While thousands of Veishea parade-goers waited to see balloons and floats pass them by on the streets, four local men had a totally different perspective of the event.

ISU senior Rob Meyer and university professor Jim Kurtenbach, along with Hashem Hashemi-Toroghi and Karl Eckrich, sailed over the campus at 11:30 on Saturday just prior to the start of the parade.

Meyer said the jump from 5,000 feet, which was the 660th of his skydiving career, was exciting because of the unique view of the campus and city.

“We enjoyed the view of Ames,” he said. “There’s a lot more to look at [than on regular jumps]. You even get a little time to try and name all the buildings.”

Meyer, who made the Veishea jump last year as well, said the skydive was still nerve-wracking.

The food tents, trees, hordes of people, Lake LaVerne and campus buildings may be things most Veishea attendees want to stop and take a look at, but for the four backpacked birds, they all became formidable obstacles to avoid at all costs.

“It’s difficult,” Meyer said. “There’s an extra pressure to not crash and to avoid hitting people.”

Kurtenbach said he wasn’t nervous about the fairly limited landing space. But then again, he is licensed to jump into stadiums and has been skydiving since the early 1970s.

He said, “It’s more of an adrenaline high than a nervous [high]. I really look forward to it.”

For Kurtenbach, who has completed double-figures of Veishea jumps, the campus provides an element of challenge, but not an overwhelming one. He said the group welcomed the amount of open space.

“It just keeps your attention,” he said. “We didn’t mind that.”

Despite having differing pre-flight feelings, Kurtenbach and Meyer shared the same feelings upon landing.

“It was wonderful,” Kurtenbach said. “It was the best Veishea jump I’ve ever done. The crowd was wonderful.”

Meyer agreed. “We were very happy with the skydive. People were clapping and wanted to come up [to us]. We enjoy that,” he said.

In addition to having a good time and supplying entertainment, Meyer said that safety is always the group’s utmost concern.

Meyer wore the ISU skydiving club’s camera helmet to videotape and photograph the entire event.

While Meyer enjoyed the whole bird’s eye view of ISU, Kurtenbach said he enjoyed trying to orientate himself with the surroundings just as his parachute opened.

But the entire relaxing atmosphere and excitement of the event’s spectators keeps Kurtenbach going back year after year.

“You can always hear the crowd and can virtually see forever.”