Olav Zipser

Olav Zipser
'Father of FreeFly' Olav Zipser FreeFlying with his Sports Emmy Award
Born	(1966-03-12) 12 March 1966 (age 50) Siemern, West Germany
Nationality	German
Other names	'Father of FreeFly'
Occupation	International Master FreeFlyer
Known for	Founding and developing Freeflying, Space Games
Awards	Sports Emmy 1995 X-Games

Olav Zipser (born 12 March 1966, in Simmern, West Germany) is a highly accomplished, multiple-time world champion, trainer of multiple world champions, Sports Emmy Award-winning, pioneering skydiver.

Zipser spearheaded the FreeFly revolution of the early 1990s when he began experimenting with non-traditional forms of body flight. Since then, he has been part of the worldwide sport of FreeFly, and has helped it grow to the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale competition level that it is at today. He is respectfully known as "The Father of FreeFly".

Zipser is the founder of the FreeFly Training and Instruction Program, of The First School of Modern SkyFlying, of the Atmosphere Dolphin FreeFly Licence Program, of the Space Games, and of The FreeFly Astronaut Project. He was also the first to make use of Space Balls to train and test freeflyers to an international standard.

Zipser completed his 21,000th skydive at Skydive Dubai UAE in 2012; as of June 2015 he has logged more than 22, 750 skydives. He has flown in 25 of the world's wind tunnels, has won more than 51 gold medals from various international skydiving competitions, has trained no less than 14 world champion skydivers from around the world, and has flown his human body the equivalent of almost three times around the Earth at the equator.

Zipser is a synergist with the Human Synergy Project, a diverse community of artists, scientists, adventurers, visionaries, free thinkers, performers and writers. He is also a test pilot and astronaut in training with Team Synergy Moon (a Google Lunar X-Prize official team).

Zipser started skydiving in the experimental phase of the Accelerated Freefall progression skydiving program in 1986, and immediately began experimenting with non-traditional forms of body flight. He studied and trained human aerodynamics for four months in a wind tunnel. From that experience he developed a new concept of human body flight, which he called FreeFly. First he trained friends, then he developed a professional FreeFly Training and Instruction Program so he could train others to become FreeFly teachers and instructors.