Lt Colonel Mayank Nagpal Shares What We Need To Know Before Trying Skydiving & Base Jumping
âComing from a middle class family, I have always been interested in staying outdoors and get involved in sports like badminton and football,â he said. âWhen I went to college, my interest in sports moved towards adventure and I started mountaineering and eventually escalated to scuba diving as well,â he added. âHowever, I got my first opportunity to skydive when I turned 28 which I feel was pretty late for me. The jump was so beautiful and serene that I felt like I had wasted 10 years of my life not doing it before,â the Col. said. âWhen I moved to base jumping, that is when I asked myself âwhat was the purpose of all this?â,â he further said. âPeople think that extreme sports enthusiasts do it for the adrenaline rush or are outright crazy but it is not about all that. When you spend days and days of practice before a jump, spend all that energy and focus on mastering every bit of training and finally complete the dive successfully, it makes you feel elated, it makes you feel happy,â he added. But having done this so many times in his career, it had to become more of a mundane job for him, right? He would have known everything there is to know about the adventurous sport, wouldnât he? âDespite the numerous jumps, I still feel nervous and scared about the next one. There isnât one specific way that your jump is going to go. Factors like wind, weather, clouds, they all can have varied impacts when it matters the most,â Col. explained. âI remember, it was my second base jump that I did from a 435 feet high bridge in Idaho and it was the scariest moment of my life. When you jump from such a height, it takes you about six seconds to reach the ground. I was already two seconds into the jump and something got stuck in my parachute. I needed to react in the split second and I did it nonetheless,â he said. Adding to that, he further said, âThatâs what skydiving teaches you. It helps you overcome your fears and chanellise it towards survival. To do skydiving and base jumping professionally, you need a little bit of faith and a lot of experience.â What makes Col. Nagpalâs story a lot more interesting is the fact that he is a single father with the responsibility of two little children on his shoulders. âI have got a 5-year-old son and a daughter who is 2 and while my kids absolutely love to brag about my profession, I have to keep a check on them,â he said. âBefore every jump, I am extremely nervous while I am thinking about them. I guess it is a good balancer, the feeling,â he said. âThe day I stop being nervous, I will probably stop jumping,â he further added. âThere is a very popular saying in my profession - âYou can either be a bold skydiver or an old skydiverâ. If you become overconfident and take the kind of risks you arenât ready for, you will die. It is as simple as that,â Col said. BASE jumping at the Airgamez pic.twitter.com/Syz4yK5Gus â Mayank (@mayanknagpal) January 19, 2018Explaining further, the 37-year-old âsky devilâ said, âIt is also important to understand that there is nothing to be ashamed of if you backout from the jump in the final moments. Our community, albeit small, is like a fraternity and people understand each other and do not look down upon anyone who withdraws from jumping.â
âWhen you are up there, it is just you who is responsible for your life, it is a self-regulated sport. Come to think of it, it also feels like a human revolution. You set your own limits and then you break them and set harder, more difficult limits for yourself,â he added. Regardless of whether you are contemplating skydiving or any major life-altering decision, the major aspect between backing out or going through with it is you and whatever you think is right and whatever you do, own up to it, thatâs what Lt Colonel Mayank Nagpalâs story has taught me.
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