Facing fears one jump at a time

Following more than a decade of rehabilitation after a car crash left him with severe brain damage, Queenstown resident Jesse Boulay is seizing life with both hands.

Yesterday he tandem skydived with his friend Derek Smith.

Mr Boulay spent nearly a year in a coma after a crash on New Year’s Day, 2010.

Despite doctors’ prognosis he would be permanently incapacitated and dead within eight years, subsequent intense physio sessions and speech and occupational therapy have proven them wrong.

While there was no quick or easy process, Mr Boulay who is now 31, learned to walk, talk and care for himself again, buying and moving into his first apartment in 2014.

Now having developed his life and built his own fashion business, Remarkable, he has become a well-known identity in Queenstown.

Yesterday he shifted his confidence a step further and faced his fears by taking a leap as a skydiver.

Mr Smith was persuaded to jump with Mr Boulay on the day as support. That in itself was no mean feat as Mr Smith had to overcome his own fears of parachuting as nine years ago he had a paragliding accident in which he crashed breaking both his spine and a femur.

"I never thought I’d be under a parachute again," he said.

Mr Walker said the flight was "pretty intense," but living locally and being able to get the view from a "hell of a vantage point," made it "pretty cool".

At the end he said he was really pleased that he had shared the day with Mr Boulay on his adventure.

— APL