The Hard Deck with Mark Perna

World record skydiver, author, speaker, coach, and Highlight Pro Skydiving Team co-captain Melanie Curtis joins The Hard Deck for a powerful conversation about fear, performance, healing, and what it really means to live bravely. Melanie has more than 12,000 jumps and decades in the sport, but this conversation goes far beyond skydiving. She and Mark talk about learning to work with fear instead o...

Brian Naiman joins Mark Perna on The Hard Deck Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about skydiving, leadership, drop zone ownership, safety, and the future of the sport. Brian is the USPA Pacific Regional Director, a longtime instructor, and co-owner of Skydance Skydiving in Davis, California. In this episode, he shares his path from chemical engineering to full-time skydiving, the realities o...

Matt Fry is a world record skydiver, vertical formation organizer, speed skydiver, and one of the minds behind some of the biggest head-down skydiving formations ever built. In this episode of Hard Deck, Matt breaks down what it takes to build massive vertical formations, chase speed skydiving runs over 300 mph, organize record attempts, manage risk, and keep progressing in a sport where the margi...

Berrick Abramson is a former U.S. Marine, entrepreneur, executive coach, policy strategist, and Commissioner on the Colorado Commission on Higher Education. He is also the host of the Living Life All In podcast, where he explores leadership, purpose, adversity, and the small decisions that shape a meaningful life. In this episode of The Hard Deck Podcast , Berrick joins Mark to talk about leaving...

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 visua...

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 re...

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 film...

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 a...

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 9/1...

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...

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 hig...

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 spe...