Description
Pete: When it comes to extreme adrenalin rushes nothing beats the thrill of jumping out of a perfectly good plane… I had the opportunity to do that a few years ago and couldn’t wait to do it again. Well today I will because they’ve brought skydiving to the city.
I am literally putting my life in the hands of Mark Gazley. A skydive specialist, he’s taken more than 8 thousand people for the biggest leap of their lives, mostly in the skies above Goolwa.
Mark: Well bringing it to the city gives people great flexibility… jump in morning or afternoon, takes a couple of hours as it’s not far for people to travel. Jumping onto semaphore beach allows our customers the diversity of seeing beautiful city and coastal views and landing on the golden sand is magic. Collectively we’ve had over 50,000 jumps and 70 years of experience. We love what we do and we’re very good at putting people at ease.
From the Semaphore Surf lifesaving club it’s into the bus and off to Parafield, leaving my wife Rachael and the kids to happily play in the park and await my grand entrance.
There’s a short stop to complete the formalities and kit up but in no time at all it’s up, up and away! You can choose to jump from 10,000 feet but today I’m doing the big daddy of them all – 14,000 feet! That’s as high as you’re allowed to go – 1 whole minute of free fall! The more we climb the more nervous I get… but the cameras are rolling and there’s no backing out.
Folks, words CANNOT describe these next few seconds… but I think my face says it all… it was a free fall full of fear and exhilaration. The rush of the wind and the sheer speed of the drop but once the parachute popped it was a whole different ball game. You’re still moving fast but the relief soon gives way to wonder. It’s just a matter of relaxing. Matt’s skill and care even had me steering for a while! And to top it all off… a perfect landing!
Pete: Mark was so right… the view from that coming down was a different story but when it’s rushing up at your head – WOW! You’re emotional and ecstatic – happy to be on the ground but glad that you pushed it to the limit. And Mark was my new best friend!
Charlotte: How was it Dad?!
Pete: Oh, unbelievable! We’ll do again… when you’re older, we’ll do it again.