posted Aug 12th, 2020 - While USPA is still considering the options of running national championships this year or not, a big change is happening in the executive area of the United States Parachute Association. Ed Scott, who has been the executive director for the last 13 years, retires from his position at the end of the year.

He has a well known successor with Albert Berchtold. The new executive director was recently introduced, and he will be the 10th since the position was first created in 1960:

"An active skydiver with over 5,500 skydives and a current member of the U.S. Canopy Piloting Team, Berchtold currently serves as the marketing manager for Performance Designs and has served on USPA's board of directors since 2012 and as the association's treasurer for seven years. Berchtold has made an incredible impact in our sport. USPA President Chuck Akers said, 'On behalf of the board of directors, I am thrilled to welcome Albert as USPA's new executive director. His vast sport, industry and business experience combined with his vision and passion for USPA and our skydiving family made him the perfect choice to take the helm. Albert will serve our membership well, and I look forward to serving with him."

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NSL Live Talk in the PD-TV Studio at the USPA Nationals 2008

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Albert Berchtold has also been very active as a top videographer in the Formation Skydiving competition community. in fact, the early stages of his skydiving career included mostly the filming of 4-way teams. He was living in New York City, and Skydive Cross Keys was his home DZ. He spent much of his time at the Blue Sky Ranch, where he was videographer for the local 4-way teams.

He continued to cover teams with his video cameras at national championships until 2012, including Optic Nerve in 2007 and Teiwaz, where he owns the team member number 53 of 99. Then he continued randomly whenever teams needed a videographer for a weekend or for a competition.

He said that filming 4-way teams supported his passion for flying his parachute, and it was no big surprise that he became a canopy piloting competitor in the second half of his skydiving career.

In the meantime, he had accepted a position in the marketing team for Performance Designs, and he directed the new PD-TV Studio at the USPA Nationals 2008, where he recorded several NSL Live Talk sessions in a professional way.

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NSL Live Talk in the PD-TV Studio at the USPA Nationals 2008

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Albert Berchtold's job for Performance Designs kept him busy and closer to his canopy piloting passion. He still continued to help out with videos for teams whenever he was needed, including DeLand Shmeland.

He had also joined the USPA board as a national director in 2012, where he served as the treasurer. He has still been working for Performance Designs since 2007 before he now decided to accept the USPA job offer.

In his position as the marketing director he supported the Nationals Skydiving League network in many different ways.

The special NSL/PD medals have been very popular since they were created and sponsored by Performance Designs for previous NSL Championships, and this year also for the Shamrock Showdown 2020.

Unfortunately, the Shamrock 2020 medals could not be used, due to the corona virus crisis, and they will be recycled for next year's event. Albert Berchtold will be working for the United States Parachute Association at the time of the next Shamrock Showdown. However, he may still turn on the helmet-camera if a team is missing a videographer. The NSL News will soon follow up with NSL Live Talk with the new USPA Executive Director.