21-Year-Old Professional Skydiver

At 14,500 feet up in the air about to be thrown out of a perfectly functioning airplane there really isn't a lot running through your head except a sense of panic. For University of Mississippi senior John Croce there is no sense of panic just, just a sense of joy and amusement. Why you might ask? This is because the 21-year-old Memphis, Tenn. native is a professional skydiver working at West Tennessee Skydiving with 858 jumps. "I went skydiving for the first time when I was 17-years-old after my younger sister tried it, and since then I haven't been able to stop doing it," Croce said. Croce quickly moved his way up the ranks in the skydiving world starting out as a free fall camera man, and quickly moved his way up to become a certified tandem instructor and an accelerated free fall instructor. The tandem skydive is the first skydive you make when jumping for the first time. The tandem instructor straps himself to your back and does all the work for you while you are soaring through the air at speeds reaching 120 miles per hour. University of Mississippi alumni Hayden Wingate was lucky enough to experience skydiving first hand while doing a tandem jump with Croce. "I have never in my life experienced anything like it, Wingate said, John took me on the ride of my life, and it is something I will never forget." After you have jumped tandem with an instructor you are then able to start the accelerated free fall program. This program which is taught by Croce now is the program where you learn all the ins and outs of skydiving. Once you have completed this course you are able to skydive by yourself. West Tennessee Skydiving owner Mike Mullins is glad that Croce picked up on the sport so fast. "It's not every day that we find someone who enjoys skydiving enough to dedicate all their weekends to teaching others the sport, but John loves this sport and brings a wonderful energy to work every day," Mullins said. The sport can be very dangerous, and even Croce has had a couple of scary run-ins up in the air. One in particular was when he deployed his parachute only to realize that the lines became wrapped around the right side of the parachute not allowing it to inflate properly. "I could tell something was wrong because I was still travelling at a very high speed, and when I looked up at my canopy I noticed the problem," Croce said. Croce frantically pulled on the lines to see if he could get them untangled but he was unable to do so. "When I realized that the lines were not going to come undone I knew that my only choice was to cut away my parachute and allow for my reserve parachute to come out," Croce said. In a split second Croce pulled the handle on his pack to cut away the tangled main parachute, and then pulled another handle to deploy his reserve. Once the reserve had opened up it was smooth sailing all the way down to the ground. "That was one of the most intense moments I have ever had while skydiving, Croce said, I am glad that everything worked out for the best." As dangerous as the sport is, Croce has no intentions of quitting, and is even thinking about taking a year off once he has graduated from the University of Mississippi to move to Lake Taupo, New Zealand and skydive there.