New Horizons Podcast Transcript

This transcription has been slightly altered to allow for people talking at the same time, and other difficulties in transcribing the recording word for word.
Setting the Scene:
After the completion of the skydiving experience, all of the participants enjoyed lunch at a nearby café, in Kirra. The café itself set the scene for carrying out the podcast interviews at this location. Consequently, throughout this recording, you will hear a lot of background noises and sounds, including: people talking, clanging of plates and glasses; and, general sounds of a busy café environment providing a great atmosphere.
The audio begins with an introduction song, with a band playing drums, electric guitar, piano and base guitar. A male singer can be heard harmonising with others in the background.
The following lyrics are sung:
"New horizons, it’s up to you and me to shine a guiding light and lead the way. United by our cause, we have the power to pursue what we believe. We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams".
The song ends.
Announcer: "Hello once again. Welcome to this episode of New Horizons. I am Vaughn Bennison. One thing that we always like to see on New Horizons is people being creative with activities for blind and vision impaired people. Often, we'll see things like come and try driving days and golfing activities and more. We look to one of those activities this week. We're looking in fact to the sky over Tweed Heads Coolangatta! Steve Richardson has more”.
Music begins playing with no lyrics.
The sounds of a guitar with string instruments can be heard playing in a slow tempo.
Music fades in the background as Steve begins to say the following:
Steve: "I'm chatting now with Kim Pilic. Kim, tell us where you’re from".
Kim: "I'm the founder of Forward Steps Mobility, and I’m an Orientation and Mobility (O and M) Specialist with thirty years’ experience in the field. I operate as an Independent NDIS provider locally here on the Gold Coast, into Northern New South Wales, and up into the southern corridor of Brisbane mostly, and out into Redland Bay".
Steve: "Where were you working before that”?
Kim: "I've been involved in the O and M field with Vision Australia prior to stepping out as an Independent Provider, for about ten years. Then also Guide Dogs Queensland for maybe twelve years, I think, and then prior to that I started off my O and M field down in Melbourne, which was formally with the Royal Guide Dogs Association of Australia, and it’s now known as Guide Dogs Victoria. I've got a little bit of experience behind me, but I’ve actually branched out Steve into a bit more than the O and M, but I still wear the O and M hat. I still provide O and M services. But also assist in the area of group activities, so it’s creating opportunities around recreational outings. And, today we’ve done the tandem skydiving. Not me personally! Everyone’s egging me on, and wants me to do that Steve, but um, I don’t know if they want to book another one into the future hoping that I’ll do it. It was about their day, and it was a brilliant opportunity to allow people to get a feel for what it’s like to do the skydiving. It all started with a trip up to QPAC with a couple of fellas in the car, and one of them happened to mention about skydiving or parachuting, and it seeded a thought for me. I thought well, they brought that up to me today, why can’t I step into that gap and allow people to participate in that recreational activity. There's nothing stopping people from doing that. Then when I put it out there to see what sort of expressions of interest would come forth, we discovered there were quite a number of people that were really interested in having a go at skydiving. So, it’s been fantastic to be a part of that and that’s part of my recreational and social group activities that I run through Forward Steps Mobility. People really get a lot of value out of that, around the social contact as well as new recreational opportunities, getting out into different areas perhaps that they otherwise may not have opportunity to do".
Steve: "Tell us about the environment that people landed on. I guess for a skydiver part of it is the visuals, but given that a lot of the people maybe didn’t have that, can you tell us a little bit about what the atmosphere and environment was like”?
Kim: "Yeah, that's a great question actually. So, it was through Gold Coast Skydive, that was the organisation, and they always land on the beach here at Kirra. Kirra is close to Coolangatta on the Gold Coast. So, it was actually a wide expanse of sand, beautiful white sand. We've had the perfect day for weather. The ocean looked glorious blue out there, it was almost flat today really; just very gentle rolling waves coming in, which created beautiful sensory auditory stimulation and sound effects for people as the backdrop there. The skydiving company actually setup sort of a cordoned off area. They set out some witch’s hats to create a type of quadrangle, and the idea was that created the target point for the skydivers to come in and land there. I was actually giving some description to people that were on the ground as to what was going on in the air. I was describing when I spotted the plane. Initially they just looked like little white spots or little dots in the sky, with a beautiful blue canvas background to it. A perfect blue sky today! Then one by one they came out. I’d call out, “The second one, the third dots there! The fourth dot, the fifth”, and then I was giving an idea of altitudinal position, and then when I could see the vertical positioning of like the rip-cord had been released. Then the canvas had actually opened up and the parachute expanding outwards and the colour of that as well, which was the blue and yellows and a little bit of white in there, which was part of the logo colours or branding for the company”.
