LAST week was long-time local John Smeed’s 80th birthday, but there wasn’t a sponge cake in sight.
Naturally a thrill-seeker, John decided to mark the occasion by jumping from a plane at 15,000 feet landing on Coolum beach to the cheer of 30 friends and the popping of champagne.
“It was brilliant,” the grandfather said of the jump on 30 September. “It was a perfect day. I like to call it a golden day.”
John’s wife Suzanne organised family and friends to be waiting on the beach for John to land, followed by an afternoon of champagne, nibbles and great company.
“That was the nice thing, that 30 people came to watch and we had champagne and nibbles on the beach,” he said.
“It was lovely to see so many of our friends wanting to attend my 80th birthday idiocy and the celebration after landing turned out to be even better than having an evening party.”
The jump was the first time John had sky dived and he said it was “all cool”.
“We had perfect weather and I must admit the first shock of tumbling away from the plane was a bit disorientating but after stabilising, the 200km/h drop was a special, exciting experience and once the parachute opened the quiet smooth decent over the beautiful coastline was memorable,” he said.
There is no word yet on how John will celebrate his 81st birthday next year. Bungee jumping, perhaps?
