(upbeat rock music)
- I guess we're here to skydive (chuckles)
which seems crazy.
I like to sit on planes, not jump outta them.
(upbeat music)
(upbeat music) (engine humming)
- We are here
in Perris, California where today, 100 people are going
to attempt the world record for skydivers over 60.
They are gonna be jumping out of a plane
and meeting in the air, holding hands.
Why are they doing this?
What is bringing these people to jumping out of a plane?
Not once, not twice, but multiple times.
- I've been jumping for 55 years.
- Almost 6,500 jumps.
- Jesus!
- A little over 12,000 jumps.
- I have about 16,000 jumps
and I've been jumping since 1978.
- Wow.
- And I know none of you were born (laughs).
- And at the end of today, Johnny
and I will be jumping out of a plane.
- Yeah, I'm afraid of heights, a little bit.
Yeah, I'm afraid, yeah, mm-hmm.
(upbeat music)
- [Zach] Oh, my God, oh, there they are.
Oh, they're so tiny. - Where?
- [Friend] Oh, wow!
- What the hell?
It looks like ants.
- [Friend] Whoa, they're they go.
They're breaking apart, oh, wow.
- [Bystander] Yeah, so they can...
- Wow, that was beautiful!
- That's the coolest thing I've ever seen.
No one's ever been hotter than that man.
How many lifetime jumps do you have?
- I've got over 30,000.
- 30,000!
How many times a year, are you jumping?
- Maybe 400.
I've backed off since then.
- (chuckles) Why, what did you used to jump?
- Close to 2,000 jumps a year.
- That's insane.
- It's pretty stupid, really.
- Is it? - Yeah, yeah.
It's definitely something, but it's what we do.
We're gonna go right back up and do it again.
- Wow. - Are you?
- Yeah.
- They just did a jump, 101 people, 100 of them held hands
which would be a world record.
But if you go up
and say 101 people are doing it, 101 people have to succeed.
They were one short, no record.
- Where was the other person, out to lunch?
- Didn't hold hands the whole time.
- They were in the airplane bathroom.
(upbeat music)
- My name is Pat Moorehead and I'll be 92 this year.
And today, I'm out here supporting the group
that is going to set the world record
for Skydivers Over Sixty.
Skydivers Over Sixty is an organization
of about 2,600 people that I founded back
in 1992 in 30 nations.
So it's a very busy and active group.
And everyone on this skydiving record attempt today is 60
or 70 and some very close to 80.
- My name is Alicia Moorehead, I am also a skydiver.
I have nearly 3,000 jumps.
- [Bystander] How did you meet, can you tell me?
(Alicia chuckling)
- One day, a friend of mine planned a trip just
for a weekend of jumping in Mexico.
We had to sit down next to each other on the airplane.
And of course, I was single, she was single.
And I'm, looking over at her like that.
(Alicia laughing)
That night we were at dinner
in Mexico, sitting in a little Mexican restaurant.
I invited her to take a walk on the beach,
and we've been together ever since that day.
That was it.
- 39 Years ago. - Wow.
- You know, I never really believed in love at first sight
until it happened to me, so there you go.
(Alicia chuckling)
- [Zach] Wait, you've inspired me.
Maybe I'll meet somebody skydiving.
- That's interesting, there's a lot
of married couples in our sport.
- [Johnny] Is that right?
- What's the craziest thing you've ever done
in the air, besides- - Getting married.
- Falling through the air, yeah, okay.
She got married in the air.
- George, will you take Celine to be your wife?
- I do!
- Are these your maids-of-honor and best men?
- [Zach] Oh, come on now.
- So, this is the guy who married us.
My maid-of-honor, she's there.
- That's so sweet, I can't even get married on Earth
and you get married in the sky.
It seems, unfair.
What if we kissed in the Perris air school?
- I'll text Maggie, but I bet she would give me a pass.
- (laughs) Sorry, I didn't mean
that you know what, if we kissed in McDonald's, sorry.
(engine roaring)
But yeah, I would of course, kiss you.
(intense music)
- So really, really nice launch.
Great, great guys.
Again, boom, boom.
Remember, the center grip of this line
basically, is coming down the grips of this base.
So take a look at that when you were lining up.
Hi, I'm Kate.
- Hi Kate, nice to meet you.
- Hi, Johnny? - Yes, I love your shirt.
