SKYDIVING EXPERIENCES

Challenge, Teamwork & Adventure

Aviation, in many aspects, has been a passion of Mary Ellen's since she started skydiving at Purdue University in 1983. While "Tandem Skydiving" is now mainstream, back then, it was a different story. Round parachutes that landed you like a rock, soloing the first jump with a "static line" attached to the plane to deploy the chute, and belly-mount reserves. Since those early days, she has logged over 6,500 skydives.  

Teamwork and camaraderie is essential in skydiving, since building freefall formations demands unparalleled reliance on others. It is this camaraderie, as well as the exhilaration of flying your body much like gymnastics, that keeps her captivated by the sport after so many years.

For 30 years, Weber was a member of the widely known and highly successful competitive skydiving team, Deguello, which competed in the 16-person (or "16-way") Formation Skydiving event.  
Beginning in 1989, Deguello was in existence longer than any other civilian skydiving team in history, and Weber was part of it from the start. They were consistently a formidable contender at the U.S. National Skydiving Championships, medaling every year through 2016 and overshadowing all other amateur teams from around the country throughout that time. They have been the only non-professional 16-person team to successfully beat professional teams including the Army Golden Knights, winning bronze and silver medals and even gold once. Deguello has been featured in premier skydiving magazines, such as Skydiving and Parachutist, on many occasions. ​

Although Deguello no longer exists, Weber recently won bronze again at the 2025 U.S. Nationals with a new 16-way team. She has also competed in and medaled in other events at the National Championships, including 10-way and 8-way Formation Skydiving, over the years.  

With respect to world records, in 2024, she was in the world's largest skydive to complete two distinct formations with 151 skydivers.  In 2002, she was in a world-record 300-person formation.  She also participated in a number skydives that qualified as niche world records.