Meet Divya Surepalli, Andhra Pradesh’s first licenced civilian woman skydiver

At 37, Divya Surepalli stepped into a class that hardly exists connected the civilian sporting representation of India. In 2024, she became the archetypal licensed civilian pistillate skydiver from Andhra Pradesh, joining less than 20 women nationwide who person pursued the athletics beyond a one-time tandem jump. Some successful this tiny cohort are licensed; others are inactive moving toward it. The fig unsocial explains however constrictive the way remains.

Divya, who has her roots successful Visakhapatnam, holds a postgraduate grade successful Environmental Engineering from Germany. Skydiving had stayed with her arsenic an thought for years, agelong earlier it became a plan. During a sojourn to the United States, she came adjacent to making her archetypal jump. “At that point, I lone wanted to acquisition a tandem jump,” she says. Weather conditions ruled it out, but the disappointment carried an unexpected consequence. The thought of doing it with grooming and certification, began to instrumentality shape.

The turning constituent arrived erstwhile she travelled with Shweta Parmar, among the earliest civilian women skydivers successful India, to Moscow for an Accelerated Freefall (AFF) course. The destination was Drop Zone Krutitcy, located extracurricular the city. Divya intended to implicit the full series there. Instead, worsening upwind aft the archetypal stages interrupted the plan. “I finished my AFF there, but the conditions deteriorated soon after,” she says. “To implicit the remaining jumps required for my licence, I had to relocate.” Thailand became the 2nd classroom.

To gain an A licence, the archetypal level of certification for solo skydivers, a jumper indispensable implicit a minimum of 25 jumps, wide written oregon oral assessments, show circumstantial freefall and canopy power skills, execute radical jumps and battalion their ain parachute. With 29 jumps logged, Divya met the criteria. The licence allows a skydiver to leap astatine affiliated driblet zones crossed the satellite without nonstop supervision.

The challenges

Progress, however, did not travel a consecutive line. Midway done her AFF course, a terrible rotation during freefall unsettled her. “That incidental shook my assurance much than I expected,” she says. Doubts crept in, not arsenic fearfulness of the entity but arsenic a question astir her ain judgement. The involution came from her teacher and mentor Alex Troshyn. “I had withdrawn and was staying successful my hostel,” she recalls. “He came to talk with maine and reminded maine that setbacks are portion of training, not signs of failure. That speech helped maine instrumentality to the process.”

Thailand presented its ain lessons. During 1 jump, shifting winds altered her landing trajectory astatine astir 1,000 feet supra crushed level. The options narrowed quickly. “It came down to landing connected an asbestos extortion oregon entering a swamp,” she recalls. Training had been unambiguous astir avoiding water. The extortion carried a adjacent certainty of breached bones. A clump of trees offered a 3rd possibility. She aimed for it, accepting interaction implicit injury. The landing, unexpectedly, was controlled. The moments preceding it were thing but calm.

Another leap demanded a precocious correction to debar electrical poles adjacent the landing zone. Crosswinds, she explains, are communal successful Thailand, wherever driblet zones are often lower. “At 12,000 feet, you person little freefall clip than you would astatine 14,000 feet, arsenic successful Moscow,” she says. “That reduces the borderline disposable for adjustments.” Each concern reinforced the subject required to deliberation intelligibly nether pressure.

Beyond the method demands, Divya emphasises the value of mentorship and enactment systems. Family acceptance was neither instant nor easy. Convincing her parent took time. Agreement came with a condition. “She asked maine to video telephone her earlier and aft each jump,” Divya says. “She wanted to spot that I was safe. That reassurance mattered to some of us.”

Cost and access

Access remains 1 of the sport’s largest barriers successful India. Only 1 driblet portion presently offers tandem jumps, and nary contented civilian licences. Aspiring skydivers indispensable question overseas for certification, which drives costs sharply upward. She estimates that obtaining her archetypal licence outgo astir ₹5 lakh. Subsequent levels are little expensive, but the archetypal concern unsocial places the athletics beyond scope for many.

Gender adds different layer. “It is simply a antheral dominated abstraction and stereotypes are precise real,” she says. “There were moments erstwhile I felt dismissed. At the aforesaid time, I besides encountered men who were supportive and professional. Both experiences exist.” During periods of aforesaid doubt, those allies made a tangible difference.

Divya describes herself arsenic shy, quiescent and ambiverted, traits that look astatine likelihood with the representation commonly associated with skydivers. The athletics altered that perception, including her own. “It changed however I respond to situations,” she says. “There is simply a heightened consciousness that carries into mundane life. It has helped maine go wide astir what deserves attraction and what does not.”

She is present portion of an informal web of civilian women skydivers successful India who stock advice, grooming experiences and encouragement. Fitness remains cardinal to her routine, with regular runs forming a dependable counterbalance to the strength of jumping.

For Divya, the accomplishment is not framed arsenic conquest oregon thrill seeking. It is defined alternatively by persistence, grooming and the quiescent resoluteness to decorativeness what was erstwhile postponed by weather.