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In Jarrett Martin’s world, the place he loves to be the most is in the sky – free-falling at 100 miles an hour with the wind in his face. But after his injury five years ago, he feared the one thing he loved the most would no longer be possible.
Jarrett grew up in a family-run skydive business; skydiving was and still is in his blood. The notion of no longer skydiving was never something he was willing to accept, and he never had to. Within months of his injury he was back skydiving, but the AMAZING thing about Jarrett’s return isn’t just the fact that he’s back in the sky, it’s everything he’s also done and making history in the process.
To find out all the amazing things Jarrett has been up to since his spinal cord injury, read our post below.
Why He’s Fearless
When we say Jarrett was a born and bred skydiver, we weren’t kidding. He was only 10 years old the first time he tried skydiving, and he was hooked. By the time he was 14 he was jumping solo, and by the time he was 16 he had amassed 1,000 jumps, including 20 base jumps.
After graduating from high school, Jarrett scored a dream summer job at Skydive Hawaii as a rigger, but it was while he was in this tropical paradise when his injury occurred. One afternoon he and some friends decided to try some speedflying tricks (the extreme sport of jumping off mountain sides with a parachute strapped to your back), but his parachute failed to open.
Jarrett crashed hard, not only breaking his back but also tearing his aorta and damaging his lungs and kidneys. “It was a miracle I survived,” Jarrett admits. Now being a T4 injury, Jarrett knew his balance would never be the same, but he was determined to try skydiving again asap. Within six months of his accident he was back skydiving, and soon scored a new skydiving job at Skydive Florida.
He also became a spokesperson for the United States Skydiving Team post-injury, and even returned to skydive competitions around the world, competing in the style and accuracy category, and becoming the only para in the game. Jarrett refused to allow his injury to affect what he loved most.
What’s Next?
What’s probably the most impressive thing Jarrett has done post-injury is that he’s gone base jumping again, and has made history as the first paraplegic to base-jump from the heights he’s doing it from. This past summer he and five friends went to Norway, specifically the Helo Boogie area in the fjords, to go one as many base-jobs as possible over an 11 day period.
Jarrett and his friends completed dozens of base-jumps, each time transferring Jarrett into a helicopter and then setting him up on the edge of the mountain so he could throw himself off. It sounds crazy for sure, but the adrenaline rush you get when you base-jump is unlike anything else (and we’re sure it’s even more pronounced when you have a spinal injury).
And even more unexpected happiness has entered Jarrett’s life post-injury – he landed another awesome skydiving job at Skydive Dubai, which he’s been working at since this past summer. In a country not worried about legalities, this is a great place for a paraplegic to live out his or her skydiving dreams.
We got to give it to Jarrett Martin in a big way. He may have been just 18 when he was injured, but the maturity he’s shown since his injury is unbelievably impressive. We’re thrilled he’s not only “returned” to the sport, but he’s back at it 100%, and that is something no one expected.
ideas@spinalpedia.com
