Rowen farmer overcomes fears of heights

Jun 11 2009 by Samantha Castle, North Wales Weekly News

IT’S not every day you get the opportunity to overcome a fear, but that is exactly what happened recently to one Conwy Valley farmer who was afraid of heights.

Dewi Jones, a 56-year-old Rowen farmer, recently accepted a challenge from his 23-year-old Liverpool medical student daughter Carys, to take part in a sky diving session over the May Bank Holiday.

“This was one clear way for me to cure my fear of heights,” said Dewi.

Carys, who was already an old hand at parachute sky diving having completed over 50 drops, accompanied her father on the same plane, up to a height of over 14,000 feet. She jumped first and was then followed by her brave old dad, with another on a tandem drop.

“The fall consisted of travelling at over 130mph,” added Dewi.

“I was free falling for over 50 seconds and then descended to the ground over Morecambe Bay.

“It was an amazing experience with some amazing views when I had my eyes open, but one I would not like to repeat again soon.”

Both father and daughter landed safely, although on the same drop, two other sky divers had parachute malfunctions and had to use reserve chutes.

Dewi added: “We were lucky as throughout the day three sky divers suffered fractured limbs on landing – two broken legs and one broken arm!”

Dewi is probably one of very few farmers in North Wales to have done such a dare at the same time as his daughter. Dewi said his only regret was not doing the jump for charity.

“Unfortunately, due to the unpredictability in the farming calendar and also in the weather conditions in arranging such a feat, it was not possible to raise funds for any particular charity,” he said regretfully.

However, the fact that Dewi has cured his fear of heights the hard way is good enough for him!