The Sky's the Limit

	Members of the Gainesville Adventure Club from top left, John Youmans, 38, AJ Henry, 14, Chuck Segal, 50, Nancy Henry, 43 and Nicholas Segal, 13, pose with some of their adventure gear.

Thrilled by the thought of hang-gliding, scuba diving or jumping out of a plane? You've come to the right place.

Article excerpt reprinted from Gainesville Magazine

By DIANA TONNESSEN

Published: Monday, June 5, 2006

The first time Chuck Segal was invited to go rock climbing at a local gym, his response was "You're out of your mind!"

But when the 50-year-old business broker's friend asked if he had ever climbed trees as a kid, Segal recalls, "That was a wake-up call for me."

Now one of his favorite pastimes is rock climbing on real rock faces with fellow members of The Adventure Club of Gainesville, a privately owned and operated organization of about 100 members whose common bond is a lively spirit of adventure.

Last year, club members went rock climbing in Rock Town and Lost Wall in Georgia, Foster Falls in Tennessee and Sand Rock, Alabama.

This year, the club has scheduled outings to Obed, Tennessee and The Gunks, a huge rock-climbing area in upstate New York.

Rock climbing is by no means the only event the group plans for its members. The club also offers a wide range of other activities, from the tamest of tame - dinner and a movie - to more strenuous activities, such as skydiving and hang-gliding.

Upcoming events include a scuba diving trip to Looe Key, tubing down the Ichetucknee, scalloping, a trip to Alaska, hang-gliding, ballooning and camping at Wallaby Ranch in Davenport, and even a poker night.

Nancy Henry, 43, an office administrator at Edward Jones Associates with an appetite for adventure, joined the club two years ago because "There is something going on all the time. It used to be I'd say to my friends, 'Hey let's all go howl at the moon tonight'," she says.

But when she called her friends, most would be otherwise engaged with other plans.

"Now when I say, 'Hey let's all go do this,' they [the activities] actually take place."

Henry serves as an event planner for the club.

This month, she's organized a four-day barefoot Windjammer cruise to the Bahamas for club members who want to get their feet wet.

Segal joined the club five years ago after a divorce, "to be more active and do fun things with other people."

He enjoyed his membership so much that when the club came up for sale, he bought it from the previous owner.

Although the club is privately owned and funded largely by its $14.95 per month individual membership fees, Segal says it has never turned a profit.

Rather, it's more a labor of love underwritten by people like him with a taste for adventure.

"I've had lots of people tell me they've done things [as members of the club] that they never would have done." Segal says that when he joined, most of the club's members had never been skydiving before.

Now, as one of the few club members who have not at least tried skydiving, he's in the minority.

Henry, who attributes her adventurous spirit to her mother, has taken her mother along on many of the group activities.

"At 75, she's been on a Class IV whitewater rafting trip," says Henry, whose mother has also been hang gliding and parasailing, and has flown in a bi-plane and a glider. "She's my role model."

Henry had hoped to take her mother skydiving again soon but the plans got nixed by the family doctor.

"The doctor said, 'No, you can't jump out of a plane.' But I think I can take her hang gliding again."

Segal says he enjoys the personal growth that comes with trying new things. "That which does not kill you will make you stronger," he says.

But he's quick to point out that safety is always the club's top concern.

"We place an emphasis on safety," says Segal. "In my climbing, all my gear is in extremely good condition and I take good care of it. I enjoy doing it and I make sure I get back home in one piece."

For more information about The Adventure Club of Gainesville, visit www.adventureclub.info or call (352-215-7050).