Jim was born in Amarillo, Texas on a ranch and went to college at the University of Texas. Jim joined the United States Army in late 1989 and worked his way up to Sergeant serving ten years in the Special Forces (Airborne Rangers).

Jim's fascination with parachute testing & training started in the Army and evolved into his full time passion. In 1997, while stationed in Germany he began test jumping for a European parachute company.  After his return to the USA in 1998, he left the military and was selected for a new canopy testing project called the "Icarus Project®". This was a project to specifically test a new breed of high performance parachutes for the skydiving market. The "Icarus Project" evolved into what is now known as Icarus Canopies, the leader in high performance canopy engineering. Jim is now involved with the Daedalus Project (father of Icarus), the newest line of High Performance parachutes from the makers of Icarus canopies...NZ Aerosports.

In 1999, with the new line of high performance canopies available, Jim came up with a concept for canopy competitions in an event called the "Para-Performance Games". In an attempt to progress the sport Jim joined forces with "Airblade®" inventor Reggie Eastaugh and formed the Para-Performance Pro Blade.

In 2000 Jim also created the first fully sponsored high performance "swoop" team, "Team Extreme".  Jim wanted to take the sport of swooping beyond competition, to expedition.  In 2001 Jim organized an expedition for his team to go to Mt. Eiger in Switzerland.  They were the first parachutists to descend the Eiger.  Suddenly, a canopy pilot could reach places that were once only accessible by extreme mountaineers.  In early 2002, Jim took the team to Mount Blanc, in France. They were the first parachutists again, to land on and then descend from the top of the highest mountain in the European Alps.   In 2003, the team's expedition was to Norway where they descended and flew their canopies along side of the cliff BASE jumpers. After a few successful years with the first swoop competitions of the PPPB the sport took another giant leap forward when Jim realized the need to create a structured Pro Tour complete with qualifiers, ranking system & safety guidelines. In late 2002 Jim took on partner Lyle Presse and formed the "Pro Swooping Tour™".

In 2003 Jim was called on by the IPC (International Parachuting Commission) President BJ Worth to present the new sport of "Canopy Piloting" (a.k.a. swooping) to the IPC Board members in an attempt to make Canopy Piloting a recognized competition at the world level. The IPC accepted Canopy Piloting at their 54th annual meeting and organized the 1st World Cup of Canopy Piloting in Perris Valley, California in October of that year. In 2004 Jim created the National League called the CPC (Canopy Piloting Circuit) as a method of bringing more athletes into the Pro ranks.

In 2004, Jim took his mountain flying experience and created a new training center in California called the "Ground Launch Center". He led a ground launching expedition to the South Island of New Zealand in the fall on the same year.  Jim claims that with specialized gear and the new training center, "the GLC is helping to fuel a NEW sport, with pilots that are gaining the ability to "ground launch" a high performance parachute from just about anywhere.

I can see where canopy piloting expeditions and competitions of the future may not even require an aircraft." Jim now looks forward to setting up a new competition league called the "Canopy Piloting Circuit" and creating a Backcountry Blade running series (Ground Launching) where pilots launch themselves from a mountain top and fly down a slope through a slalom course. Also in the fall of 2004, Jim won the 1st US Nationals of Canopy Piloting and became the first National Champion of the sport he helped pioneer. Then in 2005 Jim rolled it all together and formed the World Swooping Association™ and the World Parabatic Swoop Team. The WPST and the WSA exposes this exciting new sport to the air show business and the world.