90-year-old Crossfield senior takes to the sky for bucket-list leap (Six photos)

CROSSFIELD, Alta —We’ve all heard about Luke Skywalker, but how about Luke Skydiver? 

A former Airdronian and current resident of the Rocky View Lodge senior living facility in Crossfield checked off a bucket list activity on July 13, taking to the skies and jumping from an airplane at the age of 90. 

After waiting more than a month for appropriate weather, Luytzen Mouthaan, who goes by Luke, took part in a tandem skydive, leaping from a plane as it soared above the Beiseker Airport with Extreme Skydiving Calgary. 

The 90-year-old was nonplussed after the feat, showing he was down-to-earth in more ways than one.

“Jumping out of the plane, it was nothing,” Mouthaan said. 

Originally, Mouthaan was scheduled to do his skydive in early June, but the recent influx of rain and windy weather conditions meant his jump was repeatedly delayed. 

According to Mouthaan and his wife, Trudy,  July 13 featured perfect weather and the wait was well worth it. 

Taking part in a tandem jump while his friends from Rocky View Lodge watched eagerly from below, Mouthaan slowly made the nearly 20-minute airplane ride and, strapped to an instructor from Extreme Skydiving Calgary, took the plunge down to the earth from over 10,000 feet up. 

“It was simple – the door opened and we jumped out,” he said, with a Dutch accent. “I have not any fear of heights.” 

Rocky View Lodge social and leisure coordinator Brenda Campbell loaded up the lodge's Fun Bus with seven residents, two volunteers, Mouthaan’s daughter, and two RCMP officers who visit the lodge every second week, to watch Mouthaan cross skydiving off his bucket list. 

Needing to be at the airport in advance of his jump, the 90-year-old drove his own car the nearly 45 kilometres to the Beiseker airport from Crossfield.

After the jump, Mouthaan and his spectators enjoyed a celebratory drink at the airport restaurant, the Flying Monkey, while they re-watched Mouthaan’s videotaped descent. 

“His face was grinning from ear to ear,” Campbell said, joking she felt like a proud parent afterward.

“I feel like when one of my kids do something really, really wonderful. Just so proud.” 

Mouthaan was no stranger to the high skies before the jump, as he spent 36 years in the Dutch air force and military. 

However, he never had the opportunity to jump from an airplane during his career, so naturally the adventurous senior had to add the adrenaline-pumping activity to his bucket list. 

“Many years ago, I had the mind to do it and now I became 90, I said ‘Now I have to it’,” Mouthaan added. 

Mouthaan said his favourite part of skydiving was the 40-second free fall, where he reached speeds of up to 200 kilometres an hour. 

According to the Extreme Skydiving Calgary website, free falling is the initial part of a skydive, immediately after a diver jumps from the plane and before the parachute opens. Nothing suspends the diver in the air and they spend nearly a minute falling with no ropes. 

After free-falling, the skydiving parachute opens and jumpers enjoy a relaxing six-minute glide back to solid ground, taking in the views of the Rocky View County plains. 

Immigrants from the Netherlands, Mouthaan and his wife moved to Canada 30 years ago and spent many of those years residing in an Airdrie apartment.  As they approached their golden years, the couple started looking for a new house in Airdrie about seven years ago, but couldn’t find what they were looking for.

“We started searching for homes and said ‘No, there’s nothing for us old people’,” Mouthaan said, with a chuckle. 

Airdrie is currently facing a shortage of affordable housing, especially for seniors, but the Rocky View Foundation's recent acquisition of Airdrie’s formerly shuttered Hampton Inn and Suites hotel site should help alleviate the pressure, upon the completion of the conversion of the suites into senior housing. 

Not finding a house in Airdrie, the Mouthaans decided to call Crossfield home, following a tour of the Rocky View Lodge.

“We came inside and the lodge looked so homey…the nice fireplace and everything and because of all that, we came to Crossfield,” Mouthaan explained. 

The couple have enjoyed the lodge and its fireplace for the past seven years, calling it a “wonderful place.” In fact, Mouthaan is so involved in the goings-on of the lodge that he teaches exercise courses there. 

“I have a couple of men and I do a bit of exercise for them,” he explained. 

Campbell said that Mouthaan is always running up and down the stairs and he rides his bike 16 kilometres nearly every day. Not only is he physically active but Mouthaan is socially active too, attending every event hosted at the lodge.

According to Campbell, Mouthaan is also a keen volunteer, always helping around the lodge. 

“He runs the men’s exercise class, he does all the videography and digital photography for all the events and then puts together videos and play them for everyone,” she said. “He plays movies on the weekends for the residents.”

Campbell also that Mouthaan is a tech-savvy senior and he is always helping her and the other staff and lodge residents when it comes to technology. 

“The fact that he’s just technically savvy is pretty impressive because he obviously didn’t have that technology when he was young,” Campbell said. “He’s just my right-hand man…I don’t know what I would do if we didn’t have Luke here.”

When he is not leading an exercise group, Mouthaan enjoys making movies about the events occurring at the lodge. The hobby film-maker added he is hoping to make a movie about his recent skydiving experience so he can show his friends and the staff at the lodge. 

Mouthaan’s movies are even shared with new and prospective Rocky View Lodge residents to help highlight the themed activities the residential suite offers, such as hosting their own mock Olympics, Rocky View Lodge University, or Survivor Month.

“I think sometimes people think that when you have to move into a senior's residences, that kind of signifies the end of it,” Campbell said. “But we don’t make it seem like this is the last part of the journey.

“These guys are amazing. They do lots of cool things, they’re active, they’re engaging, they’re creative, they’re still learning and still living life.”