Sabrina Schoenmaker (43) from Eersel is confined to a wheelchair due to the disease multiple sclerosis (MS). But not if she can skydive: float on the wind in a large air shaft in Roosendaal. And so she does that as much as possible: “I don’t go into the tunnel in my wheelchair. The wind catches me, so my disability is literally out of the world for a while.”
Sabrina has always been an adventurer: “I liked excitement in my life and was always into adrenaline sports. Mountain climbing, abseiling. And I liked fast cars.”
“I have embraced the wheelchair.”
In 2018 she was diagnosed with MS. “After that things deteriorated quickly and I ended up in a wheelchair.” A huge blow for the mother of three young children. For a moment she was completely over it. But she soon became combative again: “I embraced the wheelchair. And I started looking for extreme things you can do in a wheelchair. Then this happened.”
Skydiving gives her strength, she says: “When I hang in the wind, I break free from my limitations. The wind carries me and here I am like anyone else.”
The engines of the skydive start and soon it is a deafening noise. Sabrina enters through a small opening. From a bench she smoothly turns into the air shaft and with her arms and legs spread she moves on the wind. By moving her arms, she steers herself up and down. A big smile on her face. She flies.
“I’ve never done so well.”
After a small warm-up, Sabrina practices flying on her back, with the help of instructor Max Mulders. And indeed, after he explains to her how to do it, she turns around in mid-air. Great relief when she comes out of the shaft again: “It went well, it was fantastic. I’ve never done it this well before. A victory over myself,” she shouts enthusiastically above the noise.
Max is proud of his student afterwards: “She is doing fantastic. The progress she is making is great. When someone has so much energy and pleasure in flying, you are completely swept away by it.”
“I want to dance in the wind.”
Behind Max and Sabrina, experienced skydivers are now performing breakneck feats in the air. “That,” Sabrina points out with a determined look in her eyes, “That is my goal. I want to dance in the wind. Flitting around freely like a bird.”
And that is certainly possible, Max thinks: “There are of course things we have to adjust to, but it is certainly possible for Sabrina.”
Sabrina gives everyone with a disability the free feeling of skydiving. She organizes so-called HandiFly days at the indoor skydive in Utrecht. Four times a year, five people can fly free of charge. She is in consultation with the indoor skydive in Roosendaal to see if something like this is also possible here.
