HYDERABAD: Who doesn’t dream of flying — while skydiving is our shot at that, many still have their phobias standing in their way of living that dream. To address just that, two cousins in the city chanced upon the idea of indoor skydiving that will soon become a reality in a month’s time.
Called Gravity Zip, one can experience floating in the air at Gandipet, right next to CBIT College. Founders Ram Meda (Ramana Reddy) and Sushil Reddy Meda take us on a breathtaking tour of this unique experience. The extreme sport is housed inside a huge cylindrical tunnel that is 23-ft tall, made of quality glass called ‘Triple X’, that only a handful of people in the world make.
Sharing what made them start such a venture, Sushil says, “Ram and I have spent a considerable amount of our lives in the States. Our children enjoyed experiencing skydiving and we wondered why not start something here in the city. Though we have an amusement centre in Karnataka, we wanted to start something in the city that we were born and raised in.”
Talking about the kind of back-end work that went into bringing the idea to fruition, Ram shares, “We are both engineers and decided on starting something like this three years ago. Just cracking what kind of technology and equipment to use for such a project took us an entire year. We spent over 14 hours a day to realise this dream. This wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our staff and investors.”
The pandemic has definitely slowed down many projects and the duo wasn’t spared either. “There was no one-stop-shop to procure all the things we needed to put this together. Also, most of them cost a bomb. These coupled with visiting numerous countries amid the pandemic, conversing with non-English speaking folks, getting technical expertise for safety precautions, securing permissions, shipment of some equipment when the world shut down, etc., were some of the biggest challenges,” Ram tells CE.
Safety is a big concern when it comes to skydiving and Sushil assures their safety gear is top-notch and the team is well-trained and qualified to help customers have the best experience. “Our staff comprises of certified trainers from Europe who hold a 20-minute-long brief with you about the process of a 40-minute skydiving experience. Most of them are basic signs you use to communicate when inside the tunnel.”
While they hadn’t zeroed in on a price yet, the cousins say it would be somewhere Rs 2,000-Rs 3,000. They hope to expand to other cities in six months’ time.