PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS: Skydiving through Fear, Freedom & Adrenaline

In this episode of the ACT OUT Podcast, Adam heads to Skydive Suffolk to jump out of a plane with tandem instructor David Rosas—and what starts as a high-adrenaline adventure quickly turns into a deeper conversation about fear, freedom, community, and what it really means to pursue happiness. David shares how his own first jump didn’t immediately hook him, but how skydiving slowly opened up into something bigger: a career, a calling, and a way of life.

David talks about how he went from a nervous first-time jumper to nearly 9,000 jumps, traveling to different drop zones, packing parachutes, and eventually becoming a tandem instructor. Adam and David also dig into the surprising culture of skydiving—how people from completely different backgrounds find connection in the sport, and why the trust, repetition, and shared experience create such a strong sense of community.

🪂 Want to see Adam jump out of the plane? Check out the full episode video on YouTube and Spotify.

The conversation also dives into THE PURSUIT OF HAPPINESS—why some people find it by pushing themselves beyond fear, why freedom feels different when you’re 13,500 feet in the air, and how skydiving has a way of pulling people fully into the present moment. David reflects on why nobody ever really “arrives” at happiness, why the pursuit matters more than the finish line, and how doing something bold can completely shift the way you see your life.

If you’ve ever wondered what skydiving actually feels like, why people keep going back, or what happens when you finally do the thing that scares the hell out of you, this episode will leave you inspired—and maybe a little tempted to book a jump of your own.

Learn more about Skydive Suffolk: Skydiving & Tandem Jump in Virginia | Skydive Suffolk

Tune in every Thursday for episodes that inspire, challenge, and entertain. Whether you’re here for laughs, lived wisdom, or action steps, the ACT OUT podcast is your space to rethink growth, embrace self-awareness, and act out your passions.

Want to be a guest on the ACT OUT podcast? Send Adam Tomlin a message on PodMatch, here: https://www.podmatch.com/hostdetailpreview/17697025629686282ce7409dc

Other ways to follow and connect with the ACT OUT podcast:
Learn more at:https://www.theactoutpodcast.com/
Subscribe to the show on YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/@theACTOUTpodcast
Follow the show on Instagram: @‌actoutpodcast & TikTok: @‌actoutpodcast

Credits:
Mural: Tara E. @‌taradiiiise and @‌tarayakisauce

Transcript

SPEAKER_03 0:00

We're uh we're here at Skydive Suffolk with uh David, what's your last name? Rosus. David Rosus. Uh nice to meet you. It's nice to meet you, man. Yeah, there's so uh you and I are about to be tethered together and uh flying down, was it almost like three miles?

SPEAKER_01 0:13

Is that yeah, about two and a half miles, yeah. Yeah, thirteen thousand five hundred feet.

SPEAKER_03 0:17

Uh so just to make sure I'm in safe hands, how many times have you done this?

SPEAKER_01 0:21

Uh just shy of 9,000, I believe. Yeah, some somewhere around like 8,900, something like that.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

Do you remember your first time? Of course. So why what what brought you uh what brought you to skydiving?

SPEAKER_01 0:35

Uh so like I did my first jump. I got it as a gift from high school, like graduation. And uh I tried it out. I wasn't sure what to expect. Uh little little caveat to that story. The the girl I was dating at the time, her parents owned this uh the skydiving company that that I jumped at. And so they were uh we had met and everything, and they were like, oh, like here's it you you might as well try it, right? We gotta, we gotta give you a give you a shot at this. And so I tried it out and I was like, I don't think I like this. Like I don't like I it was cool, like it was a it was a really really awesome sensation. Like I it was it was almost as if I was looking through on my this is my first jump, right? It's almost as if I was looking through a straw, like a pinhole. Like what I could see was like directly right in front of me, about six inches, and like everything else was just a blur. And so as I'm as I'm you know approaching the door and everything else, like I don't I don't know what I'm doing. I'm freaked out, like I'm just I'm don't even have no idea where my arms are, my legs. I'm just like moving, I'm just in the moment. Uh that's gonna be me in a few minutes, yes. Yeah, yeah, man. And so uh so I did the jump. I I wasn't immediately hooked. I I landed, and I think uh like I was terrified because the the guy that I jumped with was the uh father of the girlfriend at the time. And so so I was I was like uh okay, like I'm terrified for my life. Like this guy's probably just gonna let me go. I don't think he likes me anyways, like whatever. Um started packing parachutes shortly after that uh and watched many more skydives, did a bunch more tandems like you and I are doing a tandem jump, uh, did a bunch more of those, and then I started the uh student progression because I I knew I could see how much fun everybody was having, and I was like, I was like, oh, this this is this is cool. So I did another jump and then I was like, oh wow. And that little pinhole that I was looking through started to open up a little more and a little more. So I was able to see a whole lot more, right? And so then it started to become like kind of a fun thing, right? It started, I started to enjoy it. I saw I could I could actually feel the wind. I was like seeing seeing things were that were right in front of me that I couldn't see before. And so uh just kind of moved like moving moved forward with that, started the progression, worked some years at that, traveled around, moved around a bit, uh, different drop zones, different different places, skydiving, packing parachutes, and then ultimately moved back to the place that I started at. And uh the place that I did my first jump at, I became a tandem instructor out there. And then that's where I kind of like started. Um yeah, fast forward here we are, however many years later, right? Yeah. Uh and then uh 18 years or whatever it is. Um out here in Suffolk, Virginia, doing this, doing the same thing, something that I enjoy. And I get a I get a show show people what I enjoy about it. I get to see people do their first jump and then move all the way up to w where now they're taking people. Yeah. And they're instructors as well. So it's uh it's a very rewarding thing for sure.

