Skydiving students jumpstart club

There is a new and potentially dangerous activity gaining popularity with Pitt students, and… There is a new and potentially dangerous activity gaining popularity with Pitt students, and it could be addictive.

Matt Rosemeier, a Pitt sophomore, began about seven months ago. Since starting, he has done it more than 50 times and spent about $5,200 on it. On one occasion, he did it six times in one day.

In 2005, more than 950 people reported injuries related to the activity, and 27 died nationwide.

It’s a University-approved skydiving club that has garnered interest for this adrenaline-pumping activity from more than 200 students.

“My mom thinks I’m crazy,” Rosemeier said.

He is the club’s founder and a skydiver with an A license, which is the most easily attainable license in a set of four, labeled A through D.

His first jump in April was a tandem jump, in which the skydiver is strapped to an instructor who pulls the cord and lands the parachute. Since that day, Rosemeier has been hooked, and he can’t quite say why.

“It’s hard to explain unless you’ve done it. It’s the feeling of free fall and the air around you,” Rosemeier said. “You’re really flying. After that parachute is open, you’re a pilot.”

He is leaps ahead of the other club members, none of whom had jumped more than once when they signed up.

They had their first outing on Oct. 7. Ten people attended, and all but Rosemeier did tandem jumps. The event was supervised by the Skydiving Pennsylvania Skydiving Center. Jeff Reckard, founder and director of the center, said the club’s jump was a success and he is excited that Pitt has started a club.

“I would love to see a [Pitt] skydiving team, even if they get their asses kicked in competitions,” Reckard said.

Reckard took his first dive 22 years ago, and after 4,850 jumps he is still describing and defending his love for the sport.

“Without a doubt, a day does not go by that someone does not ask me ‘Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane?'” he said.

Reckard finds comparison to other hobbies a useful way to explain his passion.

He compared the price to other activities like motocross, scuba diving and golf.

“It’s nowhere near as expensive as horse riding,” he said.

He added that skydiving gear is durable and needs to be replaced less than gear for other activities. Also, jumpers can offset the cost by getting a license and packing parachutes or instructing novices.

“There are loads of people who jump and they don’t pay anything,” Reckard said.

Having spent more than $5,000, Rosemeier said the only reason he didn’t jump more is because he couldn’t afford it.

“Being a college student, that’s quite a lot of money,” he said.

Still, Rosemeier said each jump is not as expensive as people might think. When he was less experienced, it cost him more, because he had to pay for two instructors to supervise him and to rent gear.

With his own gear and license, now he just pays to use the plane.

“When people hear I’ve done it that many times, they start multiplying that number by $300, which isn’t the case,” Rosemeier said.

You can also pay to have your experience videotaped for $90, he added.

“The nature of what you’re doing is just so extreme and so incredible that $90 is worth it,” he said.

Marcia Turco, one of the new divers, said she was not willing to pay the extra money.

Turco was impressed with the experience but said she will not be jumping again this year because it’s too expensive – about $200 with the group discount.

Turco said she eventually wants to buy her own parachute and make skydiving a weekly leisure activity.

“It’s the most amazing thing I’ve ever done in my life, and everyone should do it,” she said.

She added that she was not nervous on her first jump.

“I figured the odds were in my favor,” Turco said. “There wasn’t that moment of ‘Oh my God, I could die.'”

Reckard compared skydiving’s public perception to Indy car racing.

He said everyone is scared their first time, but this is exacerbated by the media. He said in a race of 250 laps, the news would show only the lap that had an accident but not the 249 safe laps.

Similarly, he said the only time the public hears about skydiving is when there is an accident.

Despite the 962 injuries and the 27 deaths that the United States Parachute Association reported from last year, those numbers represent a small percentage of the 2.2 million reported jumps.

“I would never say the sport of skydiving is safe,” Reckard said.

He compared the risk involved to that of fighting fires.

“It’s like being a fireman when you go to the big fire that you’ve practiced and practiced for,” he said.

Skydivers all have two parachutes – the standard one and a backup in case the first becomes tangled.

Reckard said his gear has malfunctioned somewhere around 14 times.

“I quit counting them,” he said. “The novelty has worn off.”

Paul Bernstein, director of Pennsylvania Psychological Services and professor at Duquesne University, said thrill-seeking may be in a person’s genes.

He likened things such as contact sports and fast driving to the activity, and said participants get stimulated by the physical challenge.

“Skydivers put a higher value on physical courage,” Bernstein said.

He added that beginning in early childhood, one can begin to see which children will be risk-takers based on things such as which children attempt climbing the highest trees or other feats.

Rosemeier said he has wanted to skydive since he saw it on television as a child.

“I remember telling my mom that I was going to do that someday,” he said.

Rosemeier admitted he did it for the rush but it was not a destructive impulse.

“I’m not trying to get hurt,” he said, “I’m just trying to have the time of my life.”