Duo takes to the skies in leap of faith
‘Once you’re in the air, you are just floating’
THE most anxious period in parachuting is the moment before jumping out of the aircraft, whether solo or tandem.
So said skydiver Vernon Kloppers, who this week clocked his 7 200th tandem jump.
Kloppers will be accompanying East Coast Radio’s Kerri Miller as she jumps from the sky to the South Africa versus Sri Lanka one-day international cricket match at Kingsmead tomorrow. Proteas lead the 5-match series 2-0. “Tandem jumpers are given a 15-minute briefing and they do it for all sorts of reasons,” said Kloppers.
“For their twenty-firsts, for bull’s parties. That’s when guys jump in bikinis and pink dresses.”
Kloppers said he had the experience to recognise whether a person would be suitable for a tandem jump and not likely to have a panic attack in the air.
“Once you’re in the air, you are just floating. If someone had to panic, I would just whisper sweet somethings in their ear.”
Nobody is ever forced to jump out of the plane, he stressed, adding that this week there was one such case when the “passenger” froze.
Kloppers, who runs the Durban Skydiving Centre, has taken a number of celebrities for tandem jumps.
Zolani Mahola of Freshly Ground stands out among them.
“She loved it so much she took another dive immediately,” he recalled.
Other celebs who have drifted down to earth in his clutches from between 2 438m and 3 048m have been actor Maps Maponyane, Dr Duda of the band Mi Casa and former eThekwini municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe.
He has also come down with rugby personalities Craig Jamieson, Errol Stewart, Craig Joubert and Akker van der Merwe. And world champ mountain biker Steve Peat.
ECR personalities Jason McCall, Dave Guselli, Khatija Nxedlana and Abi Ray have also hit the ground with Kloppers.
Tomorrow’s jump, organised by the SA Legion to create awareness of its work, required special permission from the Civil Aviation Authority because of Kingsmead Cricket Ground’s proximity to airports and the abundance of air traffic in the sky above Durban.
Kloppers used to operate from La Mercy but the establishment of King Shaka International Airport in that part of the world sent him inland to Eston, where he operates from a rural airstrip surrounded by sugar cane.
On any ordinary day when the wind is less than 20 knots and the sky free of rain or heavy, low cloud, people float down on their adrenalin rushes.
This week, a shout of “woo-hoo” came from above as Dean Bauer of Durban approached the ground on his first jump.
“That was insane,” he barked on landing and set about making plans for a second jump.