15 years
ago, some so-called friends of mine decided that my promise
to do a tandem skydive 'one of these days', should be... today!
So, I was dragged, kicking and screaming, to the drop zone,
and taken skywards. When I stepped gracefully onto the
ground 20 minutes later, the only thought on my mind was that
I HAD to experience skydiving again... and soon!
Mr Barclays kindly helped me finance my course, 3 months later
I graduated as a skydiver, and today, almost 2000 jumps later,
the original roles all these years ago are reversed.
I am the one providing that unforgettable and profound experience
for students, that is a tandem descent. Having completed over
650 tandems, it is enormously rewarding and satisfying not
only to fuel my own skydiving passion, but to be able to introduce
almost anyone to it by personally taking them on a freefall
parachute descent. As well as being a tandem master,
I am also a qualified WARP skydiving coach, enabling me to
help the newly-graduated skydiver to improve and hone their
in-air flying skills.
Skydivers are in a very close-knit community, and there are
numerically not really that many of us. However, whether
we are students, novices, advanced skydivers, coaches or instructors,
we jump because we love to jump, and we talk about our sport
with the utmost passion and desire to bring the pleasure of
what we do to as many others as we can. After all those
years, I have never looked back. For me, the sport only
gets better, it's profile is higher now than at any point
of it's existence, more people experience and understand it,
and I can only look forward with no regrets. You won't regret
it either. |