Ariel Sicsic visited 45 countries before choosing Wollongong as his home.The gregarious Israeli national told friends he hoped to learn a seventh language while he studied pyrotechnics.On Wednesday, the region's Israeli-Australian community will farewell the 33-year-old at a memorial service at 4pm in Stuart Park, Wollongong.
Skydiver's death the first in Wollongong Solo skydiver filmed own fatal plungeMr Sicsic, an experienced skydiver, was making a solo jump last Wednesday afternoon when he landed heavily at Kemps Reserve, Towradgi, suffering injuries that led to his death seven hours later.Although he lived in Wollongong for only two years, Mr Sicsic's death touched many people who had come to know him as a charismatic, genuine and generous individual.Friend Troy said Mr Sicsic left Israel and gained a skydiving diploma in New Zealand before coming to Australia."He's one of the smartest dudes I've met. All he's done is travelled. You could ask him anything and he'd know the answer," Troy said."He said Australia was the best country he'd ever been to."He'd done three years mandatory training with the Israeli army, so to come to such a beautiful country, with such good friends and freedom and peace of mind, he just loved it."Another friend, Penny, said Mr Sicsic secured a job packing parachutes with Skydive the Beach and used the income to finance his skydiving travels.Meantime, he taught Hebrew to the children of friends."He travelled with the skydiving community to different drop zones throughout Australia," Penny said. "He'd been to a lot of different drop zones and made friends at all of them."He just had a way of connecting with people that made you feel so nice. You couldn't help but love him."Penny said her friend had a tremendous sense of humour, that he often turned on himself and his Jewish background."A lot of skidivers wear cameras and him being a Jew, he made fun of his supposed frugality by mounting his camera on a Tupperware container," she said."He was very random in the things he wanted to achieve. "He wanted to learn more languages and do a course in pyrotechnics. He was the life of the party, this would have made him even more the life of the party."Troy believed his friend's death was the result of a freak accident."He was such a safety-conscious skydiver. "You get people who make big, dangerous turns but he wasn't one of them," he said.Mr Sicsic returned to Israel two months ago to visit his family. His brother Ron will visit Australia in two weeks to take his body home for the funeral.
