A skydive for most Kiwis is a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but one pair are aiming to do over 100 of them this weekend.
Steve Gregor and Brent Findlay are trying to break a New Zealand record that’s stood for almost 22 years - the most number of simultaneous skydives done in a single day - which currently stands at 100.
Gregor planned his first attempt at the end of 2018.
“Honestly it was like a full-time job,” he says.
It took him a year to get sponsorship money, consents to close the airport and ground crew and pilots, along with hours of training and preparation.
“Then we showed up on the day and looked at the cloud and rain all day long and cause there's so many pieces to the puzzle we couldn't just try again the following weekend we had to can it.”
Now he’s back ready to try again with Findlay, a veteran of the skydiving world, taking part in the challenge with him.
"My past experience is probably 38 years skydiving part-time. I represented New Zealand in the last world meet, done 5-and-a-half thousand-plus skydives," Findlay says.
And rookie Gregor is grateful to have him by his side.
“The thing with Brent is, he’s such a good skydiver and so experienced and I think that experience will pull him through the 100 jumps," he says. "I’ve got far fewer jumps and I'm just much less skilled than Brent is so I'm relying much more on the physical side of it."
A regular skydive can take up to half an hour, but Gregor says they’re aiming to complete one jump every six minutes.
"We're only going to 2000 feet which is very, very low for a skydive. About 90 seconds later, we'll be on the ground the moment we land, a team of people strip our parachutes from us and then a second team of people fit us both with a new one.
"By that point the plane is back on the runway already ready to take off, we jump back in the plane and we repeat the same process and we just keep doing that non-stop on a cycle until we've broken the record."
Their other goal - to raise money for the Mental Health Foundation.
Gregor says the idea "came from a journey I went through four or five years ago".
"I was in a really bad place struggling with a lot of mental health issues so it made a lot of sense to raise money for someone so special like the Mental Health Foundation."
To donate to the pair's cause, click here.
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