Skydiving is a time-consuming discipline, and if done seriously, requires quite an initial investment in training and gear. However, more than anything else, skydiving requires love and dedication.

There is plenty of love and dedication for skydiving at Accelerated Free Fall Iowa at the Boone Airport, where members of the Iowa State Skydiving Club jump. The group is taught by skydiving guru Hashem Hashemi-Toroghi.

The word “excitement” underscores what this group of men and women do every weekend during the warmer months of the year.

The process starts with the so-called “tandem jump.” The guest skydiver, typically a prospective student or just someone who wants to feel the experience firsthand, wears a harness that straps via heavy-duty connector links to the instructor’s harness.

The tandem instructor is the one who lugs the 50-pound parachute, made specifically for tandem jumps.

After being exposed to the basic aspects of the jump in a video at the hangar and practicing the basic moves to help make the jump an exhilarating experience, it is time to jump.

The free fall at more than 120 miles per hour is breathtaking. The 20-plus seconds of free fall from 8,500 feet to about 4,000 feet, when the canopy opens, are inspiring.

Hashem has done about 3,000 tandem jumps, out of his almost 9,000 total skydives. Some ISU skydivers jump an average of 120 times a year. At that pace, one would need 75 years to complete 9,000 jumps.

The second step is to take the skydiving course and get certification. Once certified, skydivers are free to jump wherever they want and as many times as they want.

The skydiving course consists of eight levels, involving free fall exercises (flips, loops, formations, etc.) and dealing with all the aspects related to the canopy flight.

Technology and human experience work hand-in-hand to make this sport safe, and skydiving has gotten safer and safer during the past years. However, much of the skydiver’s safety is in his or her own hands, since it is the skydiver who packs the parachute and checks and double checks that everything is in order before boarding the airplane.

Self confidence and teamwork are the premises under which the Boone group works. Without teamwork, skydiving just does not happen.

The very moment the door opens and the wind starts to overwhelm the senses, the jumpers know they are about to do something special. Then the “Go!” order is heard. Suddenly, they are falling at an incredible speed, and blue sky is all their eyes can see.

For a fraction of a second they are upside down. Then their bodies arch back, following almost unconsciously the moves practiced on the ground meant to stabilize the free fall.

They are flying. They are free.