Lively adventurer who pushed out his limits
Gwillym Hewetson climbed out of his cradle when he was 7 months old and didn’t stop pushing limits until his death while base-jumping last week at the age of 37.
Hewetson died on October 4 in Switzerland.
His mother Robyn Hewetson, who lives in Hastings, said her son – known as ‘Gwil’ – ‘‘never walked but ran’’. From a young age, his idea of playing was ‘‘climbing up things’’.
Hewetson and his older sister Frith were born in the American city of New Hampshire.
His father died shortly after he was born and the children were raised by Robyn, who moved the family back to New Zealand when they were teenagers.
She described her son as a vital character who was ‘‘extremely opinionated’’.
‘‘He was 6ft 5in, he had skin wrapped around a thin body. He was forthright and seemed to be able to make friends everywhere. Over the past few days, I’ve been fielding hundreds of calls and messages.
‘‘People loved him, and he loved them. Every photo we have of him, he’s grinning.’’
At the age of
10, Gwil joined a summer theatre programme and decided he’d be a movie editor. ‘‘He just made up his mind and that was it. There was no discussion,’’ Robyn recalled.
Gwil did a bungy jump when he was about 15, ‘‘and that was the beginning of that life’’, his mother said. He adapted quickly to the Kiwi way of life and was soon a regular in-line skater at Napier’s skate parks.
‘‘Very quickly after coming here, he got a job at The Warehouse and worked 27 hours a week while still at high school. He worked hard and saved hard. When he went to university, he paid for his first year in cash. He counted it out on front of the woman. She just couldn’t believe it,’’ Hewetson said.
Her son studied film-making at Unitec. Unable to find work here, he went to London aged 21.
‘‘He landed there at 6.30am. At 11.30am he had a job. He ended up working for film-maker James Cameron and never looked back.
‘‘But he worked and worked. After 30 months of 18-hour days, seven days a week, he got to a point that he decided he couldn’t live a life that was just work.’’
So he began skydiving, which became ‘‘a huge passion’’, and ultimately led to base-jumping.
This year, he took a job professionally skydiving in Hawaii and in February he took his mother on a tandem skydive over Oahu.
Hewetson said the repatriation of her son’s body was proving ‘‘horrendously difficult’’, partly because he was travelling on his United States passport.
‘‘There are so many things we have to do. It’s going to cost $7000 to have him cremated alone, then we want to bring his ashes home. The last few days have been terrible.’’
A memorial for Gwil held at Hastings’ Steiner Centre last night.
Swiss police said Hewetson had gone to a jumping spot on the Stockhorn and was the last to jump, wearing a wingsuit. For some reason he got into difficulty and fell in rough terrain.
‘‘Gwil never walked but ran.’’ Robyn Hewetson of her base jumping son.