Louisville junior Michael Marcell, president of the Skydiving Club, heads toward the landing zone at Skydive Kentucky in Elizabethtown, after making his first solo jump Saturday. Marcell has 18 more jumps before he can be a certified skydiver. CODY DUTY/HERALD

Anyone who has ridden in an airplane has seen the ground shrink as they flew higher in the sky. But when a man opens the door at 10,000 feet and asks if you are ready to jump, it becomes an experience far beyond ordinary.

“This is something unique,” said Michael Marcell, president of the Skydiving Club. “It’s fun and exciting, and yeah, it’s scary as hell … it’s an adrenaline rush like you’d never believe.”

Marcell, a Louisville junior, started skydiving a couple months ago, and is up to his seventh jump. He said he is working toward getting his skydiving license, which requires 25 jumps.

“I’ve always been into adventure sports,” he said.

Marcell jumps at Skydive Kentucky in Elizabethtown, the only certified jump site in Kentucky. On his most recent visit, Marcell made his first solo jump without the assistance of a parachute.

“I was nervous,” he said after landing. “The only thing I was thinking about was pulling the rip cord.”

Marcell was responsible for his landing, but a professional skydiving coach guided him.

“He was trying to keep me calm the whole way up, talking jokes and stuff like that,” Marcell said.

Rusty Latta, his coach, shrugged.

“I just told him he was going to die,” he said.

Latta, who has jumped 7,057 times in 39 years, said he started skydiving after a drunken bet.

“I was scared to death of the sport,” he said. “I didn’t want to do it.”

Latta said skydiving is a very addictive sport.

“It’s better than drugs,” he said.

Greg Comton, also a professional skydiver, has been jumping for 15 years and is nearing 6,000 jumps.

Comton said skydiving is a life-changing experience.

“It’s part of my philosophy that if you aren’t out living life, you are just existing,” he said.

Marcell, who started the club earlier this semester, said he has had trouble recruiting members.

“I think it’s one of those things people romanticize about,” he said. “They know it’s going to be really fun, but in reality they’re freakin’ terrified, and they’re broke too.”

Prices range from $175 for static-line, where you jump alone while the plane pulls your parachute, to $225 for tandem, where you have a professional on your back, with a $20 discount for students. A weight limit of 240 pounds is the only restriction, said Marcell, who stressed that even people with handicaps can skydive.

Zimple Kurlawala, a graduate student from Bombay, India, is one of the few club members who have jumped.

“I’ve always wanted to do it,” she said. “But I didn’t know where to go or who to approach.”

Kurlawala said meeting Marcell and joining the club gave her the opportunity she had been looking for.

“It was awesome,” she said. “It was easily the best thing I’ve ever done.”

Marcell said skydiving is something many people put on their “bucket list.”

“Everybody says they want to do it before they die,” he said. “Why not do it while you can still enjoy it?”

Louisville junior Michael Marcell prepares his harness before making a static-line jump at Skydive Kentucky in Elizabethtown on Saturday. Marcell has jumped seven times. He has to have 25 jumps before he is a certified skydiver. CODY DUTY/HERALD