Rob McMillan airborne in the NSW State Championships for canopy piloting at Picton. Picture: SYLVIA LIBER
The Skydive the Beach instructor has completed about 14,000 jumps.
Wollongong skydiver Rob McMillan's ability to jump, swoop and skim just above the ground earned him the state canopy piloting title at last week's NSW championships.
The 40-year-old Skydive the Beach Sydney instructor has been jumping out of planes for 22 years, completing about 14,000 jumps in that time.
He came second in the state competition held at Picton last week, but was named default state champion because the winner was from Queensland.
Mr McMillan is ranked eighth in the world for canopy piloting or swooping - a daredevil sport he calls "the Formula 1 of skydiving".
Canopy pilots use smaller, more agile parachutes and begin their jumps at a lower height than regular skydivers.
"We just go to 5000 feet and jump out and pull the parachute straight away, and then in less than two minutes' time we're flying through a course on the ground," Mr McMillan said.
Competitors tackle the same course three times, striving for speed, distance and accuracy.
"The accuracy event is always the most spectacular," he said.
"We have to drag our feet through the water and collect points for sliding our feet through different gates on the water, then you have got to actually fly your parachute out of the water and into a target zone, and the closer you get to the centre of the target the more points you get."
Mr McMillan will compete in Dubai in December for the World Parachuting Championships, where he hopes to improve his world ranking.