- Yeah.
- [Johnny] Girls really do, just wanna have fun.
- You are one of the captains?
- I am.
So I'm the captain of this, the Echo aircraft
the Twin Otter, the Blue Shark as well.
And my responsibilities are basically, make sure they get
on the right airplane, make sure they're sitting
in the right place, make sure they exit in the right place.
But then, also, to debrief their actual skills
in free fall and help them to be better.
And we had a lot of noise here
and we had a lot of noise here.
And this caused the waves going back and forth
because people aren't matching the fall rate.
You need to have the ability,
this is what the middle of the fall rate range is,
the ability to put some leg out, push through the chest
and still stay down with the formation.
Fine, I know we're 60 and we're not very flexible.
But (chuckles) do as much as you can.
- So you're not, you really are in control?
- You know, like swimming?
- Well, we use the term flying.
- Okay, that makes sense.
(invigorating instrumental music)
- [Kate] And we have these tools, we have these jumpsuits
and they allow us to use our legs very powerfully.
You know, for turning, so I can go back, forth.
- So is everybody...
They want everyone to weigh about the same or?
- Not weigh about the same.
It's a ratio
between how much drag the air gives you and your weight.
So we all wanna be falling the same.
'Cause that's the only way we'd make a formation.
- [Zach] These things on side, is this part of that?
- This is the grippers, so
when's someone's docking...
You see my spot there, E1?
- [Zach] Oh, he's holding your real leg?
- [Mark] He's gonna be holding my leg, right here
on this gripper.
- Oh, that's adorable.
(skydivers laughing)
How did you guys get into this?
- I was in the army and, 1971 was my first jump.
But it was a round parachute,
I really didn't start sport jumping until 1981,
but I've done a little over 12,000 jumps since then,
and it's, I'm 73 and...
- And you look like you could beat the shit outta me,
I just wanna tell you. (skydivers laughing)
- Maybe (laughs).
- [Interviewer] Can you tell me
what your birthday traditions are
when you turned 90 a year ago, when you turned 80?
- Well, when I turned 80 we decided,
you know, 80's another milestone in our lives.
So when I turned 70, it was no big deal.
(bystander laughing)
Or 60, even, but 80, that is sort of a big deal.
I decided maybe I should do a record.
So I got some of my friends together
and I said, "Do you think I could do a certain amount
of records for my 80th birthday?
Certain amount of jumps?"
"Well, sure you can."
And I exercised well for about six months.
And we did 81 jumps on my 80th birthday in six hours.
(bystanders laughing)
- [Zach] You did that one, extra just to rub it in.
- Well, I did.
Nobody expected that one extra one, actually.
And then I decided the last jump, to fly the American flag
behind my canopy, just as a tribute.
Then 10 years later,
when I was going to turn 90,
I thought, "Well I'm not gonna do 90 jumps,
but I could do nine,"
which I easily did in just a few hours.
All of these things we do for records, in that case.
Almost everyone that was on the team
for my 90th birthday had been
on my team for my 80th birthday.
It's almost like a reunion and a celebratory event.
- So I know there are people
from all over the world here, all walks of life,
we have been teased and told that you are especially cool.
- I was an astronaut for 10 years.
I had the opportunity to fly in space twice.
- Come on, this must be nothing
to you if you've been to space.
- The experience and the exhilaration is one thing,
the challenge is another.
And just the friendships
and the camaraderie is just irreplaceable.
- I think it's an incredible statement to the world
that we are doing skydives, 100 way skydives
with 100 people over the age of 60.
So I'm hoping, you know, older people say,
"Well, maybe I should start skydiving.
You know, I thought I was in my forties.
I was too old, 20 years I'll be on this load."
Are you ready to build a record?
- [Group] Yeah. (group cheering)
- So we've been told
that from this point forward, we are not
to speak with them until after the jump.
They're mentally prepping.
They're about to go up in the plane again.
So this is Jordan right before game six, you know?
So they just did a dirt dive, which is on concrete asphalt.
We need to rebrand that.
But they do basically, a walkthrough
where they're doing the steps.
They do it here on land.
- [Johnny] Little rehearsal.
- And now they're getting ready to go back up
into the plane and try for that world record.
(upbeat rock music)
(duo cheering and applauding)
They just did their second jump of the day,
and we won't know for sure, but they think they got it.
