At 81, Brunswick Heads grandmother Kuaterina Mount is doing what many wouldn’t dare at any age, jumping out of planes, and loving every second of it.
With a flower tucked in her hair and a smile that refuses to fade, Kuaterina has been steadily ticking off skydives, often alongside her grandchildren.
Her latest leap came last month, when she took her youngest grandson skydiving in Wollongong to celebrate his 18th birthday, a milestone they both clearly relished.
‘It’s exhilarating,’ Kuaterina says simply, brushing aside any suggestion of fear.
‘I’ve never been scared.’
That calm, philosophical approach to hurtling toward the earth at 200km/h didn’t appear overnight. Kuaterina traces it back to 2008, when she first took to the skies paragliding in Nepal after volunteering in India.
‘I thought, that’s my reward,’ she recalls. ‘You’re just floating, it’s peaceful, beautiful.’
From there, the adventures continued across Turkey and Chile before she eventually made the leap to skydiving in 2017.
Since then, it has become something of a family tradition.
Her grandson, who had dreamed of skydiving since he was 10, was kept completely in the dark about his birthday surprise.
‘We told him we were going to a water park,’ Kuaterina laughs. ‘But when we got there and he saw the skydiving sign, he was so excited.’
For Kuaterina, the thrill lies not just in the adrenaline, but in a broader outlook on life.
‘If you’re going to do it, you can’t be in fear,’ she says. ‘There’s no point panicking. You just enjoy it.’
That attitude aligns with a growing trend noted by Skydive Australia, which says more older Australians are embracing adventure travel later in life. Recent figures suggest 43 per cent of seniors now prioritise creating travel memories over leaving a financial inheritance.
Kuaterina isn’t surprised.
‘People think they’re too young to take risks because they’ve got responsibilities,’ she says. ‘But if you can do it, do it.’
She keeps active with yoga and gym sessions, but insists there’s no secret formula, just a willingness to say yes.
‘We’re lucky to live where we do,’ she says. ‘Why not make the most of it?’
And with more grandchildren lining up for their turn at 18, it seems Kuaterina’s sky high mission is far from over.
Next time you see a cluster of parachutes floating over the paddocks of Tyagarah, one of them might just be an adventurous local grandmother.
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