{"id":48368,"date":"2026-07-11T04:39:22","date_gmt":"2026-07-11T04:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/48368\/"},"modified":"2026-07-11T04:39:22","modified_gmt":"2026-07-11T04:39:22","slug":"donald-walker-skydives-to-celebrate-his-89th-birthday-on-the-sunshine-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/48368\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Walker skydives to celebrate his 89th birthday on the Sunshine Coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Queensland grandfather has celebrated his 89th birthday by skydiving over the Sunshine Coast with his 39-year-old grandson.<\/p>\n

Donald Walker says he is “terrified of getting old” and adventure doesn’t have an expiry date.<\/p>\n

He and his grandson jumped out of a plane 13,000 feet over Noosa and spent a minute freefalling before enjoying a roughly five minute glide down in the parachute before landing on Coolum Beach.<\/p>\n

This was Donald’s third time skydiving, after his first jump when he was 70, also a birthday celebration.<\/p>\n

\"an<\/p>\n

Donald Walker alongside his grandson before the skydive. (Supplied: Skydive Australia)<\/p>\n

He said he had wanted to take to the skies since he was a boy, after he watched C-47 planes tow gliders as they flew over his home during World War II.<\/p>\n

But “life got in the way”, and he would have to wait years before experiencing the thrill of jumping for himself.<\/p>\n

Donald said his favourite part of a dive is the moments just after the free-fall, when the main parachute opens and “everything just stops”.<\/p>\n

“It’s like as though you’re not moving, even though you’re still falling, and it just feels so peaceful,” he said.<\/p>\n

“It’s quiet, you can hear things, hear birds in the air.<\/p>\n

“It’s just beautiful.”<\/p>\n

\"An<\/p>\n

Donald Walker says he intends to skydive for as long as he can. (Supplied: Skydive Australia)<\/p>\n

Donald, who does not consider himself old, said he hoped to continue skydiving until he “gets a letter from the king”.<\/p>\n

“I intend to do it as long as I can,” he said.<\/p>\n

“At least once a year, more if I can get it.”<\/p>\n

He said some people think his hobby is “weird”, but Donald believes no one is too old for an adventure.<\/p>\n

“If you keep your body and your mind going and turning over, you always feel better.”\"old<\/p>\n

Donald was all smiles before the skydive. (Supplied: Skydive Australia)<\/p>\n

Donald isn’t alone in chasing thrills at an older age, according to SkyDive Australia Chief Commercial Officer Fiona Stillwell.<\/p>\n

She says there is an entire generation of older Australians who are taking up the hobby of jumping out of a plane.<\/p>\n

Skydive Australia data shows a total of 14,491 people over the age of 50 have chosen to dive since 2023.<\/p>\n

More than 269 of those were over the age of 75, the data points out, showing that Donald definitely is part of a strong group of thrill seeking grandparents.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Queensland grandfather has celebrated his 89th birthday by skydiving over the Sunshine Coast with his 39-year-old grandson.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":48369,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[35390,22,21,24303,35395,1504,35389,35392,35394,35391,35388,35393,1076],"class_list":["post-48368","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-35390","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-birthday","tag-donald-walker","tag-goodnews","tag-grandfather","tag-jump","tag-mount-coolum","tag-noosa","tag-skydive","tag-skydiving","tag-sunshine-coast"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48368","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48368"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48368\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48369"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48368"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48368"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48368"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}