CHOICES (Episode #4) – Martin Lemay

Martin Lemay: French-Canadian skydiver, trapeze artist and juggler shares his perspective on living a happy life.

Martin Lemay is a Canadian skydiver who grew up on a skydiving center outside of Montreal. He made his first jump with his father when he was seven-years-old and began skydiving regularly at the age of 15.

Aside from winning at least 10 Canadian national skydiving championships, what’s most remarkable about Martin’s story, to me, is that he accomplished these feats with his father and two younger brothers as teammates. Their journey culminated with an unprecedented double podium finish at the 2014 world parachuting championships in the Czech Republic.

Today Martin travels North America and the world as a canopy flight instructor for Flight-1, a company that trains skydivers to better fly and land their parachutes.

In this conversation, we get into what it’s like to grow up on a skydiving center, stories about traveling with his father when he was younger, learning to work hard towards his goals and the importance of clear communication — Martin is fluent in French and English, and also speaks Spanish. We also talk about the value of recognizing what’s in and out of your control. Martin says that skill has added huge value to his life. And then of course we talk about a lot fun things that they did as kids and that the whole family has experience with; things like trapeze, hockey, juggling, unicycles and much more.

Martin, 32, lives in Deland, Florida with partner Kaitlyn, and I’m here to tell you that he has seen more in his short time on this planet than most of us will in a lifetime.

So buckle up and enjoy a chapter from the extraordinary life of Martin Lemay.