SPEAKER_03 3:32

I think that was actually one of the biggest misconceptions uh that I had about skydiving. Um and I hadn't even done it yet. But I think whenever uh I like uh emailed uh the person's like, hey, let's uh let's get this worked out. I thought that I would be coming here to uh to an airport, it would just be me and you. We'd just we'd jump in, you know, get in the plane, jump out, and that'd be it. But coming here, there's an entire community. Oh yeah. I mean, there are folks um that are I mean, like I I've I heard somebody from Richmond that drives down here that's like two hours away. Yeah. Uh and there are maybe like 15 to 20 folks that seem like they've really formed a big sense of community here.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Yeah, and it's not just it's not just here. And this is this I would say is about like a medium-sized drop zone. Um we have a very large facility for for how many people that we have. Uh the place that you're you were referring to, like you walk up, there's there's one dude smoking a cigarette in the parking lot, and he's like, he's like, oh, you Roger, let's go. And they're like, right? That's that's very common a lot of places. Like the little that we like we call them Cessna drop zones because they use they operate those smaller Cessna planes. Um a lot of those mom and pop drop zones, like they the the cost of operations and everything is a lot lower. So they they do by appointment, right? Somebody comes in, they want to jump, they take them up with the the the one instructor. Um, because I've worked at those places. And when you come to a place like this, we have a lot of aircraft, a lot of different types of aircraft, and a lot of capability, right? We have a lot of infrastructure and we have a lot of well, massive landing area, which which obviously you'll see in a bit. Um but having a big margin of error for me, which is nice. Yeah, yeah, for sure. Yeah. Yeah, aim big, miss big, right? Uh so uh a lot of a lot of facilities are much larger than this, like more, more aircraft, more people. And so you'll see like what you saw as a on a busy day is probably on a summer day, probably like a quarter of what you'd see out here. Yeah. So like we'll do events, we'll have food trucks and and that sort of thing. Uh we do jumps in Virginia Beach, we land right in the right on the beach. Oh, cool. Yeah, that's that's a fun time. Um, but yeah, depending on where you go, they have different drop drop zones that are different sizes, really small things from one-on-one experience to where, like, okay, you might be in Sky Dive, Dubai, where like they have 30 instructors walking around. Right. So, like, and there's then like they're taking maybe 180 people that day. So like they're just moving through, moving through. It's like get like a carnival, right? Grab your ticket, hop on the ride, get off the ride, see you later. Right. So some some some places, uh, the smaller places, the medium-sized places, you get a little bit more of an intermittent experience.

SPEAKER_02 6:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:08

You get a little bit more like knowledge, you get more time to like spend with the other person. Whereas like bigger places, it might just be we're doing so many jumps all day long that we won't be able to sit down and like have this kind of conversation.

SPEAKER_03 6:20

Can you um like speak a little bit about uh kind of the community that uh that's here? Because it seems like uh it's a bunch of friends.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

