SKYDIVING
By TOM HAYES
I CAN’T imagine that many primary school teachers can tell their students that they jump out of planes for fun.
Yarragon Primary School’s Kallen Fitzclarence can do just that.
The 34-year-old has been involved in skydiving for over five years now, turning what was a missed opportunity into an experience for most weekends.
“My wife and I were going to go and do a tandem in Perth, but unfortunately we couldn’t make it due to some delays with the plane. So, as soon as we got home to Victoria, my wife went overseas and I started researching where to skydive – turns out that Latrobe Valley Airport has commando skydivers right there,” Fitzclarence said.
Fast forward to 2024, and Fitzclarence is now an Accuracy Landing winner, taking out the title at the Australian National Skydiving Championships.
He made up for last year’s second-place finish, stepping onto the top step of the podium at the national level. Before last year’s Nationals, Fitzclarence took out the state competition in Victoria.
At the Championships, two events where hosted.
The first was the Sports Accuracy, where skydivers have a 10-centimetre target to land near, maximising their points if they land within 15 metres of the target.
Fitzclarence entered this event in the Open Division, and was able to compete in this division due to having the experience of over 200 jumps.
The second event was called Accuracy Landing, which has bigger parachutes and a 16-centimetre dot, but they have to land on the dot to score.
To make the weekend even better, Fitzclarence was able to share the podium with two of his good mates, who are based from Melbourne.
It is the highest level of competition in this event, with Sports Accuracy only performed as high as the national level.
The Accuracy Landing event goes international, and some competitors will soon take to the United States to compete against other skydivers from all over the world.
Fitzclarence uses his teaching skills to educate new skydivers at Latrobe Regional Airport.
Fitzclarence has been a primary school physical education teacher for 10 years, and finds himself to have the cool quirk of jumping out of planes which always catches the kid’s attention.
Latrobe Regional Airport host tandem skydiving as well as training courses every month.
If anyone is looking to get involved or give skydiving a go, ring the Latrobe Regional Airport on 1300 555 956.
