Austin Matthiessen is a freshman here at Eckerd College. Originally from Hamburg Germany, Austin moved to Atlanta, Georgia when he was six. Austin, known around campus as ‘sunglasses’ or ‘hot-freshman’ is a self-proclaimed “adrenaline addict”, spending as much time as he can pursuing his passion of extreme sports. Not only does he love his crazy activities, he has an affinity for turning others onto these crazy sports. After speaking with him for a little over an hour, I myself was considering jumping out of an airplane. Watch out or his charismatic attitude might just get you strapped to a parachute.
What brought you to Eckerd?
“The beach mostly. The water sports and the extreme sports also. Here you can surf, kite board, wake board, some of the best skydiving in the nation is here. So pretty much the location is what brought me here.”
What is your favorite outdoor sport?
“Skydiving by far. I’m in love with skydiving. I’ve got 22 jumps right now and I need 200 jumps by next year. One of my goals is to become a professional wing suitor and you need 200 jumps to start the training for that. That’s my goal.”
What got you into extreme sports?
“I’m an adrenaline addict. I live on adrenaline. For some people skydiving is an abnormal thing to do every once in a while, if I don’t get to skydive at least once a week then I feel like it’s an abnormal week. I usually skydive 2-5 times a week. If I don’t get that adrenaline fix then I’m tweaking out, I have to jump off buildings.”
When and how did you start skydiving?
“I started skydiving when I was 18, and that was about a year ago, and just a couple of months ago I finished my certification to get my license.”
Do you ever worry about hurting yourself?
“Yeah, it’s definitely on my mind. I’ve gotten a couple skydiving injuries already, I messed up my leg over last weekend, I’ve broken my thumb and messed up my wrist, but it’s all part of the sport. The way I like to think about it is the first time that I let the fear of getting hurt or the fear of death impact whether I do the thing I love, that’s the first time I’m really not living. If that makes sense.”
Who or what inspired you to skydive?
“Not really, I didn’t have any skydiving role models growing up in my life or anything. My parents hate it that I skydive, but I don’t know. I’ve always dreamt of flying. You know when you have those dreams when you’re just flying? The first time I skydived it felt like that so I knew it was gonna be a part of my life.”
How would you suggest someone get into sports like skydiving?
“Well I’m pretty good at convincing people to skydive. Most of the people I’ve taken were at first not open to the idea, but here in Florida I can pretty much just tell them to look up the sky and how pretty it is and have them imagine flying through it at 180 miles per hour and that usually does the trick. Or I get them when they’re drunk and make them give me their verbal contract and I hit them up the next morning.”
Is it hard to balance all your outdoor activities with schoolwork?
“Sort of, I want to be a vet so the classes aren’t the most fun, but still with classes I get to surf at least once a week, kite board once a week, and skydive a couple times a week.”
Austin is a daredevil but his carefree way of life is something to be envious of. If you’re interested in getting involved in skydiving or any other extreme sports be sure to talk to him.