What I couldn’t do at 26, I finally did at 62. Tandem skydiving was a childhood dream, fuelled by my love for adrenaline-charged adventures.
However, I was caught in the rat race, focused on achieving a stable living during the earlier phase of my life.As a child, I needed to grow up, as a teenager and young man I needed to study and pursue higher education. As a family man, I needed to work and support my family. As I grew older I had to hone my work skills and support my growing family.
Thus, my years caught up rapidly with me being fully occupied with the worldly responsibilities to be accomplished.
I had to keep aside my childhood dream for years.
Finally, I realised, I am already old, crossed my youthful age, if I continue with this daily routine, it would hold me down in my comfort zone and I may miss to explore and experience the dream of my life.
So, I retired from my profession and started making my dreams a reality. I ventured into adventure sports as much as possible before my time is up.
Coming to this tandem Skydive, I wanted to make it happen a few years back after hearing the excitement from my senior friend who recently did it. His experience left me in awe and I looked forward to experiencing it by myself.
From that day, I developed the courage to finally embark on an adrenaline rushed skydive.
So at my 62nd birthday, I decided to go for it. I arranged my tandem skydive at the Thai Sky Adventure at Pattaya, Thailand on Jan 10, 2026.
Initially, I was apprehensive about the dive, as such I didn't tell anyone about it. I contacted my scuba dive master who's also a good friend of mine to accompany me for this trip as a moral support.
I flew in to Bangkok a day prior and travelled by road to Pattaya. We stayed close to the Skydive centre.
The next day morning, I went to the Skydive centre to register for my jump and I was amazed by the big crowd waiting to do the dive, of course, most of them were half my age.
That boost my confidence and reduced my anxiety. Thus, after the formalities and payment, I had to wait for an hour till it was my turn.
I was calm and encouraging the younger divers on the importance of safety during adventure sports.
When the buzzer rang it was my turn for the dive.
The dive instructor put on the necessary harness and explained the procedure for the dive in the waiting room.
Finally, we got into a small plane with my skydive master, camera man and another two skydivers
The plane took off and when we reached a height of 5,000 metres, the moment I had been waiting for finally arrived.
Placing my trust in God and my skydive master, I took the leap of my life.
My dream became a reality and I enjoyed a mesmerising bird's eye view of the terrain down below.
