WHY Leonardo Da Vinci wanted to fly is a question that could best be answered with two words: “Why not?”
Aside from spending a great deal of his time thinking about flying machines, Da Vinci also drew around 1514 a sketch of a man clinging by ropes to what looks like a pyramid-shaped cloth. This drawing is the earliest known depiction of the theory behind parachuting.
In 1617, a Croatian by the name of Faust Vrancic jumped from a tower in Venice using a parachute device based on Da Vinci’s drawing.
In fact, a great deal of parachuting occurred before the invention of the airplane, first in the form of base jumping — the term for parachuting off high stationary objects, like buildings and cliffs — and then later from hot air balloons.
Jumping from aircraft was initially a way to evacuate when things went wrong in flight. It took decades after the invention of flight for people to consider jumping out of a perfectly functioning airplane for fun.
The sport of skydiving as we know it today, was termed by Raymond Unique in 1955. And in 1994, nearly 400 years after Da Vinci’s sketch, skydiving became an internationally recognized sport.
As skydiving started to attract many, Saudis too were pulled in, including Maj. Mubarak Al-Suwailem and his friend Ibrahim Al-Sayyad.
Al-Suwailem is the vice president of the Arab Federation for Arial Sports, a skydiving instructor, and director of the Jeddah International Skydiving Championship and the Armed Forces Skydiving Championship. Al-Suwailem just completed a book that contains a history of skydiving in the Kingdom.
On April 18, 2004, Al-Suwailem and Al-Sayyad became the first Saudis to travel from the desert to the North Pole for a skydiving adventure of a lifetime.
Al-Suwailem said they were told one scary story after another prior to the historic jump. He recalled one in particular of a skydiver that lost a few of his fingers due to an improperly affixed glove. These stories however did not put them down. The two Saudis flew not just on the horizons of Arabia but reached one of earth’s extreme and chilly latitudes and from 6,000 feet jumped waving the green flag of the Kingdom. This experience was not only etched in the memories of these two sky-jumpers, it was also taped and recorded for posterity.
The first time skydiving was introduced in the Kingdom was in 1998 in the holy city of Madinah during a festival commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Kingdom’s unity.
Skydivers opened the ceremony by performing a number of free jumps displaying the flag of the kingdom on their parachutes. After that in 1999, a charity skydiving show was presented at the second Madinah Festival to benefit disabled children there. Jeddah’s hosted a skydiving exhibition that the Jeddah 2000 Festival.
Saudi skydivers also participate din a 25-day skydiving tour through Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, Jordon and Egypt.
“Makkah Region Governor, Prince Abdul Majeed and Prince Turki Al-Faisal were a big supporters to this game,” said Al-Suwailem.
Prince Abdul Majeed was the one who made the dream come true for these skydivers when he opened the International Skydiving Championship in the kingdom in Jeddah in 2001.
Skydiving in Saudi Arabia is now open for young men over the age of 18 at the International Skydiving Center in Riyadh, which opened its doors last February. Courses are offered and given by the professional and specialized instructors in skydiving from South Africa, the Czech Republic and Saudi Arabia.
Information regarding skydiving can be found at: www.fai.org, www.uspa.com, www.sac.com.sa and www.skydiving-ksa.com.
