NICEVILLE — Nine years ago, Kim Radford was so nervous before her first sky dive that she could hardly keep her eyes open when the doors opened and a rush of cold air hit her.
“What am I doing?” she asked herself as she made her way to the door and jumped.
But the moment she opened her eyes and saw the earth rushing toward her at more than 100 mph, she knew she would do it again.
On Saturday, the math teacher at Ruckel Middle School will make her 1,000th jump in front of family, friends and other spectators at Skydive Live north of DeFuniak Springs.
“It’s just a whole different feeling up there,” Radford said. “It’s beautiful up there. It’s quiet and peaceful. It’s hard to describe.
“You can’t really describe it to people, you just have to try it one time,” she added.
Watch a video of one of Kim's jumps. >>
Radford has incorporated her hobby in her classroom. She has brought in her parachute for her students to measure. They also have done conversions to figure out how many miles are in 10,000 feet and other distances she has jumped.
“Some of the kids think it’s pretty neat that I do this,” Radford said.
Among the 999 jumps she has made so far, four of them have been high-altitude,low-opening, or HALO, jumps. The higher altitude requires Radford to wear an oxygen mask while free-falling, which lasts about 2 1/2 minutes compared to 45 to 50 seconds for a normal jump before the parachute opens.
In fact, she has the United States record for the highest female jump at 29,700 feet. She also is the first woman in the world to do four civilian HALO jumps, according to the website halojumper.com.
She hopes to complete more HALO jumps in the future.
Radford said she sky dives every chance she gets. She usually is able to go a couple of times a month, but last month she was jumped 50 times when she went to Deland and multiple flights were offered every day.
“I don’t get nervous now, but that same thrill going out (of the plane) is still there,” Radford said. “That’s why I still do it.”
Saturday’s jump is expected to start about 10:30 a.m. The plane will climb to about 10,500 feet before Radford will jump with her husband and two others. Their free fall probably will last about 45 seconds and they will be in the air for another 5 minutes before they land.
“I just want to land good for everybody,” she said. “I’m going to be a little bit more nervous because people are going to be watching me. But it’s all good. I’m excited about it.”
Contact Daily News Business Editor Dusty Ricketts at 850-315-4448 or dricketts@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @DustyRnwfdn.