Jake Geiszler’s curiosity and desire to skydive was inspired at just 10 years of age after seeing skydivers swoop down onto the shores of Mission Beach where he was on holidays with his family. Six years later and still keen as ever, he decided to do the jump! He shares his skydiving experience with us that took place in August this year on his 16th birthday in Townsville.     

“My jump was scheduled for 10am but when the skydive crew arrived they told me it wouldn’t happen until later in the afternoon because the clouds were too thick and we wouldn’t be able to see where we were going. About 12:30 we got the all clear.

I jumped in the van and we headed to the airport to hop on a plane. The plane was a tiny old plane. Some people say it would be impossible for them to jump out of a perfectly good plane, but this plane wasn’t perfectly good. It almost made you want to jump out. That’s beside the point. The fifteen-minute journey to 14,000 feet was the most daunting experience of the whole thing. Constantly fighting with your mind not wanting to do it.

I seemed fine, I knew how much I really wanted to do it and that helped me to be calm about it. That was until the pilot said, “Okay boys, this is 7,000 feet.”

I looked out the window and we seemed a lot higher than half way.

Then it hit me just how high we were going. The man who I was strapped to was a very experienced skydiver. He had done over 15,000 jumps with 0 errors.

My mind went into a daydream of me thinking of my family and friends. We slid forward towards the door and the plane was prepped for the jump.

The door opened and the wind rushed in like crazy. I put my goggles on and put my feet out the door resting them on all the nothingness that was below. The guy grabbed my hand shook it and said let’s go! We fell out and did a roll seeing the plane shoot past and leave us behind.

The first few seconds when we rolled back over to face the ground were like nothing, it was quiet and peaceful like nothing I have ever felt. As we plummeted towards the ground my brain clicked into gear as I realised there was no going back now.  

Lying there falling towards the ground. I could see all of Townsville in one look. Just as I was getting used to it the shoot opened. The immediate deceleration as the shoot deployed.

The protection I felt as I looked up and saw it was open was incredible. The instructor gave me the handles and said “You’re in control don’t let go!” I steered the parachute in all different directions, experimenting with going down and up.

We finally reached the ground where all my family and friends were waiting and cheering for me. As soon as we touched down the guy said, “how was that champ? Would you do it again?”

I replied with “that was crazy, I would do it again right now!” 

– Jake Geiszler