Fly with Maverick Skydiving Club
Is skydiving on everyone’s bucket list?
If so, MSU students may be in luck.
With Minnesota State being home to over 200 recognized student organizations, they all aim to improve campus life for students by offering new opportunities to gain new interests and experiences.
The Maverick Skydiving Club is no exception.
Club president Rodin Lampert said the club’s main goal is to make skydiving accessible to students. Students can either obtain a skydiving A-license, or participate in tandem skydiving — a jump that can be done with zero training.
“I think it’s definitely something that’s on most people’s bucket lists. With the tandem, they record you on the way down and it’s hilarious watching people’s reactions. Some are laughing and some are crying. You get to see a lot of different emotions coming out and it’s pretty fun,” Lompart said.
Lompart recalls his first time skydiving and how he was able to work toward his own skydiving license.
“It was for my birthday last year. And my only goal with it was to do the tandem. The people who own Skydive Northstar offered me the chance to do the ground school and work toward my license. And I just thought that was the coolest thing ever,” He said. “That’s kind of what started it. I ended up getting my license at the beginning of September. It took me about three months and it’s about 25 jumps.”
As for experiencing skydiving for the first time ever, Lompart said he was terrified, mentioning “the scariest part was when we were just taking off.”
“I just remember looking out the window and my hands were getting all sweaty. And once we got up to 10,000 feet, I think most of the nervousness went away. But I remember he just pushed my feet out,” Lompart said. “ But it was a really fun positive experience. While it was happening, I kind of accepted it. And for me, I wasn’t scared but it was a really fun time.”
Lompart mentions how the club offers more skydiving opportunities to those who obtain their license and wish to participate more with the club.
“For people with their license, if we could get them done, I believe it’s the end of summer, there’s competitions that we can go to as a skydive team. So I think that’s our biggest hope, for people to get licensed, but we understand it’s expensive and we’re all college students,” he said.
For students wanting to be involved in the club but not skydive due to fear, Lompart said the club offers ground operation opportunities, saying the “one thing that we tried to make really clear is you don’t actually have to jump to be part of the club.”
“We have a lot of ground operations that we need help with like driving; we have golf carts out there to go pick people up and shuttle them around. If you want to get more involved with the club, we can teach you how to pack a parachute. I think that’s probably one of our bigger goals for ground operations personnel,” Lompart said.
In the end, Lompart said that, for students who are interested in skydiving but are afraid to take the leap, they are going to have to “just keep taking that step and putting the gear on, getting in the plane, and just keep moving forward with that.”
“It’s a weird kind of way to face a fear. I think you just kind of have to do it. For me, I was super nervous and I didn’t think I would be but while it’s happening, it’s kind of the build up that’s the scariest part. But once you’re back on the ground, just a ton of emotions, super excited and happy,” he said. The Maverick Skydiving Team’s First Jump Day was unfortunately canceled due to weather but they will be returning next fall for the new academic year. For more information on the Maverick Skydiving Club, visit https://mavcentral.mnsu.edu/feeds
Write to Anahi Zuniga at anahi.zuniga@mnsu.edu
Header Photo: The Maverick Skydiving Club is one of Minnesota State’s Recognized Student Organizations; the club gives students the opportunity to obtain a skydiving license and experience jumping out of an aircraft safely for their first time. (Courtesy Maverick Skydiving Club)