Yeah, so so so with that in these different size drop zones, uh what you'll see is uh oftentimes you'll see campgrounds that are really close, RV parks that are like on on site, restaurants that are on site. And so you have people that show up to the drop zone, uh whether they roll up like in their in their little like VW bug with their surfboard on top, like in board shorts, no shoes, right? Whether it's that person or it's a it's the business exec he who gets chauffeured here, right? In Islamic, right? Every everybody that does it like comes from different walks of life. But what happens is when you go skydiving, right? We're not really we're not really able to talk to each other in free falls, per se, without certain technology and this and that. Um so it becomes like an unspoken language, right? We're when we're working together, and that starts on the ground, packing the parachute all the way up through getting on the airplane and and practicing safety on the plane, looking out for the guy next to you. You might have a disagreement, whatever, but when we get up there, all that goes away, and it just becomes like this sanctuary of like trust and community. And so as we as we go throughout the whole skydive, you're looking out for your buddies, like you're watching out for one another, you land, you pack your parachute, you do it again, right? And that exists worldwide. Um, I've been uh fortunate enough to be to to to a few different uh countries skydiving, and what happens is you you have the same sense of community, right? It's a lot of people gather together to to celebrate what it is that we do, right? They might they might have a cocktail afterward, they might have a beer afterward. But during the day, it's sun comes up, everybody starts jumping, sun sets, everybody finishes, they they repeat that every weekend. A lot of people come in, they work nine to five Monday through Friday, they show up at the drop zone, hang out all weekend, they go to dinner together, they might camp, etc. Might travel together to other drop zones and do that. And it's just a it's just a a a worldwide network of people that are kind of like running to the same beat.

SPEAKER_03 8:29

You said that it was uh and and you're right, uh it's a very diverse career. You could have the the CEO or you could have the the the VW bug surfer. What's the commonality? What what what is what why do people love it?

SPEAKER_01 8:40

I think what it is is everybody uh from my experience over the years, is everybody is searching for a sense of almost purpose or a sense of being, right? They're trying to to connect that that last link in the chain, right? They they might everything's going smooth in their life, they come into skydiving and then it consumes everything. And I think what it is is it's it's that ultimate satisfaction, right? And the thing is, is you land and you immediately want to go do it again, right? It's it doesn't it that that sort of like sure, like the first time you do it, a lot of adrenaline, don't know what's going on. Okay, you do it more, you do it more, you do it more, you do it more, then it becomes a very normal thing. And when it becomes a normal thing, yeah, sure, you still get that that that that rush and everything else, but what happens is you're scratching that itch that that you're looking for, that that satisfaction. I could be having a bad day, a bad week, whatever, you know, things go wrong, you get a flat tire, whatever. Go make a skydive, all that washes away. Because when you're in free fall, that's the only thing you can think about. That's the only thing you're focused on, is is in that moment. And when you're in that moment with your friends and people you trust and love, it becomes a very gracious thing.

SPEAKER_03 9:53

I I like that, man. That's really well said. Thank you. Uh what does the pursuit of happiness mean to you?

SPEAKER_01 10:00

Uh so not not necessarily like happiness, because I think everybody's kind of looking for some sort of happiness, generally speaking. Uh yeah, yeah. Uh but the pursuit would be would be everything that you're doing to try and attain that, to try and get to that level that I I personally don't think anybody ever get gets to that level. And so it it in i in existence and as we as we live our lives, as we age, as we get older, as we meet new people, as we do new experiences, as we live our lives, I think that that pursuit means that you're doing things that you would know make you happy. Oh, as well. Hi, doggy. That was bad. Tell me, uh, you you were giving a really good Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 10:44

So so as a a pursuit over time, like something that you're never gonna fully attain.

SPEAKER_01 10:48

Yeah, yeah, right. So so it's like what are we doing daily to make ourselves happy? Right? And that's I think uh people that skydive probably understand that maybe a little bit more than than your than your average let's say office worker, right? And and the reason I say that is because you get on the plane, there's no certain guarantee that the plane won't have issues, and then maybe that's your last flight ever. You get can you get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_02 11:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

Or or it could be, okay, maybe you have an an issue with my parachute, maybe there's something completely out of my control that makes that my very last skydive, right? Um so you want to live every day as if it's the last day. I know that's kind of a cliche like thing to say, but but it's it it's some sort of truth uh as we evaluate what it is that we are doing daily, right? If you get agitated on your drive to work and you're bobbing and weaving out of traffic, you like you have to ask yourself, like, could I have left earlier? Right? That that I wouldn't be so agitated, right? Uh may maybe Starbucks didn't have your favorite coffee that day. Right. There's all all these things that we can we can pick ourselves apart about, but these are just l luxuries, right? As of skydiving, right? Nope nobody needs to skydive, right? But it but we love it. And it's something that we want to keep on doing. And um I mean there's there's people that have been doing it for I mean, this won this woman Kim, she she started jumping, I think she started jumping in the late fifties or sixties, I'll have to have to double check that. Um but she she recently just did her one thousandth jump, right? Eighty-six years old, eighty-eight years old, whatever she is. Uh she was traveling around the country doing tandems, and she uh just hit her thousandth recently. And she I've I've been fortunate enough to take her on three or four jumps. Um and she is just a a a very delightful old woman. And she is uh very spry, she's full of life, and she's I mean she's she did most of those those jumps at tandem, right, in the in the last two years.

