Jim Slaton (born Dec 31, 1970 in Amarillo, Texas) was an airborne Ranger with the U.S. Army between 1990-1998 with the military operational skill (MOS) of 13F (Forward Observer) but he is better known as Jim Slaton the professional parachutist and producer of the Pro Swooping Tour, Canopy Piloting Circuit, the Ground Launch Center and many other forward thinking ideas.
1999-Slaton signed on with Icarus canopies and created the first factory swoop team called "Team Extreme" which won many parachute swooping competitions and produced documentary films.
2000-Slaton produced his first swooping competition called the "Para-Performance Games" (PPG). The PPG had three competition events including Speed, Accuracy and Distance. At this time swooping was coming of age without the organization of a governing body. Slaton organized and competed at the 1st PPG in Houston, Texas winning the Distance event and getting 3rd place overall.
2001-Slaton produced one of the first Canopy Piloting Schools at Perris Valley Skydiving that focused primarily on parachute swooping.
2003-Slaton teamed up with partner Lyle Presse and created the first competition circuit called the Pro Swooping Tour (PST).
2003-Slaton produced, directed and edited the Pro Swooping Tour's 2003 DVD entitled "The year of Canopy Piloting".
2003-Slaton with members of Team Extreme produced the documentary "Out of the Blue" which won at film festivals and provided the motivation for a whole new generation of canopy pilots. The "Out of the Blue" documentary showed the team using high performance parachutes as tools to explore some of Europe's highest mountains. The film has breathtaking POVs (Point of View) from the team skimming down the mountains during the expedition.
The highlight of the film was when the team landed their parachutes on the summit of Mount Blanc in Chamonix, France (the highest point in the European Alps). The team was the first group of parachutists to land parachutes on the summit. The film included a variety of parachutes stunts including swooping onto moving trucks, motorcycles, boats, jet skis and more. The film also demonstrated a new type of parachute aerobatics called "Parabatics".
2008-Jim runs a production and event management company called "Higher Entertainment, LLC". His studio is on the 20th floor of the 2016 Building in downtown Houston. Jim also organizes a variety of projects with the "World Stunt Team" and creating a variety of start up companies online. You can view many of his companies and projects online at:
- JoinedMay 2008
- OccupationProducer, stuntman, entrepreneur
- HometownL.A.
- Current cityHouston
- CountryUSA
- Emailjimslaton@yahoo.com
- Websitehttp://www.jimslaton.com
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