ACAMPO —

The Lodi skydiving community is in grieving after record holding athlete Jhonathan Florez, who was well known in the sport’s world, died in a BASE jumping accident over the weekend in Switzerland.

For friend Camilo Lopez losing Florez is heartbreaking. It’s a hard pause as he said because he not only lost a friend, he also lost a mentor.

There’s focus and grief in Lopez’s eyes as he prepared to skydive on Tuesday,

“What this suit does is that instead of letting us drop on free fall it gives us the ability to fly forward,” Lopez, a Flight Instructor with the Skydive Lodi Parachute Center, said.

It’s a highly emotional flight that he’s been preparing for since Saturday when he heard his close friend and mentor Florez died in a BASE jump training in Switzerland on Friday, according to European reports.

“Well let’s say that I just lost a brother. A person that taught me a lot of the things that I know … gave me a lot of the person that I am right now,” Lopez explained.

Lopez said he met Florez years ago at the center, “Well, he was a very feisty person. He was very impulsive and he was very strong.”

Florez is also known as ‘Bird Man’ and holds four Guinness World Records for the longest jump in time and distance, “he was a magnificent individual, very talented and very strong,” he said.

Death is an unfortunate reality for Lopez. He said he lost friends Dean Potter and Graham Hunt to a BASE jumping accident in Yosemite months ago.

“It’s not a tragedy [when] we die doing what we love and dying is a part of life,” Lopez explained.

Although he’s been on an emotional roller coaster ride, Lopez said he’s grateful for the time they’ve shared while he gathers the emotional strength to fly down one last time for Florez., “But I know that in his mind and in his view of things he would be right here laughing, giving crap to everybody.”

The community is also planning a memorial the details of which are being finalized.