SPEAKER_02 12:51

Right.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

So so like probably probably six or eight hundred of those in the last two years.

SPEAKER_03 12:58

So what's your favorite thing about being up in the air?

SPEAKER_01 13:01

I think the freedom, like the the release of of all all that holds us back in in life and on on the ground and and whatever whatever issues or happiness, like we use it for as a celebration tool as well. Like, okay, cool, you know, uh your your buddy just had a baby, like you you just had a kid, right? You got a new puppy, whatever, like let's go celebrate with a skydive, right? So so it brings us not only like like healing purposes, but also like for celebration, like for joy, right? So my favorite thing about uh skydiving would it would be just just yeah, that freedom. Like you get up there and all that matters is that jump, right? And and when I get to take somebody, which is probably my favorite type of skydiving, uh tandem like I'm here, man. Yeah, of course, yeah, you're a good guy. Um when I get to to share that experience with somebody, because everybody sees it different, right? For me, I couldn't see anything, I didn't know what was going on. For other people, they're hooting and hollering, they're looking around, they're very in the moment, right? So everybody kind of receives it differently. But to see that is something that I thoroughly enjoy. Like if somebody's like really scared, they they they say, I don't think I want to do this, they're in the plane. You're like, you don't have to do it, right? We you you can you can if you want to, nobody's gonna force you out of this plane. It's completely up to you. And then when they turn around and they actually jump after landing, they they have this sort of enlightening enlightening moment where they they just their attitude completely shifts around and they are almost a changed person, right? I've seen people uh over the years, let's see, all kinds of stories as far as like why people come out to skydive, right? Birthday, big one, eighteenth birthday, right? Uh graduating high school, that's what I did. Graduating college. Yeah. Somebody just uh passed the bar, right? Kind of like a rite of passage almost. Sure, sure, absolutely. Go and go and push yourself that like like you've never done before. Go and experience something that you've never entertained or like ever thought of, or or or maybe you thought about it for a long time. And then you finally got the courage to do it. Um whatever the whatever the reason, whatever the cause, I think that it's a very special thing for anybody to try out.

SPEAKER_03 15:18

Yeah, I mean, I'm I'm actually really looking forward to it, man. You wanna go jump out of a plane? Let's do it, dude. All right, David, thanks so much for letting me act out.

SPEAKER_01 15:24

My pleasure, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04 15:32

Adam, welcome to Skylab 7. How are we doing today? I'm doing great.

SPEAKER_03 15:35

I'm really excited.

SPEAKER_04 15:36

Awesome. What brought you out here?

SPEAKER_03 15:37

Well, uh, the uh basically the culmination of a joke I began in college. Um, whenever I I was a uh Rush chairman for my fraternity, and I was like, I'm gonna take over Oglethorpe Rush by Air, Land, and C. And so uh, whenever I started my podcast, I was trying to think of different ways to uh try to promote it. I was like, well, why not just try to take over the podcasting world by air, land, and sea? So this is air.

SPEAKER_04 16:00

This is the air. Yeah. All right, and how are we feeling about the jump?

SPEAKER_03 16:03

I forgot that I was supposed to jump. I had all my plans just in this marketing that like I didn't even think about it. So uh hopefully it goes well for me.

SPEAKER_04 16:11

All right, and any shout-outs you want to make before we go up? No.

SPEAKER_03 16:15

Just y'all, y'all have been great. Uh, Skydive Suffolk is amazing. Definitely check it out.

SPEAKER_00 18:57

I still help. Look at this view! I know, man, you can't beat it. It's doing a great job, huh? Did we get this turn in there? Oh yeah, definitely. I tell. Little little shout-out real quick? Well, we just jumped out of the plane now and flying the parachute? You're having it scared right now. I can tell. Hey, enjoy the run and I'll see you on the ground, okay? Oh, man.

SPEAKER_04 19:31

Oh yeah! David down back on the ground. How are we feeling?

SPEAKER_03 19:38

Uh, wait, am I supposed to say I'm back on the ground?

SPEAKER_04 19:41

No, you're back on the ground. We're staying, we're sound, we're on the ground. I know.

SPEAKER_03 19:45

Uh David actually I felt in Stay Fans the entire time, so I I didn't even realize I was on the ground because it's felt like no, this was really fun. I really enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_04 19:53

Awesome. Did you have a favorite part?

SPEAKER_03 19:55

Uh actually, we went weightless, and that was probably the that was probably the best. Shout out David over there. Uh yeah, David. David was awesome.

SPEAKER_04 20:04

Awesome. Would you do it again?

SPEAKER_03 20:05

Uh oh yeah, I'm definitely doing it again. All right.

SPEAKER_04 20:07

Well, thanks for jumping with us. We'll see you next time.