Steve: “So, you could see when they were in free fall and when the chutes opened”?
Kim: "Yeah! So, the free fall is really rapid! They're dropping so many thousands of feet, and then they come down to about seven thousand feet I believe, so it’s quite a rapid plummet. You can actually see that little dot is becoming quite a bit bigger, at quite a considerable speed. Then once the release of the parachute happens, when the rip-cords released, there’s still that plummeting visual effect going on or occurring. Once it’s released, you can actually see a difference in their motion. More like a gentle movement, sometimes a little bit of spiralling going on in the clockwise direction, zigzagging gently from side to side at times, so various directional changes and movements. But much more floatation in appearance rather than the plummet. It was fantastic to be a spectator and a describer on the beach for people too”.
Steve: "How many people all up jumped”?
Kim: "Today we had fourteen people participating in the skydiving activity. Out of the fourteen, ten of them actually legally blind, and of those ten I think all of them actually do use either a long cane or a dog guide”.
Steve: "The overall feeling I get is that people would love to have another go at doing something like this, and if that were the case, would you willingly go into that again”?
Kim: "Absolutely! I would Steve. There's a lot involved logistically not only on the day today, with additional support workers engaged to assist around various aspects, but also the lead up to it. Absolutely I would. Definitely a possibility if people would like to do that”.
Steve: "So anyone wanting further details about how to contact you and take advantage of your resources, how can they do that”?
Kim: "They can either contact me by phone, on 0490044344, or email Kim Pilic, kimpilic@gmail.com”. I also have a website and a very active Facebook page as well. Forward Steps Mobility, is the name of the website, and Forward Steps Mobility for my Facebook page. So, check it out, and I’d love to connect with you and provide services”.
Steve: "I've been chatting with Kim Pilic from Forward Steps Mobility, now I’m going to have a chat with some of the people who participated in the skydive”.
A song starts to play. "Free falling".
The words that are sung: "I'm free, free falling”.
Another audio track is also played over the top of the song. It's the sound of a plane flying. You can hear the engines running as it sounds like it’s descending.
Steve: "I'm talking with Garth Humphries, have you had a skydive before”?
Garth: "No. And the day before I did this dive, I was like, what? Why am I doing this?
(As he laughs).
But it was absolutely amazing! It was incredible”. Steve: "So, tell us what it was like”.
Garth: "So they take you up twelve thousand feet, and then you freefall out of the plane to a tandem thing, so you're really heavily strapped to the jumper, another person, who’s in control of everything, has the parachute and so forth. Then you freefall for about forty seconds I think, a minute. In that time, you go from twelve thousand feet down to five thousand feet. That was the part that I was most beforehand tentative about, but it really just feels like flying and it’s so loud. You’re going a hundred and twenty kilometres an hour, into the wind”.
An audio recording of Garth’s skydive begins. You can hear Garth and the instructor free falling through the air. It’s very loud, and all you can hear is the rushing wind as they fall through it.
In the background of the loud wind, you can hear Garth screaming out: "OH YEAH”!
The recording fades in the background as he continues speaking with Steve.
Garth: “Then obviously they deploy the parachute, you slow down, and the last five thousand feet or so takes about five minutes”.
The audio recording of Garth’s skydives can be heard again.
You can hear the instructor has deployed the parachute, and the wind noise is a lot quieter now. You hear Garth scream out: "Holy, that was awesome!" You can hear the instructor laughing. Garth says: "That was so good! That did not feel anything like I expected it too”.
The recording stops.
Steve: "I know people have told me before when they deploy the parachute there’s quite a difference in sensation, like the deceleration. How did you react to that”?
Garth: "No, I didn’t get too queasy there. I got slightly queasy later on when we were doing a few turns and the instructor gave me a toggle in each hand. So, you'd pull down on the right hand one, and that would make you sort of turn to the right and drop, so, that sort of thing was more like a rollercoaster ride, because you’re suddenly twisting and dropping quicker, and then slowing down again”.
Steve: And the landing was all good? Had no troubles”?
Garth: "The landing was great. All of a sudden I was sitting on the sand”.
