jump!

Arizona Daily Wildcat

Skydiver Curt Bachman was sitting at a campus bar bragging one day about the thrill of taking the plunge. Strap on a parachute, open up the hatch, jump out of an airplane. Feel life.

But then a buddy gave a counterpoint in a drunken slur.

"You're crazy," the guy said. "I can't believe you jump out of planes for fun. It's so dangerous."

This happened to Bachman countless times. But he always had the best reply.

"I'm crazy?" he would say. "Look at you! You're sitting there drinking all night, then you're going to get in your car and drive! What's more dangerous?"

Now Bachman is planning on skydiving over the North Pole in April. He'll go with his younger brother and 83 other skydivers from North America. The plan is to arrive in Moscow, Russia, April 13, journey to the North Pole, jump on the 90th anniversary of the pole's discovery, and be home by the 26th.

Bachman is a 25-year-old UA grad and a sales manager for ParaGear, a Chicago-based company that sells - you guessed it - skydiving stuff.

His transcripts will tell you that he graduated from Arizona with a major in sociology and a minor in business. What it won't tell you is that he also picked up an unofficial second major in jumpology.

"I tried to go skydiving about every weekend when I was at the U of A," Bachman said.

"The busiest drop zone is in Eloy, a small town north of Tucson. I would take friends with me all the time. It was a good way to find out what guys were all talk and which would actually jump."

Bachman recruited his neighbors at Cochise Residence Hall and members of his Sigma Phi Epsilon frat to go take the plunge.

So what would drive a man to become such a jumping maniac?

Lowell Bachman was a military badass destined to become the father of our hero, Curt. Lowell was a member of the Army's Airborne division. He later became a green beret, and still kept his love for jumping. After retiring from the military, he returned to Chicago to start up a little skydiving gear company. That company blossomed into ParaGear.

As a child growing up in Chicago, Curt Bachman always talked about wanting to jump someday. Lowell heard his son talk but wasn't sure how serious his son really was. There's a fine line between those who will actually jump and those who just talk about it.

Lowell decided to call his son's bluff on his 18th birthday. He sent his son to Europe for 10 days to jump under the supervision of a professional jumper he knew. Curt's mission was to fall into a drop zone on the Italian-Swiss border. Bachman made the jump, all right. His first and most memorable.

"I'll always remember that one," Curt Bachman said. "It was the summer before I was going to go off to college. I was nervous, but there was also a lot of excitement."

After that first jump, Bachman's career took off. He started jumping everywhere in every way.

"I've jumped solo, in tandems, in groups, just about every way there is," Bachman said. "I've done formations and free-flying too. I've also gotten to meet a lot of famous people."

Bachman met former President George Bush in February of 1997. In fact, he was there for Bush's second skydive. It was actually Bush's first voluntary jump. The first time he jumped out of an airplane was in World War II, when he was shot down as a fighter pilot.

"I got to shake his hand, got his picture and everything," Bachman said.

But name-dropping isn't what gives Bachman the rush. Plane-dropping is the only thing that does it for him.

So now the North Pole awaits. Time to strap on the parachute and open the hatch. Take the plunge.