MADRAS —

Stephen and Cara Rosier jump out of planes for a living. Their business, Skydive Awesome!, is headquartered at the Madras Airport, where this thrill-seeking married couple hopes to popularize the sport of skydiving in Central Oregon.

Most of their customers are first-time skydivers who, not surprisingly, are scared of falling from 2 miles above the ground. Stephen Rosier, the chief skydiving instructor, says dispelling this fear is an important part of the process.

“The great thing about our job is we get to empower people so much,” he explains, sitting on a faded couch in the Skydive Awesome! hangar.

“They come with this fear and anxiety, and they leave with confidence and a newfound respect for life. I think, initially, it’s just a fear of the unknown.”

Stephen knows skydiving. In the last 18 years, he says, the 37-year-old has completed more than 9,000 skydives at drop zones around the world. When he was working for a skydiving company in Houston, he met Cara on the day of her first-ever skydive in 2011. She became infatuated with the sport (and with Stephen) almost immediately.

“Cara got her (skydiving) license, and we did some jumping together,” Stephen says.

“We started hanging out in the sky, and it just turned into a beautiful little thing.”

The Rosiers married in 2014 and moved to Sisters in 2016 to execute Stephen’s business plan as co-owners. With Stephen in the skies, Cara runs everything on the ground, including reservations, marketing and managing student intake.

Skydive Awesome! relocated to Madras in 2017, where Cara, 35, says the company receives a tremendous amount of support.

“The county, the city and the airport manager are all very supportive,” she says. “They see the value in having a business like ours here in their city and on their airport. That’s a big deal for us. It’s what you need to be able to function as a business.”

Word of mouth is the primary way Skydive Awesome! attracts customers. In Bend, a city filled with outdoorsy and adventurous types, word is spreading quickly, according to Cara and Stephen. They say the business is growing.

Keeping up with that growth has been both challenging and rewarding, Cara says, but their focus remains the same: providing a thrilling, memorable and safe experience for customers, even if it means taking extra precautions.

“We don’t ever want to sacrifice safety for more money,” she says. “That’s one of the things we’ve seen in the industry. They might overlook something because they need to make a flight go.”

Skydiving students go through three steps during their first jump, Stephen observes. First — after trying on equipment that includes a helmet, goggles, parachute and a secure harness — the flight up is where nerves start to build. He tries to counteract that feeling with jokes and friendly conversation. Once the small plane reaches 10,000 feet, the doors open and a buffeting wind starts to blow into the cabin.

Then, hooked securely to his or another instructor’s chest, they jump out, with nothing but the awesome landscapes of Central Oregon beneath them.

The third step is one of euphoria.

“The moment you leave the plane, there’s this acceptance that happens, because there’s no turning back,” Stephen says. “The rest of the world disappears, and you’re in that moment like, ‘Wow, this is the coolest feeling I’ve ever felt in my life.’”

It gets cooler. In October 2017, Skydive Awesome! appeared on the cover of Parachutist magazine after 23 of its skydivers jumped during last August’s solar eclipse.

They were the only humans in the sky above Madras during the point of totality, securing the airspace for themselves while an estimated 100,000 onlookers watched the eclipse from the ground.

As the skydivers glided to the ground, an orange glow lit up the curved horizon and bore stark contrast to the darkness below. It was beyond the typical rush of skydiving, Stephen says, a moment he “will never forget.”

Another total solar eclipse over Madras is not expected anytime soon. But the Rosiers say they plan to remain in the area for the forseeable future, providing what they say is the only licensed commercial skydiving instruction in the state east of the Cascades.

“There’s a huge tourist base to capitalize on, and there’s a huge local market as well,” Cara explains. “We’re just slowly, responsibly introducing the sport of skydiving to Central Oregon.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0307, rclarke@bendbulletin.com