Build up to Day in the Sky

25th of February, 2013

The first sport I could ever think of being able to do after my accident was skydive. Having worked in the Swiss Alp's I was lucky enough to be surrounded by extreme heads in all sports including the skydive, base jumping community. I always knew that these guys were a little crazy but never have imagined doing skydiving myself, being a water-based person. So the moment that I lost control of my body the easiest gravity sport in the world is to fall.

So with the making of our company it was obvious that I needed to get amongst the skydiving community. To find the perfect place, people and company for makingtrax to join up with and make it work. My number one goal was to find that perfect company. I investigated many different companies in New Zealand.The sad thing is a lot of companies are all about how many people they can drop in a day, losing the personal New Zealand touch. But then out of the blue I heard about a little New Zealand company: Skydiving Kiwis.

I set up a meeting with the company director Lee and his beautiful girlfriend Sophie. I remember it was going to be a quick meeting finding out if this company was worth putting something together. My idea was to spend about an hour just asking questions of finding out about the business. Three hours later Lee was asking if I needed help to get back into my vehicle. What a meeting, a couple of awesome people. You know when you meet somebody and it feels like you have known them your whole life; that's how I sort of felt after I met Lee.

After our initial meeting a big list of ideas was brought forward of ways that we can get wheelchair riders up into the sky and throw them back down to earth safely. In reality it was up to me to head down to Skydiving Kiwis at Rangatata Island and figure it out for myself. I contacted my boys back in Switzerland and asked them if they had taken wheelchair riders skydiving and if so how. The boys had different ideas. The first idea was to duct tape the jumpers legs to the passengers...that idea didn't go down too well. The next idea was a little bit smarter. Tieing the legs together and having a rope system to pull the legs up on landing. This idea sounded a little more safer. But after thinking about it there was no way that I would be able to pull my legs up being a C5 tetraplegic. I just do not have the strength. So my next idea was to sort out a system so Lee could pull down the rope and lock it off so my legs would be safely up in the air for the landing.

The main things I was very worried about was firstly any scratches on my bum during landing, pressure areas and, the worst case scenario, the idea that my legs could not get pulled up in the landing. This would cause major troubles as you can imagine. The last idea was my legs staying together so it would be easy for my instructor to fly with me. With all of these thoughts going through my mind I decided there is only one way to find out.

So I was off to the drop zone to find out how it was going to come together. I arrived down at the aerodrome on Rangatata Island. What a place, old school microlights, museum, biplanes, aerobatic planes and the coolest grass airstrip quality New Zealand. First thing was to meet up with Skydiving Kiwis team. I spent the afternoon watching people jumping out of a perfectly good plane. Sitting back in this beautiful environment, talking to some amazing individuals, getting ready to put together my contraction. I found out a little more about Skydiving Kiwis,  especially when Lee was away from the scene. I could ask a little bit more information off the crew and look how they run the company.  I have to say is I was extremely impressed.

It works out that Lee is one of New Zealand's best aerobatic flyers, also an amazing ground swooper. If you have not heard of swooping I think you should check it out, impressive. It means swooping the ground, (obviously without a passenger) seeing how fast and far you can fly inchs off the ground 80 to 90 km an hour. Lee has done over 5000 jumps in his career as a tandem master. At the age of 31 is very experienced, also the youngest drop zone owner in New Zealand. Having jumped all over the world Lee has now come back to New Zealand to open up his drop zone on Rangitata island. Just the second year that the company has been in operation.

Time to try our new system, I have to say that I was nice and relaxed. I had full trust in the team, everybody took fantastic care of me. The first system we used was towels to stop any pressure areas and then good old duct tape to tie it all together. A bit of rope that went up in through the harness of the tandem shoulder straps. Good to rock'n roll. I could explain the whole emotion and experience but I will leave that up to you when you come and give it a go. All I can say is that is an amazing feeling of freedom and exhilaration. In fact the first time I jumped there was so much going on that it was hard to take on the big picture. Luckily enough for me our system worked without an issue. When you come and for landing as long as your feet are up you don't even slide on your bum; all the weight goes on your instructor.

After our first trial a lot of time and planning went into our now bomber proof harness system. Take a look at the photos you will see the system we are using today www.facebook.com/makingtrax.co.nz . All I can say is after five jumps so far and many more to come I do not have a worry in the world. I can just sit back and enjoy. In fact the more I do, the more I have become addicted. Everything slows down, so many different emotions, incredible experience. Now I know why people jump from perfectly good planes.

So now I am putting together our first event "The Day in the Sky". The 16 &17 of March we will bring together wheelchair riders to experience the amazing freedom of skydiving. Come enjoy what Makingtrax & Skydiving Kiwis have put together. Camping at the drop zone, flying, falling, BBQ and beers. Go with gravity.