Why I Became a Skydiver
by Monique Lopes-Serrao

"I can’t ever imagine getting bored and wanting to leave the sport."

Most people don’t realize that skydiving is more than just one jump; it’s a hobby, sport, passion and even a lifestyle for many people. If you are trying to decide if skydiving is the sport for you, let me tell you how I became involved and hopefully it can help you decide if you want to make a tandem or static line jump.

I never had the desire to leap from a “perfectly good airplane,” but my friend Sean had always wanted to. After a bit of convincing I decided “why not, I can conquer my fear of heights.” The plan was to just make that one jump but I ended up buying the 5-jump static line package because it was the best deal!

All day during the training class and actually through my first jump, I kept telling myself that I must be absolutely out of my mind to jump out of a plane, but I did it anyways. After that first jump I decided that it was a great experience but once was enough. Sean on the other hand loved it so much that he insisted on making more jumps that day. Since I was going to be waiting around for him, I figured I might as well try it again since I had four more jumps in my package. Even after landing safely following my second jump, I still thought I must be out of my mind but for some strange reason I couldn’t wipe this huge silly grin from my face. That grin convinced me to make one last jump the first day, and forced me to come back again to make the “last” two jumps of my skydiving career.

After making my so-called “last two jumps” of my skydiving “career,” I didn’t stop there! Following my first freefall I knew that I needed to jump more, but as a college student I really didn’t think I could afford to. I was wrong, even on a very small budget you can still have fun skydiving!

Now over one hundred jumps later I still can’t see those “last” two jumps in sight. Sean and I made 100 freefall jumps between July 10 and Oct. 23, 2004 and were able to celebrate this accomplishment at Skydive Wissota’s Annual Pumpkin Toss Boogie. With only a few jumps, Sean and I also ventured to Lake Wales, Florida during our Christmas break to compete in the Collegiate National Skydiving Competition. This competition was truly a great experience, and only got us more excited to compete again. This summer Sean and I will be a competing with our new 4-way team the “Wissota Shockers”. Many people don’t realize that there is so much more to skydiving than just jumping out of the plane, there are actually areas of discipline such as: formation skydiving, freeflying, style & accuracy, canopy relative work, skysurfing, and many more.

With all of these disciplines I can’t ever imagine getting bored and wanting to leave the sport. Skydiving has allowed me the opportunity to travel to other skydiving facilities in the US and meet other people from all walks of life who share the same passion for the sport. No matter where I am in the world, I know that there are friends at the nearest “dropzone.” So before you commit to making just one tandem jump for the experience, think about possibly taking the static-line class and becoming a skydiver! 

Fore more photos of Sean and Monique click here.