Dive
continued from page 9
ify to sky dive for Oregon,” Pettit said.
“But what comes with those jumps is
your own license to sky dive.”
A license and a thrill that can be re
visited every weekend, which is what
draw most jumpers.
Discounted prices for Oregon stu
dents, along with fundraising, help
make the sport more financially feasi
ble for interested students. For the
club to get off the ground, so to speak,
it needs a desire and a commitment
from students to learn to jump.
“However much you want to do with
in the club is entirely up to the student,”
said Pettit. “The club is your choice,
your time and your commitment. ”
Currendy Pettit works as a jump in
structor for Wright Bros. Skydiving, a
Creswell-based company where sky
diving is offered to everyone, includ
ing students. Along with Eugene Sky
divers, another Creswell-based com
pany, Wright Bros, is trying to do
everything it can to advance the Uni
versity club.
“We need to open it up for stu
dents to learn to sky dive,” Delam
bert said. “We need to have people
make a decision to see if they want to
get involved.”
Once students show interest and
learn to jump, a team can be formed
and competition can commence.
“We need people to be able to com
pete,” Delambert said. “Competing
may not happen, but it’s always good
to have a goal.”
The possibility of becoming a li
censed sky diver is one benefit of join
ing the club.
“Our goal is for every student who
comes through the door — whether
it’s an Oregon or Oregon State student
—to get a license,” Wright Bros, own
er Dave Wright said.
While interest is increasing, getting
the word out about the club to poten
tial skydivers can be difficult. Delam
bert has scheduled a tentative meet
ing for interested students on Oct. 30,
with the time to be announced. Any
one interested in learning more can e
mail her at Ldelambert@yahoo.com.
In the meantime, instruction and
jumps are being completed every day
— the question is whether enough
people will make that first step and
prove that Ducks really can fly.
Scott Archer is a freelance writer for the
Emerald.
Hockaday
continued from page 9
my queen-sized bed tonight, that’s
when I’ll relax.
5:06 p.m. — And we’re boarding
the plane. I’m one of two people on
the flight who has never sky dived
before, and so all the “pros” are rib
bing the newbie, telling me where I
can puke, all that stuff. Ha ha. No, re
ally funny. Hilarious.
Then they all put their hands in
the middle, just before the plane is
set to take off. They do a cheer. I re
alize I’m among good people, and I
start to» relax. The woman across
from me is doing her 100th jump, a
feat she will later be “pied” for by the
other divers. (They take plates of
whipped cream and smother her.
Good times.)
So this woman, Amy, is smiling
warmly and I smile back, and it’s a
moment I’ll never forget, sitting in
that plane with the altimeter on my
wrist steadily rising, with the sun
setting through the tiny windows
and a woman doing her 100th sky
dive, not preoccupied with it at all.
5:20 p.m. — We hit 15,000 feet.
Jumping altitude. This means I have
to jump out of the plane now. At
15,000 feet.
We’re sixth in line, after four solo
jumpers and one tandem. The solo
jumpers disappear instantaneously, it
seems. Then the tandem jumpers
scoot across the floor of the airplane
and fall out. Then we scoot. Sure
enough, the experience of sitting on
the edge of nothingness is unquestion
ably different from what I expected.
I’m gripping onto those walls tight.
Very tight.
Lewie takes care of that, yelling
“arms” into my ear. I remember to
grab my straps, and next thing you
know, we’re free-falling like Tom
Petty.
5:23 p.m. — I see the plane, which
is another weird thing for me be
cause I expected for some reason to
go right into the typical sky-diver po
sition, facing down. But it’s not scary
at all, and here’s Weird Sensation No.
3 — it’s not a roller coaster. My stom
ach doesn’t jump to my throat at all.
It’s just falling.
And it’s flying. For 45 seconds I
am a bird, and I can see why people
jump out of airplanes like it was their
job. There is a reason for the addic
tion, this feeling — it’s the closest
you’ll ever come to perfect bliss.
5:24 p.m. — We break through a
small cloud and soon thereafter I pull
my rip chord. The parachute down is
not as exhilarating as the free-fall, but
it’s a serene experience. Eugene and
Creswell are smaller than a map, but
getting bigger all the time.
5:30 p.m. —And the ground. The
sweet, beautiful ground. We land
with a thud, sliding across the grass
fields on our butts. I realize I’m
whiter than a blank sheet of paper,
and for a moment my emotions are a
blank sheet too.
What did I just do?
Jeremy Forrest Emerald
Pettit (behind) said the Oregon sky diving squad tries to literally fly.
I give a few thumbs-up, hug my
new best buddy Lewie, help pack up
the chute and start making my way
back to the hangar. People pat me on
the back, throw around a couple
“good jobs.”
As we’re walking back, Lewie paus
es for a moment, tells me he’s going
to get philosophical. And I think that
getting philosophical, at that mo
ment, is exactly the thing to do.
Lewie quotes Leonardo da Vinci,
a magnificent man to quote in such
a magnificent time and a magnifi
cent place.
“For once you have tasted flight
you will walk the earth with your
eyes turned skywards,” da Vinci
said. “For there you have been and
there you will long to return.”
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
His views do not necessarily represent
those of the Emerald.
Mark McCambridge Emerald
Cory Paus sprained his right ankle against California and will miss the rest of his senior
season with UCLA. Bruin backup Drew Olson was also injured.
Pac-10
continued from page 9
hardest schedule, fell into the sec
ond spot.
Notre Dame had the country’s
toughest schedule, but the Irish fell
to third because they are ranked
sixth in both major polls. Of the
seven computers that factor into
the BGS equation — which pro
duce a score that is added to the
poll average, schedule strength and
quality-win scores to produce a
ranking — Notre Dame was ranked
first in four of the seven.
“There’s still a long way to go,”
BGS coordinator Michael Trangh
ese told The Associated Press. “The
strength-of-schedule component
will come into play, and so will the
bonus points. The biggest surprise
is there are still so many undefeat
ed teams at this stage, halfway
through the season.”
Permanent Paus
One of the best stories in the
Pac-10 will not get a chance to
write his ending.
Gory Paus, the senior quarter
back for the UCLA Bruins who has
gone through everything from a
DUI to opposing defenses, broke
his right ankle in the third quarter
against California on Saturday and
will miss the rest of the season.
Paus was injured with 12 min
utes left in the third quarter in
Berkeley, where the Bruins lost to
the Golden Bears, 17-12. Paus was
replaced by freshman Drew Olson,
who was also injured in the con
test. Olson left the game with a
sprain in his throwing shoulder.
Olson’s status for Saturday’s
contest against Stanford is uncer
tain.
“We’ll take it day-by-day and
see what happens,” UCLA head
coach Bob Toledo told AP about
his quarterback situation.
Awards with meaning
ESPN the Magazine’s Gene Woj
ciechowski has dished out some
mid-season awards, and several
Pac-10 squads made the short list
— not always in a good way.
The writer named Oregon State
as one of the nation’s “biggest
flops,” saying, “The only thing
worse than the Beavers’ overbite is
a 4-3 record that includes three
consecutive Pac-10 losses.”
Meanwhile, Oregon running back
Onterrio Smith and Washington
State quarterback Jason Gesser
were both named to a short list of
the nation’s best players. Gesser
and Smith will square off when the
Ducks play in Pullman on Nov. 9.
Contact the sports editor
atpeterhockaday@dailyemerald.com.
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