The Hard Deck with Mark Perna

Raymond Adams didn’t come into skydiving photography as just another jumper with a camera on his helmet. He came from the fashion world — lighting, composition, style, attitude — and brought that eye straight into freefall.In this episode of Hard Deck, Raymond sits down with Mark Perna to talk about his path from hairdressing and fashion photography to becoming one of the most recognizable visual storytellers in skydiving. Six weeks after putting a camera on his helmet, Raymond landed a shot on the cover of Parachutist. Since then, he’s captured freefly pioneers, early swooping competitions, legendary boogies, canopy pilots, world-class athletes, and the everyday drop zone moments that make the sport feel like home.They get into the early days of modern swooping, the Pro Swooping Tour, the evolution of canopy piloting, X Games-era skydiving, skysurfing, freefly history, Z-Hills culture, loss, humility, legacy, and why the best photos are often the ones people never knew were being taken.This one is about more than photography. It’s about preserving the stories, people, and strange beautiful chaos of a sport most of the outside world still doesn’t fully understand.Raymond has spent decades making skydivers look like rock stars. Turns out, a lot of them actually are.Check out his work at https://raymondadamsimagery.com

In this episode of Hard Deck, I sit down with Angie Aragon — USPA National Director, newly appointed Latin America representative, founder of USPAcourses.com, tandem and AFF examiner, FAA senior rigger, and one of the most respected instructor developers in the sport.We talk about how Angie got into skydiving, why she left a successful real estate career to go all in on the sport, and what it really takes to train the next generation of instructors. We also get into canopy consistency at altitude, the pressure and responsibility of examiner work, what it’s like serving as a USPA National Director, and why Latin America is becoming such an exciting part of skydiving’s future.This is a conversation about growth, service, leadership, and staying sharp in a sport that does not tolerate complacency.What we cover:Angie’s path from Southern California to international skydiving leadershipHow she got hooked on skydiving in New ZealandThe realities of tandem and AFF examiner coursesInstructor standards, safety, and decision-making under pressureUSPA leadership and the responsibility behind hard decisionsThe growth of skydiving in Latin AmericaBuilding new opportunities through competition, education, and communityAngie’s newest project: Project Cutaway

In this episode, Mark Perna sits down with legendary skydiver, aerial stunt coordinator, and freefall cinematographer Joe Jennings.Joe is a pioneer of camera flying and competitive skysurfing, a World Champion, and an X Games gold medalist whose work helped redefine how skydiving is captured on film. Over the course of his career, he has coordinated and filmed aerial stunts for major feature films including Charlie’s Angels, xXx, Air Force One, San Andreas, and Point Break, along with major commercial work for brands like Pepsi, Dell, Kia, and Nvidia.The conversation also dives deep into Space Cowboy, the feature documentary about Joe’s life and career, including the risks, innovation, personal loss, and mental health struggles behind the image. This is a wide-ranging conversation about skydiving, Hollywood, creativity, trauma, resilience, fatherhood, and what it takes to keep pushing at the edge of human flight.Check out the film at https://spacecowboymovie.com

Mark sits down with Tim Jedrek of Right Rudder Marketing to talk aviation, digital marketing, flight schools, and the strange overlap between teaching people to fly and hucking people out of airplanes. Tim shares how he went from manufacturing into aviation and niche marketing, why storytelling matters more than ever in the AI era, and what flight schools and drop zones can learn from each other about growth, trust, and customer experience.They also get into skydiving safety, jump plane operations, airport politics, the realities of running aviation businesses, and why niche agencies work best when they act like true partners instead of vendors.If you’re into aviation, entrepreneurship, marketing, or just want a behind-the-scenes look at two guys building businesses in weird, high-trust industries, this one’s for you.

In this episode of The Hard Deck, Mark Perna sits down with Jeannie Bartholomew — record-setting canopy pilot, USPA National Director, co-owner of the United States Canopy Piloting Association, and leader with Alter Ego Project.With more than 12,000 jumps, Jeannie has spent nearly two decades operating at the sharp end of performance. She breaks down what it really takes to compete at the highest levels of canopy piloting, why the sport is far more calculated than outsiders realize, and how safety, discipline, and skill progression separate serious pilots from reckless ones.They dig into Jeannie’s path into skydiving, her early obsession with parachutes, her rise through competition, the reality of injuries and hard-earned lessons, and what it means to lead in a sport where the margin for error gets thin fast. They also talk about grief, resilience, teaching, military coaching, and why learning to truly fly your canopy can change your whole relationship with the sport.This one is for skydivers, high-performers, and anyone drawn to the edge where precision matters.Check out Alter Ego canopy courses to level up your flying and build real skills under canopy.

Danny Velez is a Navy veteran, former SARC (Special Amphibious Reconnaissance Corpsman), and the owner of Music City Skydiving. In this episode, Danny shares his story — growing up as an Army brat, entering the Navy at 17, and navigating an intense special operations medical pipeline that included combat dive, SERE, airborne, and military freefall.We talk about the moment 9/11 changed everything while he was training at Fort Bragg, what deployments and desert patrols in Afghanistan were really like, and how the hardest part of his journey came after he got out — losing purpose, trying to rebuild, and finding a new mission through skydiving.Danny also breaks down how he went from packing parachutes to owning a drop zone during COVID, what it takes to run a skydiving operation, and why customer experience and community are the real growth engine.

In the first episode of Hard Deck, Mark Perna reconnects with his friend and fellow former Marine infantryman Trevor Cichosz — two-time World’s Toughest Mudder champion, ultra-endurance athlete, and author of Dear Grandma Rose: Letters and Journals from the War on Terrorism.They start with Trevor’s upbringing in the Pacific Northwest—farm-raised values, no frills, small-town limits—and how 9/11 and the pull to get out of the valley shaped his decision to join. From there, it turns into the stuff that doesn’t fit in a highlight reel: boot camp games, infantry life, the grind of Iraq and Afghanistan, sleep deprivation, boredom punctuated by chaos, and the leadership math of keeping authority without losing your people.They also get into the whiplash of coming home, the way awards and bureaucracy land after real loss, and what stays with you years later—sometimes in silence, sometimes in the details you didn’t even realize you remembered.

What is The Hard Deck?The Hard Deck is a podcast about people who live and operate close to the edge — skydivers, veterans, athletes, entrepreneurs, and high performers who’ve pushed past their limits and lived to talk about it.Hosted by Marine Corps veteran, skydiver, and business owner Mark Perna, the show explores the lessons learned when the stakes are real. From elite canopy pilots and special operations veterans to everyday people who refused to quit, these conversations dig into risk, resilience, discipline, and the mindset it takes to perform when failure has consequences.This isn’t polished highlight reels.It’s real stories, real lessons, and hard-earned wisdom from people who have been there.Welcome to The Hard Deck.