On the surface, Dee Thomasson is like a lot of nurses. A nurse for 15 years, she is married, has two small boys and works part time in the intensive care unit at Gwinnett Medical Center in Lawrenceville.

That seems pretty typical, until you find out where she and her husband met and fell for each other. It was in the drop zone after skydiving.

Barry Williams/Special (ENLARGE)

Skydiving enthusiast Dee Thomasson has jumped more than 1,300 times.

Thomasson, RN, BSN, took up the sport in 1994 and has jumped more than 1,300 times.

"I had seen a video of a group skydiving and always wanted to try it," she said.

A friend who is a pilot told her about the now-defunct Peach State Skydiving Center.

"In the beginning, it was terrifying," she said. "I think I passed out when I first let go of the airplane, but then I opened my eyes and saw the horizon."

She jumped with two jump masters, and a guide from the ground gave instructions through a radio in her helmet. Thomasson was hooked.

"For me, skydiving is a worshipful experience," she said. "You take a great leap of faith, and then you feel like you're floating.

"You're supported by the force of the wind from the plane when you jump out, so you don't feel like you're moving fast. It doesn't take your stomach the way it does if you jump out of a hot-air balloon or a helicopter."

Thomasson has done both of those jumps, too, but prefers jumping from planes.

When jumping from 14,500 feet, skydivers experience about 70 seconds of free fall before deploying their parachutes at about 2,500 feet.

"The chute has a nice, gentle opening, not a jerk, and it slows down your rate of descent. You sit in the harness and steer the chute with your hands so that you land where you want to go," she said. "Then you pack up your chute and go again. It's fun."

For years, Thomasson worked as a nurse during the week and spent her weekends skydiving. She bought her own equipment and jumped about five times almost every weekend.

"You develop a lot of skills with practice. You learn how to go forward, side-by-side and do flips in the air. More-experienced divers would coach me," she said.

One of those experienced skydivers is her husband, Bill, who has jumped more than 4,500 times. They married in 1997, but it wasn't a midair wedding. They went the traditional route and exchanged vows on terra firma.

The Thomassons became pretty serious about skydiving.

"For a couple of years I trained on a team and competed in national events," she said.

Thomasson participated in a four-way competition, in which a four-person team jumps together and is followed by an airborne videographer.

"The idea was to create pictures in the sky by flying in certain formations. You'd do one and then quickly transition to the next. For every formation you did, you'd get a point," Thomasson said.

Working with trauma patients hasn't deterred Thomasson from jumping, even though she knows the dangers involved. Skydiving is a forgiving sport, if jumpers respect the rules and limits, she said.

"The people I jump with are conservative, safe jumpers who want to take care of themselves," she said. "I know how reliable my equipment is, and I have no intentions of being careless.

"Most of the injuries from skydiving are broken bones from a bad landing or people being reckless. You can tell who the hot-doggers are."

Now that she's busy raising 5- and 3-year-old boys, Thomasson skydives only a few times a year.

"It's just a hobby that my husband and I enjoy doing together," she said. "It lets you experience life on a whole different level."