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Christie Bryant could only squeak out scattered words and phrases as her instructor finished adjusting her bright blue skysuit and reviewed final instructions for her tandem skydive.
“I was very nervous the whole time,” said Bryant, a senior in engineering.
She was taking Introduction to Skydiving, a one credit hour course offered to Ohio State students of all majors, that covers the biology of risk, risk management and a basic introduction to the sport of skydiving. The three-session course culminates in an actual skydive at Start Skydiving in Lebanon, Ohio.
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Students are able to jump tandem, in which they are attached to an instructor, or accelerated free fall (AFF), in which they jump alone with two instructors holding them through the initial free fall.
Bryant said she chose a tandem jump over AFF because she did not feel comfortable pulling the parachute herself and navigating for landing.
AFF students are guided by radio after free fall.
The course was originally proposed to teach students about risk management in extreme sports, said instructor Jennifer Olson. It is designed to orient students on how to handle risk response through education and training to make it as small as possible. Skydiving is being used as a model to help students better understand that concept.
“(We talk about) when you’re about to jump out of an airplane what reactions are going on in your body when your body perceives that risk, and maybe even what’s the evolutionary origin of some of the responses,” Olson said. “We also have some students wear heart rate monitors and little GPS devices so that we can match up their heart rate data to their altitude and see what their heart rate was doing at certain times of the jump.”
Olson said she believes that many people want to skydive at some point in their lives and college is the best time because people are trying to find themselves and their interests. She added that OSU is the only university in the country that offers a skydiving course for credit, other than military academies.
She said nearly 900 students have taken advantage of the opportunity since the course began in 2003.
“I wanted to do something crazy,” said Samantha Ready, a freshman in biology. “And jumping out of a plane is pretty crazy in my book.”
Ready said she was really excited and not at all nervous about the jump because she had resolved to do it and was looking forward to following through with a personal goal.
Other jumpers said they agreed. While many might have been nervous, they said the experience was a lot of fun.
Bryant said her instructor let her grab the parachute handles and move in circles, while Lisa Minch, a senior in psychology who also jumped tandem, said she was able to pull the parachute herself.
“I will definitely do it again,” Ready said. “I might even try accelerated free fall next time.”
Information is available at osuskydivingclass.com, including registration and pricing information.
John Gerbich can be reached at [email protected].
