80-Year-Old Crosses Skydiving Off Bucket List
When it comes to skydiving, most people have told Clare Paryzek she was either “coura-geous or crazy.”
But that distinction didn’t bother the Chardon Township resident who splits time between Ohio and Vero Beach, Fl.
A senior citizen with no prior jumping experience, Paryzek jumped out of an airplane at 12,500 feet July 21, landing in a Stark County field.
And what’s more, she did her life-changing jump a mere 16 months after having back surgery.
Paryzek performed the stunt along with North Royalton resident Ginny Vitanza, a friend she met 50 years ago at the former Chesterland Methodist Church in Chester?Township.
Both of them jumped while attached to experienced instructors.
From Surgery to Jumping
“It’s not often you see an 80-year-old jumping out of an airplane,” Paryzek told the Geauga County Maple Leaf.
She was born and raised across the Geauga-Trumbull county border in Mesopotamia and lived on the Grover-Ridgeview Farm on state Route 87.
She lived in Geauga County for many years, including a 28-year stretch in Russell Township.
Paryzek also worked at Miss Pat’s Daycare Center in Chester Township as well as the ASM International metals research facility in her Russell home-town.
She suffered injuries in a shooting incident at age 6.
“I didn’t know if I was going to walk again,” she said.
She underwent three back surgeries at various times in her life, then received surgeries in three consecutive years from 2010 to 2012.
While living in Vero Beach after she recovered from her March 2012 surgery, she saw a nearby skydiving school in the city of Sebastian called Skydive Sebastian.
She also received guidance from Diane DeVall, the associate pastor at Chardon United Methodist Church. DeVall talked about her faith as a skydiver.
The school bills itself “as one of the most popular skydiving schools in the United States,” according to its website.
Intrigued, last fall she went to her surgeon in nearby Melbourne and asked him if her back was strong enough to do the sport. At that point, it had been a half-year since her last surgery.
A former paratrooper, the surgeon told her to “Go for it, girl!” she said.
He just urged her to bring back a video of her skydiving so he could show patients the effects of his successful back surgery on her.
“‘Your back is strong enough,’ he told me,” Paryzek said, adding he told her she was an inspiration to him.
Jump Day
Sunday, July 21, dawned with uncertain weather.
The jump originally was scheduled for the day before, but rainy weather canceled the event.
At 11 a.m., the skies cleared and both Paryzek and Vitanza, aided by inst-ructors from Canton Air Sports, north of Alliance, prepared for their jump with 20 minutes of verbal instruction.
They took off from Barber Airport in Alliance. The plane contained four jumpers, paired with four instructors.
A single jumper was “free-jumping” and went off first. At that altitude, wind velocity was a factor and it was hard to hear, Paryzek said.
At 12,500 feet, they jumped, with Paryzek being the last one out.
“We got free fall for 45 seconds, then the chute opened,” she said. “There was beautiful water and the woods, the fields laid out in strips of green.”
For a second, she and her instructor were wrapped up in a cloud.
Then she received some interesting news. They were not going to land at the airport, as was the plan.
After circling various landmarks, they landed in a swale with two-inch-deep water.
“When you go in, you slide in on your butt. There’s no pain whatsoever,” she said, adding they landed a quarter-mile away from the airport.
She also said a jumper could say “no” right up to the point of being by the jump door.
“But if you get to that door and you say ‘no,’ it’s too late,” Paryzek said.
Safety was not an issue. Instructors fastened the new jumpers with harnesses that went over their shoulders and across their waists, she said.
Then, they attached the new jumpers to the veteran instructors. Her instructor told her he had jumped over 7,000 times.
Reflecting On High-Flying Experience
What made it easy for her to jump?
Paryzek said she didn’t know, but added her family roots may have helped.
Her uncle flew a plane and she has taken plane rides before.
“I’ve been the daredevil of my family,” she said. “I needed something to work for. You can get depressed when you do nothing but physical therapy.”
She cited the 41st President of the United States, George H.W. Bush, as a prominent jumper who jumped on his 80th birthday.
“I was just along for the ride,” she said of the jump.
After she returned home, she crossed the item off her bucket list, then tackled her next challenge: Riding the 18-mile Maple Highlands Trail-South on a bike.
“It took me one-and-three-quarters of an hour to do,” she said. “At one point, the grade takes me up to 1,220 feet.”
Paryzek said her desire is fueled to do things at her age that most people can’t do.
For now, she just tries to stay busy, which includes volunteer efforts at her church in Florida and writing her autobiography.
What’s Her Next Step?
Whitewater river rafting, a sport she tackled 20 years ago.
“I just try to lead an active life every day,” she said.
