Skydiving instructor

Isobel Wheeler has a reputation for being “a chick that skydives with the guys”. She has broken several skydiving records, represented Australia in sky diving events and is currently the fastest women in the country after setting a speed skydiving record of 349 kms per hour.

Not surprisingly, it was hard to pin her down for an interview. Only minutes before we spoke, the tandem skydiving instructor was strapped to a ‘first timer’ as they jumped from a plane ‘14,000 feet’ [4,267 metres] above Mission Beach in Far North Queensland. “I can do up to ten of these jumps a day. “It makes me hard to get hold of,” said Wheeler.

Wheeler’s career took off when she turned her hobby into a full-time career. “I have instructed [skydiving] for ten years and have been tandem instructing for about a year,” she said. “My mum thought it was going to be a passing fad. It took her ten years to come out to the drop site to see what it was all about and even when I represented Australia I don’t think she really got it.”

Her stunning ‘office’ is just one of the things Wheeler loves about her job, flexibility is another. Wheeler also travels around Australia coaching at skydiving festivals and competing in skydiving events referred to as ‘boogies’.

“There’s a lot of freedom with the job. I can take two weeks off to coach people at freefly [all non belly-to-earth jumps] and this year I’ll probably take two to three months off to do events,” Wheeler said. She said most people use skydiving as a weekend stress release from their nine-to-five jobs. “It’s an amazing feeling – totally exhilarating and the closest thing to flying you can get.”

Wheeler’s advice for anyone looking to pursue skydiving as a career is to get up experience and then do a training course.

“Once you have done about 1000 jumps you may consider your options. There is a fantastic first jump course offered by Skydive Ramblers in Queensland or from Jump the Beach, the company I work for in Tully,” Wheeler said.

Wheeler is also encouraged that more females are enjoying a once male dominated activity. “There is absolutely no reason why women can’t do this sport. One of my secret little pleasures in life is actually ripping it up and showing the guys just how it’s done.”

Wheeler is one of those featured in the new book Career FAQs Extreme.

By Zsa-Zsa Bowie Wilson, careerone.com.au.