UNC skydiving club plans its first event

Sophomore Drew Nations wants to help UNC students check one thing off their bucket lists ­— skydiving.

Nations will be collecting checks in the Student Union every day this week for SKYDIVE-PALOOZA, the UNC Skydiving Club’s first event.

The event will be held on March 23 and March 30 at Triangle Skydiving Center. Participants will do a tandem jump — a jump in which participants have an instructor attached to them.

After skydiving for the first time last summer, Nations returned to UNC this fall and created the UNC Skydiving Club. He said he wants students to have the same experience he had.

“If we went around and asked every single person in the Pit what was on their bucket list, skydiving’s going to be on 80 percent,” Nations said.

Once Nations began forming the club, he met two other students who were also trying to create a skydiving club — Brandon Schneider and Alex Almquist.

“I went skydiving once, started this and out of the woodwork come people who skydive all the time,” Nations said.

The club has been planning its first event, SKYDIVE-PALOOZA, for months, Nations said. March was chosen so it would be warm enough for skydivers to have a comfortable experience.

“When you get to 14,000 feet, it gets cold,” Nations said.

Nations said 40 students have signed up to give him checks in order to attend.

The cost for jumping at the event is $175 — which is $75 less than Triangle Skydiving Center’s normal $250 cost for a first-time tandem jump.

Greg Upper, the owner of Triangle Skydiving Center, said he was able to lower the cost because of the amount of people interested in participating.

Upper said that although he’d love to see more college students skydive, he realizes it’s expensive. Getting a class A license, which requires 25 jumps, usually costs about $3,000, Upper said.

Lowering the price of skydiving for students is one of the club’s goals, Nations said.

Nations said he is also interested to see who might want to become licensed and part of a competitive team. Competing involves doing different formations with team members whilst skydiving.

Nations, who is not yet licensed, said his goal is to have a team together by the fall, but Schneider said it might be a while before a team is formed.

Schneider, who is licensed and has performed 31 jumps, said forming a team will depend on how many students are interested and willing to pay to get licensed.

For now, Nations said the goal is to get established and share skydiving with other students.

“The rush of going up in a plane and jumping out and the feeling of invincibility it brings when you finally land on the ground — you really do believe you can do anything,” he said.

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