(duo cheering)
(upbeat rock music) (duo cheering)
- Just like any sport,
there's a competition aspect to it.
Can you get 100 people to do their best
for one minute and pull together this formation?
And when we do it, we're gonna be really happy-
- There's great satisfaction, doing something
that's very difficult.
And this is a very difficult thing to do.
And when we get it done, it'll be a huge satisfaction.
- Especially for old farts like us (laughs).
- [Interviewer] Do you think you did it?
- I am 99% sure.
- You gotta watch the video first-
- Yeah, I'll check it out. - We'll see, we'll see.
- If one hand is an arm instead
of a leg or whatever, it doesn't count.
So we're not sure until we see it.
- 100 way, big way!
(group laughing)
We begin!
- [Johnny] Was that particularly good
or are you always this excited?
- When it's good? - Yeah.
- You're damn right, I'm really excited, very excited!
- After last year, where it was so close, it was so good.
It was so great.
So many times, I was so pissed off.
(group laughing)
And we didn't actually get it.
That's how these things are.
It takes everybody,
everybody having a kick-ass minute, the same minute.
It's almost mathematically impossible,
(group laughing)
to do, but almost.
- This is it. - Yeah.
- [Zach] There they go!
(group cheering and applauding)
(intense music) (skydivers murmuring)
- [Dan] Got quiet it is, how smooth it is,
everybody's getting in close.
Everybody's definitely got that "make it happen"
"make it happen."
(intense music) (group murmuring)
(group cheering and applauding)
- How many people just hit their first world record?
(group cheering and applauding)
- Congratulations. - Congrats.
- You did it, congratulations.
- [Johnny] Pretty cool.
- Ah, wow, they did it, we did it!
We did it, no, they did it.
Johnny, I think there's only one thing left to do.
- What?
(intense rock music)
- We've never jumped out of a plane before.
- [Skydiver] 'Till today, you're gonna jump today?
- [Zach] I think so.
- You're already here.
The drive's over,
that's the dangerous part is driving here,
you know that, right?
- It's more dangerous to drive to the skydive school?
- Yes, it is.
- Really? - Statistically, yes.
- We're going for our first time.
What can we expect? - Real nervous.
- Certainly, there is a little bit of a sensory overload.
You know, stay focused, try
to experience every sensation on your arms
and legs because really, you're flying,
you're flying, you're not falling.
And for your first time, I am so jealous of both of you.
- [Johnny] Why?
- Because it's your first time.
You get to experience that all again.
So, good luck.
- I want you to know, and I don't know if you've known this.
This is the video that Keith
and Eugene have swore they would never do.
- Why?
- You are braver.
- Wait, really, they said no?
(intense music)
Pussies.
(Zach laughing)
(intense music)
(engine humming)
- [Zach] Oh, we're flying.
- All right.
(engine humming)
What?
Why would he do that?
- You know what's cool, is
that if you rip farts, no one will smell it.
It's gonna be gone so quick.
- Veronica will.
- I mean, I'm nervous.
(intense music)
This is it.
Johnny, this is it.
It's real.
- It's been really fun, getting to know you.
- Oh, the craziest fear just overcame me.
- [Johnny] Yeah, I'm scared.
(intense music)
(wind gusting)
- Oh fuck me, fuck you!
Fuck me, fuck you!
Here we go, oh!
(Zach screaming)
- Holy (beep). (intense music)
(wind gusting)
- I can't help but smile, you know, just the ability to fly.
It tickled me, the first time I did it 50 years ago
and it tickles me today.
(upbeat rock music) (Zach screaming)
- Wow!
Wow!
(upbeat rock music) (wind gusting)
Woo!
(Zach screaming) (upbeat music)
- Oh, my God, this is fucking wild.
- Whatever you think you can't do, you can.
Just fucking do it, man!
(upbeat rock music) (Zach screaming)
(Johnny and Zach screaming)
I feel like so much of my life, I've told myself things
like, "I can't.
Oh, I couldn't do that.
My body wouldn't put up with this."
And we are surrounded
by over 100 people who are saying, "Oh no, fuck you.
Of course, I can."
That's, that's the energy I want.
- No, it's pretty cool.
- Some people came here today to break world records.
We came here today to try.
(upbeat music)
I feel like I need a cigarette.
I don't smoke.
Do you guys wanna get a drink?
I also don't do that.