The plane ascends higher and higher as the divers get ready for the jump.
Jumping altitude is reached as a red light comes on. Every diver flips their visor down on their helmet. Nerves rattle as they chant, trying to stay calm for the jump.
Seconds away from free fall. The divers climb into the door. Each one asking others if they are ready to go.
Time comes and it’s time to jump. Divers shakedown to get out all nerves and jump.
Then wind.
Nothing going through the diver’s mind but where he needs to be.
“There’s nothing quite as calming as that rush of wind because nothing else matters in that moment,” Flying Gamecocks vice president Jared Ham said. “You don’t think about your exam, how a class is going or any relationship issues. It’s all about that skydive.”
Skydiving is usually a once-in-a-lifetime experience or a fleeting thought for the acrophobic. But for the Flying Gamecocks, it’s a lifestyle.
The club is a group of students who jump out of airplanes year-round, searching for adrenaline rush after adrenaline rush.
“It’s a family of jumpers that want to push their limits, want to jump out of planes, they want to experience new things and get that rush,” Ham said.
Ham, who has been skydiving for the past four years, has almost 200 jumps and is qualified to jump from an airplane by himself.
Most divers in the Flying Gamecocks dive in tandem, which is where a licensed professional is strapped to their backs during the dive. Ham said that even though someone hasn’t been before, they shouldn’t be afraid to dive tandem.
“It can be daunting going in there and you’re just getting used to jumping and there is this expert person who has 10,000 jumps,” Ham said, “We are a group that you can come with us and jump with us. I think that’s the biggest purpose of the club: to get people into the sport, get them used to it and get them to where it’s a fun thing for everyone.”
The club is planning a weekend dive session where they will go and dive multiple times over the course of the weekend.
They are also planning to go to indoor skydiving areas and hope to compete in the United States Parachute Association Collegiate Nationals this December, if they get funds to travel.
Ham, who competed in the USPA Collegiate Nationals, said that college is the time to experience skydiving.
“Now is the time to do it,” Ham said. “You are at a point in your life where you don’t have that much responsibility, you’re not coming home to a family, you don’t have to worry about anything. Now is the time to have fun, to push your limits, to do something.”
Ham, who is a pharmacy student, said that he uses skydiving to get away from exams and studying and other kinds of pressures.
“It’s a stress reliever,” Ham said. “When I need to escape, I just go and jump out of a plane.”