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The door of a small airplane lies wide open. The wind from over 10,000 feet above the ground whips your hair from left to right. The air is a little bit thinner. Breathing is a little bit harder. That doesn’t last long — soon the airplane floor is gone from under your feet and you’re free falling toward Earth, nothing holding you back as you fly. You have to be ready to deploy your parachute at the right time. This scenario may come off as a nightmare and cause complete panic in some, but this is a situation avid skydivers look forward to every day.

The United States Parachute Association (USPA) states that every year, more than half a million people leave all inhibitions behind and decide to jump out of an airplane for the first time. Gainesville and other North Central Florida residents are contributing to some of these numbers.

Brenda Hall, from Ocala, is one of the brave flyers taking on the sport. Skydiving was a dream of hers for many decades

Ever since then, Brenda has performed many other jumps and even got her Accelerated Free Fall (AFF) certification on March 5, 2023, after performing her 20th and 21st jumps. Now she hopes to continue on the path to becoming a certified skydiver with the USPA, which would allow her to skydive anywhere in the world.

A new passion is not the only thing Brenda got out of this activity; she also made many new friends, who she affectionately refers to as her “sky family.” In turn, her friends call her “baby bird” because of her immense drive to keep going.

“You’re there to enjoy the sky,” Brenda said about the close-knit community. “It’s a great environment, and everyone is walking around and smiling and hugging each other.”

For those considering trying out the sport, Brenda has a message to share:

“Don’t wait!” she said. “Life

“The second my feet hit the ground I wanted to do it again,” Liza said. “I started talking to someone at the skydiving center and she said ‘you know you could do a course, become a solo skydiver.’ I looked her dead in the eyes and I said, ‘what kind of a lunatic jumps out of the plane alone?’ Well, about a month later I was in ground school and the next day jumped alone.”

Skydiving became a regular part of her life after that. Since her first solo jump in 2021, she has done about 120 more.

“You wake up, you’re looking at the weather, you’re checking the winds, moving days around with work,” Liza said. “The sky is always calling.”

The sport also opened her up to other extreme and adventurous activities. She now canyoneers, cliff dives and rides roller coasters. These are things she never imagined she could do before.

“You suddenly realize that it’s okay to be afraid and still do things,” said Liza. “You stop being afraid of being afraid.” thirties, and a few brave souls start at freshly 18 years old. University of Florida student Neal Shankar loves skydiving so much he decided to revive a club for experienced and inexperienced UF students.

“I jumped for the first time the day I turned 18,” Neal said. “Instantly fell in love. I highly recommend it. You’ll definitely regret it if you don’t do it.”

To get an AFF certification, the first step in becoming a certified jumper, one has to reach out to their local drop zone and enroll in a course. The course begins with a ground school, which only requires a day of training. Then, once students get their own parachutes, they’re up in the air and ready to do a series of seven jumps with two instructors.

If you thought seven was a lot, that’s nothing compared to the record of David Bosanko. Bosanko, a Gainesville local, recently beat the record for most jumps in a day in the state of Florida, performing a whopping 77 jumps in 24 hours.

“It took 10.5 hours,” said Bosanko. “We wanted to start right at sunrise but the weather pushed us back and we didn’t start until 10 a.m. We finished at 8:30 p.m.”

The demographic for jumpers is all over the place. Some start in their sixties, others in their

Neal is the president of Falling Gators, a longestablished club at UF that brings together students interested in the sport. Though the club went extinct for a couple of years due to COVID-19 and other miscellaneous leadership issues, the club is now back in full swing.

If a student is interested in joining The Falling Gators, they can click the link for the GroupMe in the club’s Instagram bio, under the handle

@Falling.gators. The GroupMe has around 50 members who plan jumps together and carpool to the drop zone. They have an affiliation with Skydive Palatka through the old president of Falling Gators, who now works at Palatka and was able to get the zone to pay for some of the rental gear students use. Other benefits UF students get to enjoy include special rates for tandem jumps as long as a UFID is shown. Neal explained that the first few jumps are a little more expensive, but if one decides to take the AFF course, the price decreases significantly.

No matter where they came from, all of these people share one common passion: skydiving. They look forward to their jumps and are eager to share this interest with others.

“Come out!” Liza Monica said. “Now you’ll know a friendly face!”

How To Become

a skydiver

1

Golden Breeze

Ingredients:

Champagne

Icing Gold sprinkles

Edible gold flakes

Splash of grapefruit juice directions:

Time to get out a glass, preferably champagne. Dip your glass into icing, and then into some gold sprinkles.

Add your desired amount of champagne to the glass, and then a splash of grapefruit juice.

Add edible gold flakes if you want for more decoration,and enjoy!

Go to the closest (or prefered) drop zone and do a jump with an instructor!

2 Sign up for ground school and start performing solo jumps

3 Get your AFF certification after classes are done and continue jumping and progressing

4 Send your progress to the USPA and apply to become a ceritified skydiver

5 Now you can jump from anywhere in the U.S. and any time of day!