MANTEO, N.C. — The Outer Banks is not just first in flight anymore, it's also first in tandem skydiving.
Skydive OBX owners Heather McLay and Sven Jseppi broke the world record for most tandem parachute jumps in a 24-hour period on Monday.
"It was a plan I've had cooking up for a long time, and always kind of knew I could do it. I just obviously needed to have somebody to do it with, and what perfect partner to do it with," said Jseppi.
"It was a great accomplishment to be able to do that with my business partner and partner in life," said McLay.
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Starting early Monday morning, the two experienced skydivers took just under 16-hours to go up and down 108 times. The previous record was 105 but once the two hit 106 and saw how excited the crowd was, they decided to go up two more times.
"I think that was really the best part of the day. Honestly, us being able to see it from the air and watch the crowd building and listen to the music and hearing the people cheering, it was just such a great feeling," said McLay.
"Having the crowd there near the end of the day was pretty cool. It was like a little boost. We got to fly over the top of the crowd. When we fly over top of them, we could hear them cheering, and we come in for the landing. And then it's like, alright, let's keep going. And then when we did hit 106 we're like, well, you know what? They're here, they're cheering, we're pumped up, let's do a couple more," said Jseppi.
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A milestone that wasn't just exciting to break a world record, but to raise money and awareness for the Outer Banks SPCA and OBX Room in the Inn.
"The event helped raise money for the two local charities. That was awesome, because I think it brought a lot of attention to that, which was our goal," said McLay.
The two are no strangers to the skydiving, both have more than 20-years of experience. Jseppi has skydived more than 18,000 times and McLay has skydived around 700 times. For now, it's all about resting after completing this milestone — but, that doesn't mean they don't have their eyes set on breaking another record one day.
"I'm always down. I don't know if she is, but if we have to beat our own number, she might not want to do it. But if somebody beats us, hey, we'll beat you again," said Jseppi.
It was a special day that the Outer Banks community will never forget.
