Loren Brown: Above it All

My first inspiration was a fascination with all things mechanical and flight from the time I was a kid. … I wanted to fly since as I early as I can remember. I thought, well, there’s no reason I can’t just do this myself … What [pilots] can do with an aircraft feels magical. It doesn’t feel like it’s something we should be able to do.

[Flying’s] a really peaceful thing. It’s a place that you get to see the whole world but from a totally different perspective. You’re not in the rat race or among all the hustle and bustle. You get to be above it, and it feels like you’ve totally detached yourself from it. 

[Skydiving’s] very much like how we handle banking when you’re making a loan to a customer. There’s always the risk that the loan could go bad … Well, we’ve done our due diligence. We’ve done our homework. We’re prepared so that when we say yes to a loan, we’re accepting the risk that things might not work out … and skydiving is the same thing.

Skydiving changed my life. Literally, new friendships, all these doors that opened that I never even thought of just because of starting this new hobby, and I would love to be able to introduce more people to it. 

—Christopher Garritty