when skydiving gear was common BASE equipment, a jumper runs off the bridge with his parachute and lines all together in one hand, resembling the action of throwing a pilot chute like a go and throw. He is shown jumping “the WAD” twice in the video. The jumper coined the term “WAD” and its capitalized because he yells it as he leaps from the bridge.

From the early days of the WAD, unpacked jumps have evolved to rollovers, rollunders, and a technique also known as a TARD which is an acronym for “totally awesome rapid deployment” apparently.

The Rollover

First attempted with a parachute by Shane McConkey, a rollover is a technique in which the jumper drapes the parachute over the ledge in front of him. He then jumps forward, executing a slow controlled front flip over the top of his parachute, ending up underneath it. Shane claims he first watched a paraglider execute a rollover and realized that it could be done with a parachute.

It is important to jump far enough in front of the parachute to keep the lines taut, preventing a line-over malfunction.