On the first day that Jason Sampsell ever tried skydiving solo, something crazy he wanted to do to celebrate his coming retirement, a fatal accident occurred over DeLand. A midair collision sent a parachutist hurtling to his death.
"We lost a skydiver that day. It was my first jump," Sampsell recalls, with sadness in his voice. skydive rig bag
It was on April 1 when DeLand police said a 42-year-old Brazilian skydiver collided with another midair and fell to his death on Lexington Avenue near the DeLand Municipal Airport.
Sampsell was asked by his instructors, did he still want to go? Yes, was his simple answer and the airplane lifted off taking his group to 13,500 feet.
"Of course, that's in the back of your mind," he said of the accident.
Orange City police Chief Wayne Miller said he was not surprised that Sampsell still proceeded with the jump right after the skydiving accident.
"I have known Jason to dive several hundred feet underwater in caverns, swim with sharks, spearfish in the ocean and get bit by poisonous fish, capture alligators, snakes, and other wild animals – with his bare hands," Miller said. "Now he is diving out of perfectly good airplanes!"
"When he told me about a month ago that he was going to get his skydiving license which was a minimum of 25 jumps from 10,000 feet high, I said 'of course your are ... why does this not surprise me,'" Miller said.
Miller said that in his more than 30-year law enforcement career, Sampsell always displayed enthusiasm, dedication and initiative to any endeavor he has been associated with.
"I have always been impressed with Lt. Sampsell's dedication to any endeavor he has been involved with," Miller said. "I've learned a lot from him and I believe he is a tremendous human being."
Why celebrate leaving a 31-year law enforcement career by jumping out of a perfectly good airplane?
Sampsell, 53, a lieutenant with the Orange City Police Department, said he has always enjoyed living his life outdoors, pushing his personal abilities.
He has hiked part of the Appalachian Trail, part of the Slaughter Trail at Slaughter Mountain which rises more than 4,000 feet. He has scuba-dived since he was 14, and still spearfishes 20 miles off the coast of Daytona Beach, where he has encountered Great White Sharks, hammerheads, and goliath grouper.
"I want to live my life. I never want to become stagnant," Sampsell said. "We begin to grow at the edge of our comfort zone, so skydiving was just something I wanted to do."
Sampsell's dad was a skydiver in the 1960s, and 20 years ago he gave his nostalgic father "who was up there in age" a skydiving present. So they did a tandem jump at Skydive DeLand.
The hobby would have probably stuck with Sampsell then but life got in the way, he said.
"You know, your job, your career. And so, 20 years later, I'm coming to the end of my career, and I am like, I've always wanted to do it (skydiving)," Sampsell said. "I'd rather do something, as opposed to living the rest of my life saying I wish I would have always tried that."
So, on April 1, with knots in his stomach, an anxious Sampsell left his home for the DeLand Municipal Airport to do his pre-retirement jump.
"Let's just say that, yeah, you have the nervousness," Sampsell said. "And I hate that feeling, Hate it, but I don't let it stop me."
Sampsell was drawn even more to skydiving during the summer when he operated guard patrol vehicles that picked up skydivers after jumps at the airport.
"That's when I decided to just walk in and ask them how much it will cost to jump," Sampsell said.
Sampsell started his skydiving experience with the Accelerated Free Fall course and after seven jumps, he is working on getting a license as a skydiver so he can jump out of an airplane anywhere in the United States or the world.
On its website, Skydive DeLand lists its courses and the prices for skydiving enthusiasts.
It's $229 for tandem skydiving where you parachute from an airplane attached to a professional skydiver/instructor. It is $369 for the first Accelerated Free Fall jump and course. But there is also a seven-jump Accelerated Free Fall package valued at $1,350.
The website also lists the requirements that skydiving enthusiasts need to meet. For example, you must be at least 18, weigh less than 220 pounds, take no drugs or alcohol before jumping, and plan on a 3- to 4-hour day.
Sampsell said there is always an inherent danger in anything we do as human beings. As a longtime policeman, for example, yes, there were moments of terror. But those didn't stop him from enjoying a long career.
Sampsell started as an unpaid policeman, then became a patrol officer, a narcotics investigator, a SWAT team member and then graduated from Blackwater Sniper School in 2007.
tandem skydiving "I spent half my life doing it, 31 years just in law enforcement and add another six with the military," he said. "You know, I always say we live one time. We go around once, so make it worth your while, we all have a story to tell, just make sure your story is worth listening to."