Maplewood Native On What It’s Like To Fall Out Of The Sky

Getting a group of people to gracefully perform any type of integrated routine together is not easy. Ballet dancers, marching bands members, and synchronized swimmers have to spend hours practicing to ensure every movement is in sync.

Now imagine trying perform a routine with a team while you're free falling thousands of feet in the air. Maplewood native Joe Wilde entered the sport of skydiving to do exactly that.

Wilde, 23, is a cadet at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. He’s already completed 486 jumps.

To the surprise of anyone with even a tiny fear of heights, Wilde actually says the "novelty" of falling thousands of feet in the air disappears while he’s performing with his teammates in skydiving tournaments.

Now a senior, Wilde has trained for skydiving since his sophomore year in college. Earlier this month, he won a gold medal at the 2017 U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships at Skydive Perris in California.

In addition to being able to jump out of a plane on a regular basis, Wilde said a big reason he loves the sport is competing with his teammates. His partners in the air, collectively known as Air Force Rodisiac, took gold in the intermediate eight-way formation skydiving event.

The national championships drew more than 500 skydivers from across the country vying for medals in five different skydiving disciplines. (For more local news, click here to sign up for real-time news alerts and newsletters from Minnesota Patch, click here to find your local Minnesota Patch. Also, follow us on Facebook, and if you have an iPhone, click here to get the free Patch iPhone app.)

In formation skydiving, eight-person teams exit the airplane more than two miles above the ground and race against the clock to form prescribed geometric formations in free fall before opening their parachutes. A videographer jumps with the team to capture the maneuvers for the judges on the ground.

Wilde, a graduate of Hill Murray High School, was only required to complete five skydives to earn his basic jump wings from the academy. For most cadets, that’s where their jumping career begins and ends, but Wilde said his love of athletic competition — which were missing during his first year of college — pushed him to do more.

“I felt that skydiving is a fun, new experience and it helped me to continue my passion to compete,” he told Patch.

After completing his first five jumps, Wilde was chosen to join the team of instructors tasked with teaching the basic skydiving course. He also began competing in tournaments, which required hours of practice.

In competitions, the teams jump from about 13,500 feet above the ground and have 50 seconds to complete their formations and score as many points as possible. When they hit 5,000 feet, the “audible skydiving altimeter” in each person’s helmet sounds off, alerting the team that it’s time to activate their parachutes.

Wilde, who did track and played football and basketball in high school, said it’s tough to describe what it feels like to skydive. “It is truly unlike any other sport I’ve competed in,” he said. He has found some similarities in it with more down-to-earth sports, however.

In high school sports, Wilde said that “eventually, you get to a point in the game where you’re not really paying attention to your surroundings. The only thing that you’re really focusing on is the game itself.”

Wilde said skydiving competitions have reached that point for him. “It takes me actively removing myself from the formation and the competition to realize that I’m falling out of the sky and jumping out of a plane.”

In football, during a potentially game-winning drive, the quarterback doesn't focus on the crowd, the grass, or the bright stadium lights. He's watching his linebackers and looking for his open receivers. In that sense, Wilde and his partners in the air aren't any different.

“Most of the time, all I see is the person to my left, and the person to my right,” he added. “The novelty of falling through the sky kind of fades away momentarily.”

Images via USPA/David Cherry, Video courtesy U.S. Parachute Association