You now hear recorded sounds of the parachute at the same time. Garth and the instructor are twisting and turning and dropping. You can hear Garth saying: "Hey”, as the instructor flares the parachute a little by pulling both toggles down slightly for landing. Then you hear the instructor say: Instructor: "About to feel the cross wind, legs up for me. You are on the beach my friend!" The sound of the wind has gone.
Steve: "Would you do it again”?
Garth: "Absolutely”!
Steve: "I'm having a chat with Chrissy. So, you jumped this morning”?
Chrissy: "Yeah, I was on the 8.30 jump”.
Steve: "Yeah okay, and have you ever done that before”?
Chrissy: "No, never”!
Steve: "So what was the experience like for you”?
Chrissy: "I Can’t even remember like some of it. I just remember shuffling forward in the plane and then suddenly I was out of the plane, and then just falling in the sky”.
Steve: "Did it occur to you that maybe planes weren’t the sort of thing to just fall out of?”
Chrissy: "The plane didn’t even have a door. It was just like a big hole in the plane that we jumped out of, so it was just weird all round”.
Steve: "So you just hit the air and what did you feel then”?
Chrissy: "I like, didn’t even scream. I was just sort of like hah, oh falling. Then he released the parachute, and then I got a really weird tummy feeling. And then we were doing some spins, and I didn’t like it at all. I landed on my feet, which was pretty good. Then I was just happy to be on the ground”.
Steve: "So would you do it again, if you had a chance, or not”?
Chrissy: "Probably not any time soon”.
Steve: "Tarhnee now. You had a skydive today”?
Tarhnee: "Yes I did. I skydived today for the first time”.
Steve: "And you had your daughter with you on the experience too”?
Tarhnee: "Yes. She did, first time for her. First time for both of us”.
Steve: "What was the experience like for you”?
Tarhnee: "Very exhilarating. It was fantastic”.
Steve: "What was your favourite part of the fall”?
Tarhnee: "The whole thing, really. It was over too quick. I want to go back and do it again sometime soon, and because I was worried about my daughter, she's quite young. I enjoyed it, but I think my motherly worry over shadowed some of the experience that I could have had if I hadn’t been worried about her”.
Steve: "George what was the experience like for you”?
George: "Terrifying and exhilarating all rolled into one. It was an amazing experience”.
Steve: "How did you enjoy free fall”?
George: "Terrifying and exhilarating all rolled into one. It was amazing experience”.
Steve: “How did you enjoy freefall”?
George: I loved every minute of it! I had done the in door skydive once before, so I was sort of prepared for the violence of the wind. Then as we came out, the instructor that I was strapped to, the tandem guy actually did two somersaults as we came out of the plane, then he spun us around a few times like a bottle top, and then we settled down and then he pulled the chute. It all happens very quick. The only thing I didn’t like about it was, it was over too quick”.
Steve: "Chatting now with Suzi Hudson, who is the President of the Tweed Valley Branch. This is not your first skydive, is it"?
Suzi: "No, it’s my second. I’m a veteran”! (Susy laughs).
Steve: "Was it different the second time round”?
Suzi: "Definitely different for me this time, because this time I had a month to prepare for it. The first time it was a surprise gift, and I didn’t know anything about it until I was at the airport, so I didn’t get a chance to get the excitement build that I had this time”.
"Steve: "Did you find that you sort of knew what to expect this time round, and did that help you think”?
Suzi: "Yes and no. It seemed to go slower this time for me. The free fall went for longer. I stayed up there longer than I remember in the other jump, with the chute exposed, it was fantastic”.
Steve: "What's your favourite part of the dive”?
Suzi: "I think the free fall. We did a few somersaults and moved around a bit. It was great! It's amazingly quiet, except if you’re like me with a big mouth”.
Steve: "When are you going up again”?
Suzi: "As soon as I can afford another four hundred bucks”.
Susy laughs.
As Susy spoke the last line, music fades in as you hear her laughing. The song is ‘Learn to Fly’, by the band Foo Fighters.
Lyrics:
"Lookin for somethin to help me burn out bright. And I'm lookin for a complication. Lookin cause I'm tired of Lookin. Make my way back home when I learn to fly high”.
Music fades out.
Vaughn Bennison: "And my thanks to Steve Richardson for putting this program together. If you'd like to contact Blind Citizens Australia, you can call 180033660 or you can e-mail bca@bca.org.au. If you have any feedback for New Horizons, contact new.horizons@bca.org.au and I’ll be back next week”.
The same song that was in the introduction of this recording starts to play.
The following lyrics are:
"We'll achieve the realisation of our dreams. Of our dreams."
Music ends.
End of recording.

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