YES!! This past weekend I went SKYDIVING!!!
Now I know you just read that and are thinking, 'Skydiving isn't exercise! How come you are writing about it here?' But I am including my adventure in the sky in these sets of entries because it was an adventure, was supremely exciting, and it was kind of like running in the sky... Or maybe through the sky. Anyway, I have wanted to go skydiving for as long as I can remember. Since I knew that jumping out a plane was possible, I knew that it was something I would have to do. I was also terrified of heights and knew there was only one way to fix that, fall from something really high up, say like 13,500 ft UP. I am a firm believer in doing everything that frightens you (at least once) and trying everything that you think could be a cool experience, in your lifetime. For me skydiving had been on that list for a while, but the opportunity to do it kept passing by. Like many things, I would plan to do it with someone or on a certain date, and something would happen or come up and rescheduling would occur. In the defense of everyone who I didn't dive with, I am sure I was always flakey in my conviction to plan and follow through with the jump. But Friday September 24th, that dream became VERY real.
The weekend before, my boyfriend came back from California and surprised me with a plan to jump out of a plane the following Friday. I was more than a little excited, I was ecstatic! I started every sentence to EVERYONE I talked to that week with, "So I'm gonna be jumping out of a plane on Friday..." Surprisingly, a large number of folks seemed to think that this meant I was going to kill myself (which is unnerving). But somehow I managed to get through the week and woke up on Friday morning at 5 am, ready for awesomeness. It's about a 2 hour drive down to the skydive place, but I wasn't tired once we were in the car. As usual, my boyfriend and I passed the time chatting, laughing, and listening to music. On this trip we had CDs and didn't have to listen to early morning no-music-bored-out-of-your-mind-talk-radio (this has happened to us a lot on our other mini road trips). The time flew by and before we knew it, we were pulling up to a little airport in the middle of no-where. Seriously, there were cows in the field right next to the airport and no real nearby towns to speak of. I started to get a little nervous, but kept my stomach in its place for the moment as we walked around to the front of the hanger and waited.
Turned out that on that particular day, no one would be out and about until 11 am. We had 3 hours to go and nothing else to do, so we hung out on some picnic benches, enjoying the morning sun that was rising on the horizon. For the moment I was simply glad to be out on farmland again. Ever since I left North Carolina, I've felt a bit homesick for the south or at least the openness of land in the south. I love the rolling hills and the (wussie little) Blue Ridge Mountains. I love seeing cows and farm stands. I love the smell of grass, hay, and stomped out fires from the night before. I miss those things living in a big city and was reveling in the simplicity of Not hearing car horns, police sirens, and phones ringing. Just the quiet. While we were sitting and waiting, we got to talking with the owner of the plane, a DeHavilland Twin Otter (that’s the name of the plane, not its owner), which we'd be jumping out of later that day. He was a quiet, nice older fellow who knew a lot about planes and chatted with my boyfriend for the better part of an hour before he had to get going to warm up the plane. After he left, we decided to go grab some breakfast/snacks at a near-by (very southern) convenience store. We burned through a few hours by just hanging out and waiting around, and then we signed in and were instructed to watch the cheesiest 80's video ever on skydiving and its risks. Then we signed about 400 pages worth of documents stating that if anything happened to us on our jump, the place where we were jumping was not liable. It seemed redundant, but I completely understand why they do it. The most important piece of advice I took away from the whole deal was that skydiving isn't like riding a roller coaster; you can't just go along for the ride and not do anything. It requires active participation.
