James P. Slaton was born Dec 31, 1970 in Amarillo, Texas
1990-1998-Was a sergeant and airborne Ranger in the US Army. As a Forward Observer (13F) he graduated from airborne school, air assault school, Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape (SERE) school, RIP school (Ranger Indoctrination Process), Naval gunfire school, close air support school, U.S. Army Field Artillery School, Extreme Cold Weather Survival School, Combat Lifesavers school, Expert Infantryman Badge, Physical Fitness School, and the non commission officers academy.
1999- Jim signed on with Icarus canopies parachute company and created the first high performance parachute team called “Team Extreme”.
2000- Jim began internet marketing and produced the swooping competition known as the Para-Performance Games (PPGS) and hosted the first event at Skydive Houston in Houston, Texas. The PPGS had three competition events in Speed, Accuracy and Distance. At the time there were very few parachute swooping competitions and not much structure to the sport.
2001- Jim continued with online marketing and produced one of the first Canopy Piloting Schools to teach parachute swooping at Perris Valley Skydiving, California.
2003- Jim with partner Lyle Presse they created the Pro Swooping Tour (PST).
2003- Jim produced, directed and edited the Pro Swooping Tour’s 2003 DVD entitled “The year of Canopy Piloting” in 2003.
2003- Jim continued with online marketing and with members of Team Extreme produced the documentary “Out of the Blue” which won at film festivals and created a whole new generation of canopy pilots. The “Out of the Blue” documentary demonstrated a new type of flying using high performance parachutes as tools for exploration over Europe’s highest mountains. The highlight of the film is when the team lands their parachutes on the summit of Mount Blanc in Chamonix, France which is the highest point in the European Alps.
2003- Jim along with his partner Lyle Presse were responsible for delivering the new sport of Canopy Piloting (a.k.a. swooping) to the International Parachute Commission which got accepted at the IPC’s 54th annual meeting in Brazil.
2003- Jim continued with online marketing and produced the 1st first online community built specifically for Canopy Pilots called www.canopypiloting.com
2003- Jim with his partner Lyle Presse organized the 1st World Cup of Canopy Piloting at Perris Valley Skydiving, California.
2004- Jim became the 1st U.S. National Canopy Piloting Champion in winning the event in California with his own signature series parachute called the “JVX”.
2004- Jim produced the “Ground Launch Center” to teach and promote the sport of “ground launching”or “foot launching” small parachutes into flight.
2005- Jim continued with online marketing and produced, directed and edited the film “Gravity Pilots” which highlighted competition swooping and Ground Launching. Scenes from this film were seen around the world which inspired the paragliding community to design and create a spin off of the sport called “Speed Flying” or “Speed Riding”.
2005- Jim produced the World Parabatic Stunt Team (a.k.a. World Parabatic SWOOP Team) which is recognized by the “IEG” as the first swoop teams of its kind.
2005- Jim produced the first amateur swooping tour called the Canopy Piloting Circuit.
Feb 12, 2006- Jim had a near fatal parachuting accident while filming a stunt in California. Slaton survived but was in a coma for three days and suffered a shattered hip, broken leg, broken shoulder and frontal lobe head injury.
2007- Jim continued with online marketing and traveled the globe performing at Airshows with the World Parachute Stunt Team.
2008- Jim hosts his last set of canopy piloting competitions (high performance parachuting) called “Swoop Week”.
2009- Jim opens Slaton Design Studio and his consulting firm called Main Street Marketing Company.
2010- Jim opens a ORM (Online Reputation Management) company named Online Reputation Rescue.
2011- Jim’s busy with Main Street Marketing Company while making public speaking events and giving seminars. Jim’s Online Reputation Management company gains popularity with failing businesses online.
2012- the future is so bright he has to wear shades 
