Indoor Skydiving Prodigy: Landon Karaberis

Landon Karaberis class of ‘26 has pursued a unique interest: indoor skydiving. His passion for skydiving started just six years ago, and he’s been able to achieve the title at the newest Wind Games, recently held in Spain.

It all started one day after he went to an iFly location, which is an indoor skydiving facility. He and his family saw the iFly being built in White Marsh, Maryland, during a dinner at a Texas Roadhouse. He eventually took an interest in trying indoor flying. 

Over the past six years, Karaberis has been able to train with coaches in Europe. This is optimal for winning tournaments because Europe is where the best coaches are located. Landon goes to Europe for two weeks about 4-5 times a year. Two of the times are for competing outside of the United States and the other 2-3 times are for training. Landon said in an interview “During training trips,” he confides, “you fly every day for two and a half hours.”

Landon and his teammate James Rogers recently competed in the Wind Games. Landon recalls, “I met my teammate James together in 2020 at a training camp. We have trained for 2 years but have only competed this year.” They were able to come out victorious and take home first place even though this was their first year competing together. 

Competitions are split into two parts: a free routine and a speed segment. The free routine is judged live based on synchronicity, how well the flying looks, and the difficulty of the tricks being performed. The flying is also performed with music played in the background. The speed aspect is being able to perform certain dives or combinations of moves in the fastest time without having a mess up.

Since Landon is not able to travel to Europe frequently due to school, he practices at the Ifly location in White Marsh for 45 minutes,5 days a week, during the weekdays. 

I had the opportunity to ask Landon some questions about flying. I was curious on how many times he competed during the year. Landon said “We compete three times per year. Once nationally, once at the Wind Games, and once at the World Cup.” When asked about his flying goals, the reigning Wind Games winner said: “To keep my title and win the World Cup.”

So what’s next up for the reigning champion of the Wind Games? Landon stated in a Fox 45 Live interview that the World Cup is coming up in Macau China April 14th. Stay tuned to see this Laker soar!!!