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Skydiving Club member Megan Curry savors her last seconds in the air before landing.
Courtesy of Skydiving Club
■ The Oregon Club
skydiving team hopes to
fly into Hayward Field or
the EMU lawn
By Alissa Scott
for the Emerald
She sat crouched in a plane
looking out the door. It was as if
she was looking at a landscape
painting, not the actual earth.
She could see small dots that
represented houses. A million
thoughts of excitement were
running through Chiaki
Okamoto’s mind, preventing
her from speakin right before
her instructor pushed her out of
the plane.
“It was amazing,” she says. “I
didn’t feel like I was falling
down. It was like I was swim
ming.”
As Okamoto fell through the
sky at speeds between 90 and 120
miles per hour, she couldn’t hear
anything — not even her own
screams. She became numb.
“I was in the air. I didn’t feel
cold, but I think it was really
cold,” she explained. “I didn’t
have gloves, but I didn’t feel
cold. Maybe because I was so
excited.”
After her free fall, she was re
lieved when her parachute
opened.
“I could hear my voice again
and my instructor’s too. He was
laughing because he was excit
ed too. Then when I reached the
ground, my throat was sore
from screaming so much. ”
Okamoto is one of 12 mem
bers on the Oregon Club skydiv
ing team. She took part in a four
hour ground-training class in
which she did her first jump
with an instructor attached to
her back. During ground school,
first-time jumpers like Okamoto
learned safety tactics and how
to pack the parachute.
“Everyone remembers their
first time,” says Natali Jones, the
student coordinator for the Ore
gon Club skydiving team. “The
first time is usually more excit
ing than scary. My first time is
something I will never forget. ”
Jones has been skydiving for a
little more than a year and a
half. However, she did not begin
with the club team, which is
only in its fourth year.
According to Jones, skydiv
ing is not a traditional team
sport. Many members go out
and practice on their own. Indi
viduals who are affiliated with
Oregon Club will be in the sky,
but they are usually out there on
their own time.
Because skydiving is still a
relatively new club, it has had
different coordinators, and the
team hasn’t been in an official
competition yet. Oregon State
University also has a skydiving
team, but a lack of communica
tion between the schools makes
it difficult to hold any competi
tions, Jones said.
“We can have inner-club com
petitions and fun things,” Jones
says. “One example: Fill sand
wich bags with flour, drop them
and see where they land in com
parison with everyone else’s. ”
In a competition, skydiving
teams are judged on accuracy
and relative work. Jumpers are
judged on how far from a mat
they land.
Relative work is judged a lit
tle differently. A cameraman
will jump with the team mem
bers and video tape them as
they are in their free fall. Then
the judges watch the film and
award points for the number of
times the team members touch,
whether it is with their hands or
sides of their bodies.
Also before competition,
every member of the team must
have an ‘A’ license in skydiving.
A license is obtained after com
pleting 20 jumps, including tan
dem jumps. When members
have a license, they are able to
jump anytime and anywhere by
themselves.
“The first jumps are critical,”
Jones says. “But after that you
can come back in five months
and be OK.”
Skydiving is time consuming
and costly, Jones says. The first
two tandem jumps cost $220 and
ground school for a club member
is $20. However, a non-club
member may have to pay up to
$80 for ground school. Jumps fol
lowing the tandem jumps cost
$21 for a club member and $39
for non-cluL members. Brand
new equipment costs about
$4,000. Used equipment is per
fectly safe, but that’s also very ex
pensive, according to Jones.
Skydiving was originally
dominated by men, as many
other sports were. However,
more women are becoming in
volved, Jones says.
“ Skydiving is one of the things
that doesn’t take the strength, so
women can compete equally,”
she explained. “But women do
fly differently because of their
bone structure. ”
As the student coordinator,
Jones hopes to promote more
awareness of the Oregon Club
skydiving team. She is thinking
about having members jump
into Hayward Field during a
track meet or landing on the
lawn behind the EMU.
For any newcomers, Jones
says, skydiving is “not what
most people think. It is not a
roller-coaster feeling with a
dropping stomach. You are just
floating like being in water or
floating over a big fan. Or if you
move around, you feel like you
are flying. It doesn’t feel like you
are falling.”
As for Okamoto, she is ready
and eager to jump again.
“I want to do it again so I can
jump by myself,” she says. “It’s
challenging because I will have
to jump by myself, and no one
will push me. I will have to pull
the cord myself and reach the
ground by myself’
Kiteboard
continued from page 4B
knowned for his sailboards, but he
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rally people will think ‘I’d like to
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