A tragic skydiving incident Sunday in Nanoose Bay has claimed the life of a 34-year-old man.

The Victoria man, identified by friends as James Smith, was an experienced parachutist, with more than 1,000 jumps, according to Gord Gauvin, owner of Skydive Vancouver Island.

The incident took placed at approximately 6:30 p.m. on Sunday. Gauvin said the man was attempting an advanced high-speed maneuvre called swooping.

His impact with the ground was 鈥渃atastrophic鈥�, said Gauvin, adding the man succumbed to his injuries immediately.

鈥淭he parachutist had a high amount of experience with this maneuvre and was a coach and instructor within the sport of skydiving,鈥� Gauvin said in a release. 鈥淭he skydiving community is a small one on Vancouver Island and together we grieve the loss of our friend and brother.鈥�

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Andy Watson of the B.C. Coroners Service said: 鈥淚 can confirm we are investigating a death from yesterday - it was related to a skydiving incident. We are investigating to determine how, where, when and by what means a male came to his unexpected death.鈥�

鈥� NEWS Staff

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