Libertyville sky diver brings home gold from national championships

Ever since he could remember, Alex Meyer wanted to fly.

After high school, Meyer joined the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., to take off on his way to becoming a pilot.

But something else happened when he joined the academy. He saw he could jump out of planes, too.

“I've always been a thrill seeker. (I liked) the thought of the adrenaline rush and being able to say I've jumped out of a plane and pulled my own rip cord, he said. “Everything about it was attractive.

The 21-year-old Libertyville native has become one of the country's top sky divers. He is part of the four-member competitive team, Air Force Impulse, which recently took home a gold medal at the U.S. Parachute Association National Skydiving Championships near Chicago.

Meyer admits there was some worry about his decision to join a sky diving team, particularly from his mom, Cheryl.

“It's not my first choice for a competitive sport, but we have to support what he does, and he's getting the best training, Cheryl Meyer said.

Alex Meyer said he underwent rigorous ground training, followed by work in a wind tunnel to simulate a free-fall environment, before he could take his first jumps and then try out for the team.

Going up in the plane the first time, if anyone says they aren't nervous, they're lying, Meyer said. He describes standing beside the door to jump as sensory overload.

“When I climbed out of the plane the first time, it was muscle memory by that point, he said. “When I was watching the plane fly away, at that point I thought, ‘Well, I guess I'm doing it.' You can't look back from that point.

Competitive sky diving is different from those jumps Meyer first took from 4,500 feet. His team practices four-way formation sky diving after jumping from 10,500 feet, the team aligns in prescribed formations in free fall within 35 seconds. Their dive is then reviewed by judges.

“We train each movement so when they give us a randomly picked sequence we can flow from move to move as efficiently as possible, he said.

Meyer now helps teach the basic free fall program while continuing to train with his team in the wind tunnel at the academy and traveling to Florida and Arizona to jump.

“We are all extremely dedicated to all of our training. We make every little bit of time we commit to training worth it in the competition, he said.

In their most recent competition, Air Force Impulse executed 10 rounds of jumps as they faced 30 competitors, including collegiate teams and professional sky divers.

“Going into the last round, we knew we had a pretty solid lead. The last dive felt great as well. We were all extremely excited on the ground. We were so glad all our hard work paid off, he said.

Meyer has begun his senior year, including college classes and military training. Next spring, he will commission as an air force officer and await pilot training. To live out this dream is a privilege, he said.

“Knowing it's something I've wanted to do for so long, and to be able to accomplish that, is an awesome feeling, he said.

He continues his commitment to the jump program and plans to get back on a plane with Air Force Impulse to prepare for a collegiate national competition in December.

Logging 630 jumps so far, he said sky diving has become almost second nature. But it's still a blast.

And for anyone who never has tried to sky-dive, Meyer says try a tandem dive.

“I think everyone should try at least one in their life, he said.