Above: Narre Warren grandmother Isabel Batten skydives during her holiday in Queensland.By Rebecca Fraser
THE sky is certainly no limit for Narre Warren grandmother Isabel Batten.
At 68 years of age, Mrs Batten took the plunge recently when she skydived tandem for the first time during a holiday at Hervey Bay in Queensland.
Mrs Batten said she had always had a love for the sky and her latest adventure, a birthday gift from her husband, Bert, had always been something she had wanted to do.
“When I was younger I wanted to parachute out at Pakenham but I had two young kids and my husband said it was not a good idea. I have done hang gliding, hotair ballooning and the next step was bungee jumping, but I have a crook knee so that is out now,” she said.
The mother of three adult children, Mrs Batten said her family thought she was mad when they found out about her recent adventure.
“My daughter (was saying) ‘do it, do it’, but my son (was saying) ‘why jump out of a perfectly good plane?’
“It was a real old rattler, though,” she said.
Mrs Batten said the sky dive had been the perfect birthday gift and at a cost of $470 some of the best money they had spent.
“He (Mr Batten) asked me what I wanted for my birthday and I said I would rather forget that I had another one,” she said.
“Then he saw a sign advertising skydiving and asked me if I wanted to do it.
“I thought ‘yeah, well maybe’ and we went off and did it. I was not scared at all as I don’t stress very easily. It was just such a buzz, an absolutely fabulous buzz.”
Unfortunately, Mr Batten could not take part in the adventure as he has had bypass surgery but Mrs Batten said her husband was proud of her recent feat.
“He was rapt and so proud of me. I am his hero now. It does not matter what the kids or grandkids do, I am number one,” she said.
Mrs Batten said her main concern during the dive was that she might lose her dentures.
“I was worried about losing my dentures up there. I was hanging on to them and put a bit more Polident than usual in. You free fall for 62 seconds and you are going at about 250 km/h. Then the chute opened,” she said.
Mrs Batten said everyone who had ever dreamt about skydiving should just go for it.
“If you want to do it, just do it,” she said.
“Most people I have spoken to have said they would not be able to do it, no way. But it is just such great fun going up in the plane.
“I had five minutes’ training, really.
“They showed me where to put my hands and to keep my feet between his legs and how to lift my legs.
“Then that was it and we jumped.”
