The Athlete: JAKE KILFOYLE
Episode: Shark Swoop | Premiere: Aug. 8, 2006

Perry's Thoughts:
I found Jake to be an amazing free spirit, with a wonderful outlook on life. As many of us sit at our desk in our 9-to-5 jobs, Jake has the courage and the passion to live his life as he wants. For me, even more thrilling than the stunt was the opportunity to get up close and personal with the sharks. I found them to be amazing creatures and, to my surprise, I did not fear them. Quite the opposite. I found myself drawn to them like a moth to a flame.

Eli's Thoughts:
Going into this stunt, I was extremely pleased to know that this first episode was with a fellow skydiver and friend, Jake Kilfoyle. Having spent the last 14 years in the sky and logged over 13,000 skydives, my confidence was high that I would have an interesting take on the stunt. Jake has spent the last few years perfecting his skills in high-speed parachute landing, also known as "swooping." When I heard we would be doing the stunt in Hawaii, I knew we were in for a great show. The North Shore is completely breathtaking. With its lush green trees and beautiful blue ocean, it's no wonder people never leave. Jake's stunt was going to take some serious concentration and skill, not to mention guts. I'm not a shark guy and had never even been around sharks, so when I heard he was going to land in a cage surrounded by sharks I thought to myself, this is either going to be really cool or really stupid. Jake is a wild one, but he knew exactly what he was up to. First, he's been in Hawaii many years. Second, he is extremely comfortable around sharks. Third, he continues to stay very current in his parachuting.

One day we put the cage in the water to see what it would do. There were these swells that continued to make the cage visible and then in an instant completely invisible. Jake and I ended up doing an interview in the shark cage, with all the sharks around. I'll never forget how cool the sharks looked, how clear the water was and what a complete blast the interview was. As we got closer to stunt day, my main concerns were depth perception, accuracy landing and the sharks. Depth perception was obviously an issue, because we were three miles from shore with only blue sky and blue ocean all around. When we went on a depth-perception test in the helicopter, the pilot thought we were under 100 feet when we were over 500. Not very encouraging, to say the least. But when stunt day came, Jake was on the money. He did what he had to and stuck it on the first try! It was very cool to watch as he piloted his canopy from side to side to bleed off speed and then flared it right into the cage. Luckily, we didn't have to find out what would have happened if he had missed.