MALDEN — Denton Kooyman, mayor of Malden, discovered a new passion a few years ago in skydiving.
With almost 200 jumps under his belt he recently discussed his love for the extreme sport.
“I got hurt in the Navy,” Kooyman said. “I fell out of a helicopter and broke my back. That’s why I have a medical discharge from the Navy.”
Kooyman continued, “After that, I gained a lot of weight. I got up to 580 lbs. I took my family to Disney World and I couldn’t even ride the rides.”
“I was too big,” he said.
Kooyman stated, “I was having knee problems and needed knee surgery, but I was too fat for surgery. They said I needed weight loss surgery.”
“I went through a lot of stuff with that, and lost weight,” he added.
“After the weight loss surgery they have you set goals for yourself,” Kooyman shared. “One of my goals was to do something different.”
“One of my boys wanted to go skydiving,” he said. “There’s a weight limit on skydiving. That was my goal, to get get down to the weight limit and go skydiving.”
Kooyman continued, “Soon as I got to that weight limit we went skydiving. I went with both of my boys the first time.”
“A year later, I went with my future wife, and then three years later I started classes and now I’m a licensed skydiver with almost 200 jumps,” he added. “It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
Kooyman informed you jump at 14,500, and free-fall for about sixty seconds.
“Sometimes they do formations, hang onto each other and form a circle,” he stated. “Then you have canopy time. You have three to four minutes under canopy depending on how fast you want to get down.”
“I love being under canopy,” Kooyman said. “I go play in the clouds. I love touching clouds.”
Kooyman stated he enjoys the variety of people he meets while skydiving.
“This past weekend there was the first female parachuting team member that won gold medals in 1959,” he said. “She was there. She’s trying to get to 1,000 jumps.”
Kooyman added, “I spent all weekend with her. It was amazing.”
Kooyman reflected on one of his favorite people he met.
“A half a year ago, we had this 90 year old lady who wanted to skydive,” he said. “Her whole family came out. It was awesome.”
“She went through the training and right before we walked up to the airplane, she turned ghost white and needed to sit down,” Kooyman said. “We waited until she was ready and then we got her up in the plane and took off.”
“We had some young Air Force kids on there too and they were all excited.” he added. “By the time we got to the ground, the Air Force kids were throwing up, kissing the ground, and said they’d never go again.”
“She’s excited as can be and wanted to go again,” Kooyman stated.
Kooyman informed the nearest skydiving facility is the West Tennessee Skydiving Center in Whiteville, Tennessee.
“It’s about 2 ½ hours away from Malden,” said Kooyman. “They go through all the proper training.”
Kooyman stated he would encourage anyone to go skydiving.
“Once you get out that door, it’s a rush,” he said. “You see the world at a different perspective, and it’s amazing.”
“Come on over and I’ll jump with you,” invited Kooyman.