Thrill seekers sky-dive for 'adrenaline rush' at SPI

Through the gray clouds of Saturday afternoon Dina Peek, with a large smile on her face, was one of several skydivers who quickly swooped into landing on the sands of South Padre Island with their parachutes.

“Where’s my baby?” Peek excitedly yelled while running towards her daughter, Whitney Doche, who had jumped with her.

The two were among some 1,700 people Skydive South Padre Island has taken into the skies over one of Texas’ best-known beaches, seven days a week weather permitting, owner Frank Shisler said. Next month, the Island business marks a year of operation in the Rio Grande Valley.

The tourist destination has long been home to parasailing or horse rides on the shore, but Shisler said he believed the success of his tandem skydiving business marks a burgeoning trend in adventure tourism here.

“We’re getting so many people to come and go skydiving, of all ages,” he said. “We get a lot of Winter Texans to go skydiving. We get 18-year-olds that go. (Friday) we took a 66-year-old for her birthday. We’ve taken (someone) as old as an 88-year-old man here skydiving on the Island.”

Though on Saturday Shisler said his crew was fighting the clouds to find a clear hole to jump through, he said the area offers him the type of weather for year-round business at his location on the beach by Clayton’s Resort Beach Bar and Grill, 6900 Padre Blvd.

The Skydive SPI beach drop zone, or landing area, is one of just eight in Texas – and the only location in the Valley — recognized by the United States Parachute Association. The USPA is a voluntary membership organization for skydivers which issues skydiving licenses that are recognized by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale. Members pledge to follow USPA basic safety requirements.

Skydiving often brings up the obvious risks associated with free-falling from thousands of feet in the sky.

According to USPA documents from this summer, there have been 13 skydiving fatalities to date this year. The sport is becoming safer based on data that shows the average number of skydiving fatalities per year has decreased, the group said in a press release earlier this year. In the 1970s, the sport averaged 42.5 skydiving fatalities per year, but since then the average has dropped each decade, the release said.

Safety was not a concern on Saturday Peek and Doche said, noting they felt they were in experienced hands.

While many people were still enjoying the fruits of Black Friday bargains that carried into Saturday, the two women were part of several who chose to enjoy their Thanksgiving vacation much differently. Shisler said their jump was the third skydive of the day and one more couple awaited their turn.

Peek, who lives in Virginia, came to visit her daughter, who works on the Island. She said she wanted to jump with her daughter.

“It’s so peaceful,” she said. “Once you break the cloud cover and you get to see the Island in its entirety, that’s when you’re floating. You see things you haven’t seen before. The perspective from the Island, it’s just amazing.”

Skydive SPI picks up its students on the Island and then takes a charter van to the Brownsville airport. They fly up to 11,000 feet. Then, according to Skydive SPI, skydivers freefall for one minute and may hit up to 150 miles per hour. The parachute is deployed at 5,500 feet and then for several minutes skydivers float.

Divers must be at least 18 years old and there is a weight requirement.

Peek said she was not scared but rather excited. However, the prospect of watching her daughter jump did worry her.

“I had to watch my baby girl jump out of the plane first,” she said. “I said ‘Can I please go first, because I do not want to see her go.’ and they said “No, watch her.”

For Peek’s daughter it was her seventh skydive in a year and a half, she said. Doche said the fun and the professionalism of the crew keep her coming back.

“They tried to convince me for a month or so a year and a half ago and I was like ‘No way,’” Doche said.

But, eventually she went. For a moment on Saturday, she tried to describe the sensation of skydiving, calling it “a blast” and “an adrenaline rush” and likening it flying.

Then, Doche took a long pause and said: “There’re really no words to describe it.”

Shisler, who is from Indiana, has more than 17 years experience in skydiving. He holds a similar view.

“You have to come to do it to find out,” he said. “I’m not saying that to just get people to come. It’s true. You can’t explain what the feeling is; what the adrenaline rush of a lifetime is and that’s what it is.

He said among him and his four other instructors they have thousands upon thousands of jumps completed for experience. He will make his 10,000th skydive at the Island sometime this year, he said.

The skydiver is sure to note that while he doesn’t like heights, for example something like standing on a roof, a jump is not similar.

“If you’ve ever been in an airliner and you look out the window, most people that are scared of heights will tell you ‘I don’t get scared of that,’” he said. “The other misnomer is that it’s like a roller coaster. You do not get a dropping feeling in your stomach when you jump. It’s not like that at all. People who say ‘oh, I don’t like roller coasters,’ well, this is nothing like a roller coaster.”

Doche and Peek were still laughing and talking about their jump Saturday afternoon with excitement after their feet were firmly planted on the ground.

“You feel like you’re flying like a super hero,” the daughter told her mother.

Peek grinned.

“He was a superhero,” she said of her tandem skydiving instructor Rodney Paap. “I was just lucky to be there.”