(Skydivers) are making an estimated two and a half to three million jumps a year in the U.S. alone. When you throw in Europe, that’s probably another million. – Lewis Sandborn
Lewis Sanborn has spent close to seven decades breaking the rules.
He is one of the forefathers of modern skydiving and at 86, is the oldest active skydiver in the U.S.
Last month, this 1948 Chardon High School graduate broke a personal record of jumping in all 50 states with a jump in Waialua, Hawaii.
Sanborn made the historic jump April 18 – 68 years to the day after his first parachute jump in the Army Airborne in 1949.
Like most chronic skydivers, Sanborn is addicted to the sport. But his addiction didn’t start with his first few static line jumps — jumps during which the parachute is automatically deployed by a line connected to the airplane — out of a military aircraft.
It started with him breaking the rules.
“After about 13 or 15 jumps, I made a forbidden free fall,” Sanborn said via phone interview from his home outside of St. Louis, Mo. “That’s when I realized there was more to it than being scared and jumping out with a dog leash attached to you.”
The experience was so rewarding for Sanborn that in 1959, he and fellow United States Parachuting Team member Jacques Istel founded Parachutes Incorporated in Orange, Mass.
Together, they created the Telsan Technique, which meant for the first time, ordinary people could learn basic safety techniques and parachute control in a few hours and jump out of an airplane that same day.
What brought him the most fame, however, was pioneering the filming of parachuters in free fall. According to a web page run by the International Skydiving Museum, of which Sanborn is the honorary president, he shot the image for the March 1961 edition of Sports Illustrated as well as footage for a short film called “A Sport is Born,” which was nominated for an academy award for Best Live Action Short.
His outsized achievements have left their mark on the sport. Bob Martin, a recreational skydiver from Montville Township who now lives near Washington, D.C., said Sanborn is “mentioned in the same breath as the Wright brothers and John Glenn, and he’s from Chardon, Ohio!”
When Martin saw coverage of Sanborn’s recent jump in Hawaii, he was reminded once again of his hometown connection to a living legend.
“Skydivers, when they hear (his) statistics, they get goosebumps,” he said.
Sanborn expressed pride over his accomplishments as well.
Of filming during a dive, he said, “I pioneered that – it isn’t modest, but it’s true.”
During the April jump in Hawaii, however, he was one of the only jumpers out of 12 without a camera attached to his helmet.
That’s just one change in a sport Sanborn says is “night and day” different from the one he helped create nearly 70 years ago. One of the most impressive changes in his mind is the sheer number of enthusiasts.
“(Skydivers) are making an estimated two and a half to three million jumps a year in the U.S. alone. When you throw in Europe, that’s probably another million,” Sanborn said.
His role in bringing skydiving to the masses through film and skydiving schools is part of the reason for those numbers. One of the many awards and distinctions he received was a United States Parachuting Association Achievement Award in 1972 for “originating safe and reliable parachuting equipment and for pioneering work in free fall photography.”
He has also set many records, the most important of which he feels is being the oldest active skydiver in the U.S. As a former pilot, Sanborn had a brush with death when his plane crashed in Massachusetts, forcing him out of skydiving during his months-long recuperation.
“There’s a saying in aviation,” he said. “There are old pilots and there are bold pilots, but there are no old and bold pilots. The same thing applies to parachuters.”
Sanborn has logged 7,552 jumps and would like to make it to 8,000, but doesn’t believe that will be possible at his age. Indeed, his jumps in 50 states and 86 hours of free fall time are not record-setting numbers in the world of skydiving — his age is what sets him apart.
He is concentrating on only one goal — to make “at least a jump every year, extend that 68 years up into the 70s and even to 75. But that’s asking a lot.”
The loss of his wife, Jacky, early in 2015 was part of the impetus for checking the 50th state off his list. Sanborn’s wife never wanted to make the trip to Hawaii with him and while she was alive, he didn’t feel right going for the record without her there.
Another reason he was finally able to make his 50th state jump was through the hard work of fellow skydivers Mark Cook and Scott Swenson. Cook hosted Sanborn at his home in Hawaii and Swenson created a donation page for his trip, which raised enough money to cover airfare and the excess baggage fee for Sanborn, who had to pack his parachute in his suitcase.
“I didn’t ask anybody to do this,” Sanborn said. “They just did this on their own, which is a hell of a compliment to me.”
After almost seven decades of jumping out of airplanes, Sanborn still remembers his first military parachute jump.
“It’s ingrained in my brain like I filmed it,” he recalled.
But the world changed for him once he broke the rules and freefell into history.
“I was flying for the first time,” he said.
Watch the Acadamy Award nominated short film “A Sport is Born” and video of Sanborn’s Hawaii dive.
