100-YEAR-OLD DAREDEVIL GRANNY JUMPS OUT OF A PLANE!

In the week of her 100th birthday, Georgina Harwood did a gyrocopter flight, tandem skydive, shark cage dive and rode the cable car to the top of Table Mountain.

Not many people can say they’ve done all four of these iconic South African adventures in one week, but certainly not at 100 years old. Georgina Harwood was an exceptional woman who lived by her adage, “Do it now!”  And what better time to prove that you still have an adventurous spirit than for four generations of the same family to jump out of an aeroplane to celebrate the matriarch’s hundredth birthday. And, Georgina achieved the record for being South Africa’s oldest person to complete a tandem skydive.

She didn’t do it for a once-off thrill, she did it to raise money for the South African National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI). This was her third jump with Sky Dive Cape Town, having taken up the sport at 92-years-old, followed by another jump aged 96. Mark Bellingan, Marketing Director surprised Georgina with a gyrocopter flight along the west coast, to the skydive take-off point, where her family were waiting.

“I’m not afraid,” she said as she lined up for her grand finale tandem skydive, citing her former paratrooper son as inspiration to jump out of aeroplanes.  She said she enjoyed the three or four minutes of blissful floating once the parachute opened, more than the 30-second freefall at a racy 200km per hour. “It’s a great wide beautiful world,” she mused after the jump. A glass of bubbly in hand, she beamed at reporters and tv cameras, “It was a wonderful, exhilarating experience.”

As a water-loving lady, she swam almost daily from the age of 84 to 102 years, in the cold swimming pool at her Cape Town retirement village. She admired NSRI for their commitment to rescue those in peril and they in turn respected her indomitable spirit. After her 100th birthday fundraiser, they took her along to functions as their mascot.

When Marine Dynamics heard of Georgina’s achievement, they offered to add R5,000 to the total she had raised, if she would come and do a shark cage dive with them in Gansbaai. Never one to turn down a challenge, she became the oldest person to cage dive with great white sharks. Her adventurous antics raised R23,733 for NSRI. Stories of Georgina Harwood’s record-breaking adventures at 100 years old, were reported on TV stations all over the world.

Georgina died in 2018 aged 103. Her legacy is a reminder to us all, that you are never too old to have fun and step out of your comfort zone. So, go ahead and honour her memory with a new adventure of your own!