By Jaime Uranovsky
Not all 83-year-olds would choose to go paragliding off Signal Hill for their birthday celebration. Martin Margolius, however, is not your average 83-year-old.
“When you get to my age, people just think ‘well, this is it. You know, you must start taking it easy.’ But that’s not for me. I want to get back into things. I’m young at heart, so I decided [paragliding] will be the way I’ll start.”
Martin originally wanted to paraglide three years ago, on his 80th birthday, but was stalled by a knee injury and subsequent knee replacement. He did not let that hold him back though, and finally achieved his goal in April this year, just a few weeks after his 83rd birthday.
‘I thought that you jump off Signal Hill. You don’t. You actually glide off. You glide off with your, let’s say, pilot because… I did the tandem… The view is incredible. I wasn’t scared. I was more excited, but I told my children, “you must wait on the beachfront and hopefully I land. If I don’t land properly, you’ll meet me in hospital or, at the worst thing, you’ll come to my funeral.”’
When asked about the landing, Martin recounts, ‘I was a bit scared because I’ve had a knee replacement and that was my problem. I warned them about [it] but, when I landed, the pilot took the so-called ‘running along’ so that was quite okay. That was the only thing I was worried about.’
For Martin, there are plans to spend more time with his head literally in the clouds: ‘They said to me, when I’m 90, they’ll do a paragliding for me for free. So, we’ll see. I want to go skydiving. You know, that’s from a plane. That’s what I want to do next year.’
On the overall experience of paragliding, Martin had this to say: ‘My daughter, Hazel, came up to me and asked, “Did you enjoy it?” I said, “From what I can remember, it’s better than sex”’
To read the June issue of the Chronicle online, click here
To read about singing sensation Josh Abrams, click here
To find out more about the Winter Warmer Campaign, click here
