Facing your Fears with Fun: High Adrenaline Sports

There isn’t much time to think as the plane door opens. Peering off the edge of the plane shows a world that looks impossibly small as the wind whirls and screams through the cabin. Without much fanfare, the instructor gives the signal, and the jump begins.

Most people imagine jumping from an airplane to feel like a rollercoaster, the churning in the stomach that seems to grow with every click, click, click of the coaster as it makes its way up the tall hill. Finally, the car plunges, sending its passengers and their stomachs toward the ground until they are whipped through another part of the ride.

This expectation gives skydiving a lousy reputation, and it’s one Heather Whittaker, the owner-operator at Skydive Toledo, is looking to change. In fact, she welcomes anyone who fears heights to jump out of one of her planes. “It’s such a totally different feeling when looking out of an airplane door, Whittaker says. “You don’t get that feeling of falling. When you leave the airplane, you get the immediate feeling of floating.”

Twenty-five years ago, Whittaker was set up on a date by her mom and a church friend. Her mother and her friend wanted their children to fall in love and marry, so they arranged for them to go skydiving. These mothers questioned whether the couple would chicken out, but they didn’t. While Whittaker didn’t marry the man, she found a new love of free falling. She committed to the sport, and it’s become a key part of her life.

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