The rest of my family went to watch my nephew, Trent Arrivey, high jump at the Mount SAC Invitational Relays here in SoCal yesterday. Trent is a junior at Washington State and was the Western Region NCAA champion last year and also reached All American status and was invited to the Olympic trials in which he came in 9th place (but keep in mind that these trials included professional athletes). Yesterday, Trent jumped an all time personal best 7'4 1/2" to tie for first place in the NCAA and improved the NCAA's qualifying height, not just the Western Region, but nationally. So he is tied for being the number one collegiate high jumper in the United States. Pretty exciting!
So, while my family was watching Trent jump, I was a few hours away near Lompoc, CA watching Oz skydive. It was an incredible day. Even though I am sorry I missed my nephew jump, Oz is family too and we felt we should divide and conquer so I was happy to be a part of Oz's amazing day. You all know how I've been afraid to fly, well, yesterday I came pretty darn close to thinking I might just try this sky diving thing. It was the coolest place to hang out. We had so much fun watching the instructors and parachute packers and the people coming back in after their first dives and they all seemed so happy, so alive, so cool and fun. I was just enthralled. The instructors were just the coolest folks I've come in contact with in a long time. Anyway, Oz was very impressive in that you could not tell he was one bit nervous if he was. It was a magical special day and I am so glad I was there!
(pretending to hide before the jump)
just about to take the big leap . . .
at 13000 feet . . .
doing his superman impersonation . . . .
safely on the ground . . .
I was there where he landed along with his girlfriend Jolene and it was just the neatest thing I've ever seen. Oz is booking his next dive this week. He loved it that much and is going to jump from 18000 feet next time . . . wow. Jolene is going with him . . . she thinks.
4 comments:
Wow o Wow!!!
Very cool about your nephew. I grew up in Lompoc. Way to go Oz. What's that song The First Step is the Hardest.
He looks like he is having the time of his life. Go Oz!! LOL
Holy Moly. Scary but he looks like he is having fun. In my next life maybe I'll try something like that...er..or maybe the one after that....Who took the photos of him jumping and in the plane? Did you go hopping out of planes too? ;) I am suspecting not from what you've said about flying but you never know....haha My bravest scary thing that could only be described as the 7th cousin twice removed's best friend's half sister relation, to jumping out of the plane, is I went on that log ride at Disney land and also went in that tower of terror. haha FREAKY. HAHA
Congrats to your nephew's awesome jumping. I wish I could jump 7 feet, that would be one sweet skill to have.
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