By Sean Sullivan

“I’ve been wanting to skydive all my life,” said Adam Perry.

That was way back then; this is now. Since his inaugural jumps in 2022, the Holliston resident has taken to the air and plunged toward earth many dozens of times.

Perry belongs to an organization called “Skydivers Over 60,” a select group that takes pride in parachuting during those later decades.  

As per regulation, his first two jumps were accomplished with an experienced instructor strapped to his back. It goes without saying that there’s no room for error when gravity’s the main force in the game, and the speed “limit” is 120 miles per hour.

That professional skydiver is a protective shell attached to the back of the “junior” jumper, there to protect the student with expertise gleaned over countless falls to terra firma.

Perry accomplished his first jump in California, and his second in Pepperell, Massachusetts. 

Prior to those first two jumps, he participated in about six hours of terrestrial classroom instruction. There, prospective jumpers learn the ins and outs of the aircraft they’ll descend from, every part of the jumping journey from takeoff in a plane to landing their feet on the ground.

Skydivers these days practice Accelerated Free Falls, jumps in which they plunge for about a minute before manually activating their chutes. The AFF is in contrast to those round-chute jumpers of old, whose canopies were automatically pulled just after exiting the aircraft.

Jumpers learn to control their orientation in the air while they’re falling, a kind of choreography with the currents of air streaking over the limbs of skydivers. It’s a skill that’s surprisingly strenuous on the body, said Perry.   

The packing of parachutes is an art form all its own, most often left to professionals who specialize in the craft. Still, Perry packed his own chute once as part of the course, under the supervision of instructors of course. The pack includes a main chute and a secondary one, just in case.

On one harrowing jump when his primary chute failed, Perry learned firsthand about the importance of having a plan B.

“I’ve had to use that one time,” he said of his backup. 

The class that certified him is no weekend affair. It includes 25 jumps. That’s the minimum required to earn an A license in the sport, though Perry ended up jumping for extra credit.

“It took me 36 jumps to get my license, I’m a bit older, harder to learn.”

Jumpers must also pass muster in a supervised dive with an instructor, a mentor who follows the student during every stage of the process to ensure competency.  

Why did the Holliston resident wait until the winter of his life to take the long plunge? He was waiting for the sport to shape up.

Recall those round chutes that skydivers of yesteryear once used to slow their descent. The inverted bowl-shaped parachutes of World War II paratroopers were earlier versions. Jumpers using them were like marionettes dangling at the end of those strings, at the mercy of wayward winds that might blow them off course. The two directions such jumpers could take were straight down, or whichever way air currents chose to take them.

The relatively recent advent of rectangular chutes introduced an element of control over the course of a skydiver’s descent. By manipulating strings attached to chutes, jumpers could now navigate toward some target on the ground (and away from potential hazards).

“You can steer, you can brake,” said Perry.

The older, round chutes were synonymous with the PFL, he added. The Parachute Landing Fall. This is “basically a controlled crash,” in which jumpers absorb the impact with their legs and a rough tuck and roll to lessen the landing’s blow. For people like Perry who’ve adopted skydiving as regular hobby, repeated landings of that sort would take too heavy a toll on the body.

The new chutes also allowed skydivers to glide, coast into a soft landing. With practice, jumpers can often touch down as lightly and gracefully as they’d wish.

“I’ve had landings so gentle,” said Perry, “it felt like I was stepping off a ladder.”                

At 60 years, Perry is the green one among his trio of skydivers, a group of friends with whom he regularly takes the plunge. There’s Tom Brown Sr., aged 83 from Munson MA, and Vincent Dooley of Connecticut, aged 69.

“It’s kind of an elite club,” said Perry of the skydiving community. And Skydivers Over Sixty is an even more exclusive club within that club. 

The three jumpers set a Connecticut record in May, being the oldest group to jump in that state to date. As of this writing, Perry had collected 136 jumps under his chute and counting. His goal to reach 150 will qualify him for a “B” license, which demands proficiency in a more advanced set of skills.

The new certification will also qualify him to jump over the Hawaiian Islands, which requires expertise in navigating toward and landing more challenging targets.

The O’ahu jump Perry has planned means jumpers must be able to handle a deep-water landing, should winds blow them off course and into the ocean. Skydivers must know how to escape a tangle of gear and swim into the clear.

Perry had his sights set on those skills, and the potential scene of the island chain and its azure ocean from high above.      

“I can only imagine the views. It opened my eyes to a whole new world. Here I am, crushing it. Don’t give up because you’re getting old.”