Profession in Adrenaline

Leigh Ainsworth's recipe for success is a volatile cocktail of nylon, titanium and huge air. At just 18 years of age she has become New Zealand's youngest commercial freefall photographer, and jumping out of a perfectly good aeroplane for a profession is something she has aspired to for many years. Leigh experienced her first tandem skydive at age 13 which started off her addiction for adrenaline.

At age 16 and whilst still in high school, Leigh put all her savings into an AFF (Accelerated Freefall) Course to become certified to skydive solo and completed 126 skydives during the next year.

Last year Leigh studied at the Christchurch Parachute School where she attained a NZQA Diploma in Skydiving. During this course students learnt all aspects of working within the skydive industry. Having previously skydived at Queenstown, Leigh was very excited to complete the work experience module of her course at NZONE 'The Ultimate Jump'.

NZONE has been operating tandem skydiving in Queenstown for the past 12 years, and with the addition of a Cresco Turbine aircraft, and more recently a Fletcher Turbine, has enabled the company to do 15,000ft skydives and has more than doubled its capacity in the past 18 months. Strong product demand has provided the opportunity for Leigh and two other course graduates to be trained and employed by NZONE as commercial freefall photographers.

"I've always wanted to be a skydiver. Now my dreams have come true, and being paid to jump is definitely an added bonus". Leigh's ultimate ambition is to one day achieve the title of 'World Freestyle Skydiving Champion' and with over 450 skydives already is well on her way.

NZONE "The Ultimate Jump" - www.nzone.biz