From Security to Skydiving Instructor

I’m one of the instructors at Skydive Auckland; I’m a Tandem Master and AFF Jump Master and I also teach at the New Zealand Skydiving School.

Before Tourism I was working in security and I felt like I needed a change – skydiving gave me that option. My journey started when I was on an OE, travelling, I did a skydive and fell in love with it – I was asking the guy all the questions about how I could do it as a career. When I came back to Auckland I found the New Zealand Skydiving School. I got my Diploma in Commercial Skydiving which takes five months of full-time learning and you knock out 200 jumps... then I went to Europe and worked a couple of seasons there to build up my jump numbers. Once I got to 750 jumps I got my ‘Tandem Rating’ which means I could take people on tandem jumps. It took me about two years from completing the skydiving school to becoming an instructor. I’ve done about 1500 skydives but I’m actually considered on the junior end of instructing – we’ve got guys here that have 10,000+ jumps. And I’ve taken over 500 people out so far.

I’m a bit of a parasite of ‘the buzz’ - I’ll leech off their excitement! If they're having a good time and enjoying themselves then that makes my day. When they walk in the door they’re nervous and excited and then you get to see them completely transform throughout the jump. Often the person that you land with is a completely different person from the one you took off with.

There’s no minimum age for skydiving, as long as there’s parental consent and they can fit into the harness. I’ve taken up a fearless seven year old and he was just loving it.

We get a weather call in the morning, then we’ll come out to the drop site. I like to get all my gear ready in the morning, then will find out who we’re jumping with that day, say hello, gear them up, give them the brief, off we go, land, next person. The day just rolls like that!

I say go for it. You’ve got to enjoy what you’re doing [for a career] and you will meet amazing people. You just need to go into it 110%, do the hard grind and you’ll reap the awards. The skills you learn here are transferable to any other career if you decide you want a change – and overseas as well. The people skills you get are invaluable.