Dilys Price is a remarkable woman and the holder of a number
of world records, her speciality being solo skydiving at an advanced age. She
began this hobby at the age of 65 and is still doing so – at the time of
writing she is 86 and shows no sign of giving up.
She was born in Cardiff, Wales, in 1932 and followed a
career as a dance teacher. She had the idea of practicing dancing in the air
and joined a skydiving school so that she could adopt ballet positions as she
hurtled down from an aeroplane.
When she was a mere youth of 69 she decided to try jumping
from a balloon rather than an aeroplane. She did so from 5000 feet above the Arizona
desert, which meant jumping into what is known as “dead air” – no wind but
plenty of unpredictable thermals in the unusually thin air of that region. The
net result is that one plunges earthwards like a stone.
After plenty of instruction from experts, Dilys made her first
jump, which was a perfect success apart from landing on a cactus.
Dilys enjoyed the experience so much – apart from the last
bit – that she just had to do it again. This time she landed in the exercise
yard of Arizona’s state prison.
Dilys Price – who has been awarded the OBE for her
charitable and practical work on behalf of disabled people – has to count as
one of the UK’s most notable eccentrics.
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