Michael Burgess used to work in sales and marketing for a local bank. But after his first skydive jump in 1992, Burgess, who lives in Baldwinsville, New York, became hooked. Now, he owns his own skydiving business called Skydive Central New York and has done over 16,400 skydives. The Daily Orange spoke to Burgess about why he chose to pursue a career in diving and what it’s like to running his company.

The Daily Orange: What made you want to leave banking and want to start Skydive CNY?

Michael Burgess: It’s just very simple. I learned a lot in banking, especially on the business side of things, but I just decided that I didn’t want to sit behind a desk for the rest of my life and watch life pass me by. I feel sorry for those people who work at their jobs for 40 or 50 hours a week, and then they go home and sit on a couch all weekend just to do it all over again the next week. It just wasn’t for me, so I decided to follow my love. And for that reason, I wanted to teach skydiving. I just want to help people in the community get out there and show them that there is more to life than watching it pass you by. Think about that poor factory worker who works for years on a job, and then dies of a heart attack and never got to enjoy anything.

The D.O.: What was your first time skydiving like?

M.B.: The first experience I had was in central New York and obviously was absolutely amazing. I was absolutely terrified like most people are, but as soon as I got down I knew immediately that I wanted to do it again. I signed up to go again the next weekend. I started in central New York but I’ve dove in Pennsylvania, Florida, then when I decided to take on skydiving as a career I left and went to Nevada where I worked at SkyDive Las Vegas for many years… I decided to come back to central New York because, believe it or not, I really missed the winters. Here I can skydive all summer and then enjoy the winters as well.

The D.O.: How would you describe a typical diving lesson?

M.B.: Well for the most part it’s a tandem skydive. We hook you up with one of our instructors, you’ll come in, you’ll fill out the paperwork, you’ll sit through about a 20-minute class on the dos and don’ts. We then take you up to about 10 to 12 thousand feet about the ground, and we let you free fall for about 40 seconds or so, and then you have about a 5 to 7-minute ride with the parachute. It’s absolutely beautiful, as you know, central New York has all of the beautiful lakes — the views are spectacular. On clear days we can see to Canada, all of the Finger Lakes, out into the Adirondacks and past Syracuse into Rochester and Buffalo. It’s really just unbelievable.

The D.O.: What’s the most interesting thing that happened to you during a lesson?

M.B.: People don’t freak out a lot because we try to train them pretty well, but people do get nervous, and you never know if you’re actually going to be able to get them out of the airplane. It’s easy when you talk to them about it on the ground, but getting them out of the airplane is the tough part. Generally though, the training is so thorough that people are pretty well prepared once they are up there. Every now and again people will back out, but it is very rare. Even the people who come down and say they didn’t like it still say they are happy they at least tried it once. It’s also on a lot of people’s bucket lists and some people use it to get over their fear of heights. It’s a great sense of accomplishment. After you do it, you’ll never look at the sky the same way again.

The D.O.: What do you enjoy most about running Skydive CNY?

M.B.: I just like being able to do what I love every day. I really enjoying running my own business and I really enjoy skydiving. I get to wake up every morning and go skydiving for a living. There are such a small handful of people who actually get to do things like that and actually follow their dreams, so I feel very privileged that I am able to do that. I still give lessons and I’ll take someone from their first jump all the way to being an instructor, which is so awesome.

Published on April 2, 2015 at 12:01 am

Contact: ararcham@syr.edu