My Pussfoot Moment: 3 Questions with Melanie Curtis

Meet Melanie Curtis, a professional skydiver, author and speaker.  Just like any of you reading this Melanie has had her moments of absolute fear and absolute achievement. It's her ability to power through life and achieve the unthinkable that makes her such a special member of the skydive community. So we wanted to share more about her journey to epic through the "My Pussfoot moment" 3 questions:

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What drove you to start skydiving? 

Melanie

"My dad actually owned a drop zone in upstate New York so I was exposed to skydiving at a very young age. He's actually a pilot, not a skydiver, which had aviation be in my life and for day I was born. My first flight and the plane was it three months old. We have a grass strip behind my Dad's, which was our drop zone, The Verona Skydiving Center. I could have jumped when I was 16 years old, but I was too scared. When I was 18, one day I said to myself, "OK, tomorrow I'm doing it." I did, and that one single jump flipped the switch in my mind and my heart. The rest is history. (Check this video my Dad and I submitted to the Drop Zone Dance Off my friend Jorge Alonso and I started a handful of years ago now.. was so cool, so many DZ's played! Even PD submitted one.. so fun. :)))"

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                                          Melanie and her Father

What would you say has been your most stressful skydiving moment so far?

Melanie

"That's hard to say, I wouldn't actually pick any of my malfunctions (4 total) as I'm pretty happy with how I handled those, and how much my preparation of my emergency procedures supported me to feel calm and confident and in control during those incidents. Currency with our emergency procedures is absolutely something I would encourage everyone reading this to do for themselves as well. Be the dork that gets in the hanging harness on Safety Day... It's worth it.

So my actual answer to this question would probably be doing the nights swoops at Skydive Elsinore in front of hundreds of people at Chicks Rock Boogie, the biggest event I ran in my entire skydiving career. Holy f***, I still vividly remember the dark climb to altitude and needing to literally just take deep slow breaths the entire time to keep myself from freaking out hahaha.. I did this all the way until chill high-fives with my peeps on my same pass, then I exited and it was game on. Every time I did this, I never had a PDFT JT-level swoop.. I mean who could? Tick jockey blind man lazy boy superman hahaha yeah, that wasn't me, but every time I did swoop the pond at night at Chicks Rock in front of all those beautiful cheering happy people, I didn't frap in under the pressure to look cool, and almost every year I dragged water! Yes, this still makes me super happy! Haha!! My heart races even now thinking about it. So much fun, I'm wickedly grateful to have been able to have these experiences with the absolute best of friends, making irreplaceable memories in the process. "

What do you feel is your most accomplished moment today skydiving?

Melanie

"Man, this is so tough to answer... My brain goes to things like certain competition moments, certain world records completed, certain skills camps run, but really I would say my favorite moment of accomplishment in my skydiving career was when I got invited to the SkySisters Boogie in Australia to coach and organize, having done my student training there in 1998. It felt so full circle for me to finally, after all these years competing and training, it was just so wonderful to go back as a coach and organizer to the place where I really was a young jumper myself. At that Boogie, we had a little bit of weather, so I was leading a seminar. As I was talking, my old friend Muttley walked up and into the perimeter of the group. I had no idea he was coming and it made my heart burst that he made the effort to come see me. I felt so loved and supported in that moment. It was truly like I was transmitted back into my brand-newbie skydiver self seeing him again and I was so happy and grateful.  

                                    Melanie & Muttley

I'm also super proud of the virtual skydiving coaching group I started going on two years ago now. It's my effort to create a dynamic and welcoming space for newer jumpers to learn, connect, and get inspiration and education to succeed in our sport. I am humbled at the participation so far, and so inspired by the people in that group and what they've already achieved. Of course if anyone has any questions on this, please reach out to me directly anytime."

For more Information on Melanie's Virtual skydiving coaching group please see the link below

Link:
http://melaniecurtis.com/thevsc/