The Star: July 09, 2020

The Star Thursday July 9 2020
12
OUR PEOPLE
LEE BARRACLOUGH
From all parts of the globe to Sumner,
Lee Barraclough’s
business Skydiving
Kiwis is set to launch
a new attraction later
this month or in August,
which will allow people
to skydive out of a
helicopter onto Sumner
Beach. Matt Slaughter
talked to him about this
and the experiences he
has had in his 17 years
as a skydiver
Tell me about your job and
how you make a living?
I’ve been a skydiving
instructor now for 17 years.
Basically, at the moment I’ve
been living in Sumner. In 2003, I
learnt to skydive and then I spent
12 years travelling around the
world chasing the sun.
I came back to New Zealand
in 2011, just after the earthquake
and set up Skydiving Kiwis and
since then, we’ve been doing
commercial skydiving with
tandem skydiving and also
student training and advanced
sports skydiving training as well.
Where did the idea of jumping
out of a helicopter onto Sumner
Beach come from and what will
people experience?
What I looked at doing
THRILLING: Lee Barraclough’s business Skydiving Kiwis is set to start jumping from a
helicopter onto Sumner Beach later this month or in August. PHOTO: GEOFF SLOAN
was, rather than just offering
the skydiving experience, I
looked at what we could deliver
with a package that included
skydiving, but gave you so much
more. So, that being a
luxury helicopter flight, a
flight over our amazing city
and then opening the door into
the most breathtaking views in
the country and then
flying down into the
parachute and landing on
one of the best beaches within
Christchurch.
What does it feel like to
skydive?
For a first-time skydiver, it
can be one of the most scariest
things that you ever do, I guess,
and I never try to tell anybody
otherwise, but then the feeling
once you actually leave the plane
and step into the wind, or you
drop into the wind, is one of
the most freeing, exhilarating
feelings that you can ever
experience in your life.
Once you jump out, you’re
flying, man. There’s not a word
in the dictionary for that feeling.
How did your passion for
skydiving develop?
In 2001, I did my first tandem
and then in 2003 I did my first
solo and for me, at the time,
like, I hadn’t really been an
aircraft before, so I was a bit
unsure of what all the dials in
the aircraft meant and that was
the only thing that really kind
of confused me a little bit and
then as soon as that door opened
and that entrance to kind of the
world of the bird was before me,
then the feeling was inside me
that I was actually at home. It
was something that I saw on TV
when I was about nine-years-old
and since that moment I said to
my mum that as soon as I get the
spare money, mum, what I want
to do is go skydiving.
Are you ready to take care of your health?
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