Amber Marcy wearing her Ms. Wheelchair Michigan crown.
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By Bethany Broadwell
A quick perusal of the Skydive Allegan Web site gives a preliminary indication that people may simply need to let go of their worries. On the company’s staff page, co-founders Bill Snyder and Ed Straub seemingly poke fun at the jeopardy of plunging through space at 120 mph.
Snyder tugs at one corner of his mouth with his finger to make a twisted funny face. He wears a bandanna on his head and sunglasses that give him an outdoorsy, sporty look. Whether it is from wind, rays or a combination of the two, his skin is tanned. Strapped to his hand is an altimeter. It’s an instrument for measuring how far he is above the world.
Straub, wearing a blue jumpsuit, appears ready to leap from his staff photo. He is crouched in a “ready-to-ricochet” position with fingers extended, eyes and mouth wide open. In an effort to convey his playful spirit, Straub simulates the pose of an animated and overwhelmed first-time skydiver.
The rest of the crew expresses their own share of zaniness. Instructor Harley Matt, for example, gives a big thumbs-up and describes himself as a frog lover. Jerry M. lists his title as “greatest pilot in the world.” Even pet dog Truman gets pictured as part of the group.
Snyder tends to focus more on the promotions and marketing end of the business as well as the aircraft maintenance and staff scheduling. Straub, meanwhile, generally watches over the skydive equipment, management of the student program and the working relationship with the airport.
Since opening their operation four years ago, Snyder and Straub have relocated their headquarters from the Hastings City Airport to the Allegan Airport, in part, for accessibility reasons. When the two wanted to remodel a restroom at their original location to make it usable for visitors with wheelchairs, they did not feel the airport management was receptive to their enterprise.
“Our hangar facility at Allegan is smaller, but the Allegan Airport offers much better long-term development opportunities for us to grow our business,” Snyder says. “The City of Allegan is very excited to have skydiving at the field and has embraced our plans to develop and build facilities at the airport.”
“The great thing about skydiving is that even though it is one of the most ‘extreme’ sports out there, it is still very accessible to people with various disabilities,” Snyder explains. “Really, how hard can it be? Gravity does all the work for you. All you have to do is let go and fall down…and we all know how to fall down!”
Getting started is the part that seems to take the big push.
When Straub was a child, he had an Evel Knievel toy parachute figure that made him want to jump at an early age. “Once I turned 18,” he remembers, “I tried to get friends to go with me, but finally gave up on that and started going on my own.”
He took his first jump in 1994 at a skydive site in Hastings, Mich. Since that time, he has simply kept jumping into the sport.
Snyder said he dragged two good friends with him when he started skydiving. One friend stopped after about six jumps; the other stuck with it and accumulated nearly 200 jumps. Today, Snyder has more than 2,000 jumps to his credit and he skydives for a living.
He describes the tremendous feeling of the activity: “I've watched the sun set over Lake Michigan at 120 mph, watched whales play in the ocean below me off the coast of Hawaii from 12,000 feet and watched the space shuttle launch from Florida with a group of friends while we were all in freefall.” He continues, “Nothing else can compare to sticking out your tongue and tasting a cloud or seeing a rainbow from above (They're round!), or seeing the skyline of Chicago from across the lake.”
Snyder insists that he skydives to relax. “It is absolutely peaceful to exit the airplane and have nothing around you but the rushing of the wind in your ears and the entire world laid out beneath you. I have had so many wonderful experiences and met so many wonderful people skydiving that I wouldn't give it up for anything.”
Upon reaching the ground, participants ultimately have a chance to reflect on their journey.
Prior to the experience, Snyder described his wishes for the jumpers: “I hope that they will take away not only the satisfaction of experiencing something that only a very small percentage of people will ever experience, but also the confidence that if they can jump out of a perfectly good airplane then, even with whatever disability they may have, they can probably do just about anything else they put their minds to.” Snyder concluded, “It's also good to see people getting out and living life.”