Justin Mastermonico was just looking for someone to fall with him. But he found someone who fell for him, too.
It was 2020. The world was shut down because of the covid-19 pandemic. Sitting at home and doing nothing, Mastermonico put a post on his Facebook page saying he had always wanted to go skydiving and asking if anyone was interested in going with him.
Monica Murphy, who became a Facebook friend with him through mutual friends, saw it. They didn’t know each other, but since skydiving was on her bucket list, she responded to him.
“He ended up messaging me pretty quickly after I commented on the post,” she said. “We just continued talking that way. I asked him questions like where is it, how much, blah, blah, blah. As time went on, he was, like, I’ll pay for it if you go.”
Mastermonico was worried she’d back out. And Murphy was thinking about backing out.
“I pondered the thought of maybe I don’t want to do this. You’re jumping out of an airplane. I started to reassess my thoughts and go, do I really want to do this?” she said. “After just talking, he ended up suggesting how ’bout I take you as a first date? I ended up saying, yeah, why not, let’s see how it goes.”
After about a month, it made for a first date that Mastermonico says would be impossible to top. After their first jump, they spent the whole day together — and signed up for another.
“From that day, we almost saw each other every single day,” he said. “We never stopped. There was never a lull. It was from that day.”
Nearly six years later, Mastermonico, 42, a native of Fox Chapel, and Murphy, 39, live together in the house where she grew up in Shaler. They each have hundreds of jumps under their belts, are licensed skydivers and have a goal of skydiving in every state. And, while not technically engaged, Murphy knows Mastermonico is getting a ring.
“I don’t know when it’s happening or anything, but I’m expecting it to happen, hopefully this year,” she said.
Bonded through skydiving
Mastermonico and Murphy shared their story with the U.S. Parachute Association, which for Valentine’s Day was looking for love stories that began or grew through skydiving.
The 41,000-member Virginia-based association, founded in 1946, got hundreds of responses, said spokeswoman George Hargis, who met her partner of three years through skydiving, too.
“When you’re doing it even just for the weekend, you end up meeting like-minded people that share your values and your excitement for life,” she said. “There’s hundreds, if not thousands, of couples that are bonded through the sport.”
What’s unique about skydiving that leads to that is that while skydiving is a safe activity, Hargis said it is inherently dangerous.
“There is an aspect of looking out for each other and really trusting the people that are around you. That opens the door to really strong bonds between people,” she said. “It’s thrilling to do. You kind of get a love for life out of it. A common misconception is that you’re a daredevil or an adrenaline junkie. It’s more about experiencing this amazing thing that humans can do that shouldn’t be possible but here we are doing it anyway and it’s amazing.”
Relationship built on trust
Born in the Philippines, Murphy lived in California until her mother died when she was 11, after which her father, Pittsburgh native Bernie Murphy, decided to be closer to family and moved to Shaler. She graduated from Shaler Area in 2004 and does event planning and office coordinating.
A Fox Chapel native, Mastermonico graduated from Fox Chapel Area in 2002. He earned an associate degree and was a veterinary technician for six years but now works as a high-rise window cleaner and has a small business doing custom-fit Christmas lights.
Murphy has a 19-year-old daughter, Lena; Mastermonico has a 16-year-old daughter, Giada, and a 10-year-old son, Easton.
They already have skydived in 15 states and Puerto Rico, jumping from various planes, helicopters and hot air balloons. Toward their goal of jumping in all 50, they plan to check off Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont and Rhode Island this year.
While skydiving wouldn’t have mattered if the chemistry wasn’t there, it brought them closer together.
“It’s a pretty intense thing to do together,” Mastermonico said.
“We had to learn to trust each other,” Murphy said. “We had to build a relationship off of just trusting each other in this sport.”
When not skydiving, they look for other “adrenaline based” things to do, such as zip lines, renting ATVs and horseback riding.
“We’re always trying to do more adventurous things and try new things all the time,” Murphy said.
They also have international destinations in mind, including the Great Blue Hole in Belize and the pyramids in Egypt.
“We wanted to travel,” Mastermonico said. “We didn’t want to just jump at the same place every time.”
Added Murphy: “One of the cool aspects of the sport is the view. You’re up at 13,500 feet.”
They plan on getting to all 50 states within the next 10 years. They enjoy camping and have converted a 40-foot school bus into a recreational vehicle they can stay in at drop zones.
Once Mastermonico’s kids are grown, they plan on traveling and skydiving, which he said they can make a living doing by taking video, packing parachutes and serving as instructors.
“This is our life, basically,” Mastermonico said. “We know we are going to do this forever unless something stops us.”
A new outlook on life together
They talk about the future a lot and what they want to do, Murphy said.
“I feel like I have a future to look forward to,” she said. “I didn’t know where I really fit or what I was doing with my life for a while. What makes me happy is taking this path. I used to think that materialistic things were important, and now I’m ready to get rid of it all and just live in a camper. I’d rather live more simply.”
Skydiving has changed their lifestyles, Murphy said.
“We have no interest in going to bars and things like that. We prefer to go to bed at 8 p.m. so we’re up at 7 a.m. and ready to jump,” she said.
“We were smoking cigarettes. We quit that. We started to consider our health more,” she said. “You worry less about stuff, too. You realize that’s such an intense thing that you’re going through when you’re jumping out of an airplane. It teaches you something in your mind to not stress as much about other things.”
Besides the bond they’ve built with each other, what Mastermonico and Murphy say they enjoy the most about skydiving is the community and the people from all walks of life they’ve met through skydiving. They encourage anyone with an interest to visit a drop zone and watch — they recommend the Cleveland Skydiving Center.
“You meet doctors, hippies, accountants. We’ve jumped with every walk of life,” Mastermonico said. “Everybody cares about each other in the community. We can go anywhere. We go to a new drop zone in another state and there’s people coming up to you, hey, what’s your name, do you want to jump with us. It’s so easy to do anywhere. It’s pretty wild.”
The skydiving community is like a family, Murphy said.
“They all just appreciate life just as much as we do. It’s just turned our perspective. You look at life really differently because of it,” she said. “It’s made us happier people. This past six years has been the happiest we’ve ever been.”
“All we’re doing is building memories,” Mastermonico said.