After the video and paying for our experience, we were sent to the pre-dive training class. Our group tandem instructor talked to us about skydiving, risks and rewards, how to arch our backs, leg and arm placement, how to exit the plane, etc. It was great fun, and afterwards I felt more ready than ever to get up in that plane. There was a bit more waiting, but finally we were meeting our personal tandem instructors and suiting up. My tandem instructor was awesome and quite small like me. He was very friendly and we joked about how the skydiving pants that they give the students look like MC Hammer pants. Needless to say “Hammer Time” was being sung through the hanger quite a bit that afternoon. I felt very comfortable with this guy and was feeling more and more excited (and less nervous) as we were fitted into our harnesses. It seemed like the next 15 minutes flew by and all of a sudden we were heading out to the plane. Though it was ridiculously hot outside, I felt cold as we walked toward the plane which so quiet earlier was now humming, alive with noise. This was the last point in which I could turn back. But just as I was considering jetting back to the car, my boyfriend came over and held my hand. That simple gesture quieted all of my fears and I was suddenly confident about everything that was about to occur over the next 1/2 hour. We boarded the plane first and sat in the furthest back part of the bay on a little bench. The next part happened incredible fast. Even thought it takes about 15 minutes for the plane to take off, circle about the pattern, and reach jumping altitude (13,500ft), it felt like seconds. I had a big nervous grin on my face that didn't disappear when I looked out the little window at the ground shrinking away beneath us. I was scared, there was no masking that, but my instructor kept making jokes and keeping me feeling like everything would be okay. Before it was our turn to jump, the instructor asked me if I'd like to kiss my boyfriend, before we jumped out, you know, just in case. I laughed and gave him a kiss, but inside my stomach was lurching. It was almost our turn.
A few more seconds and my boyfriend was out the door of the plane, shooting down towards the earth... and I was next. There was a brief moment right before I exited the plane where I said to myself, 'Maybe you should close your eyes.' But I didn't, I wanted to literally face my fears and dive out. So eyes open, standing in the doorway (looking 13,500ft down) I remembered what they taught us in the little training exercise and swung with my instructor out (1), in (2), and OUT(3)! Just like that we were out of the plane and flying toward the surface of the earth. You only fall for about 60 seconds, but I still had time to look around to the sides and below to see everything. I paid attention to the arch of my back and the positioning of my arms and legs. While you are well aware of the fact that you are falling, it doesn't really feel like it. We also shot through a cloud, which is something I have always wanted to experience. The descending into it, the cool mist on your cheeks and not being able to see anything, and then suddenly being heaved back into sight and watching the ground rise up toward you. It all happened so fast, but I remember thinking, "Wow, this isn't scary at all. This is AMAZING!!" I loved seeing the ground come closer and feeling like a bird. In reality there are no words to adequately describe what you feel as you shoot through the sky. But I did scream (rather loudly) the entire 60 seconds out of pure joy.
After 60 seconds passed, my instructor pulled the chord releasing the parachute above us. It's a rather strong yanking that happens, but nothing you can't handle. Once we were under canopy, my instructor asked me if I liked it. My response was, “HELL YES!!! I can’t wait to do this again!!” Then he asked if I wanted to do 360s, and of course I did. We looped around in spirals for bit edging closer to the ground. Then he asked if I’d like to steer the parachute, again of course. It was so cool knowing that I had control (even if it was just for a minute or so) of our direction and turns. I loved it. I was elated and smiling ridiculously. My instructor and I talked for a bit about the AFF (Accelerated Freefall) program and getting a skydiving license. Sorry mom, but I love adventure and I can’t help it. This is going to be the thing I save up for and my next big purchase. Finally we neared the ground and approached for our landing. The winds were perfect that day and so we passed over my boyfriend and very lightly touched down onto the ground. It was like simply stepping out of the air. Once on the ground, the adrenaline didn’t stop. I was so excited and happy I couldn’t stop smiling. My boyfriend came over to ask what I thought of it, and as I was telling him, it was probably the coolest thing I had ever done, my instructor goes, “She loved it, she screamed for the entire freefall!” I did and I probably will next time too. For the rest of the day, I had a HUGE grin on my face and was so thankful I got to have this experience.
So the moral of the story is if you are scared of something, try it (at least once). It could be the most fun thing you ever do.
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