Free Falling

Who knew . . . it would take me so long to fill you in on the details of my skydive adventure?

A couple months back I mentioned to Leslie that I wanted to skydive and she being a very adventurous friend agreed to go with me.  We talked about it for months and got our friend Megan and Tracy excited.  In the midst of all this talk our friend Keila decided it was time to end the discussion and make it happen.  She selected Skydive The Ranch based on a friends recommendation and I now see why it came highly recommended, I was very impressed.

The 5 of us drove 1.5 hour north of the city to a small forested town  where we came upon an air field and a large warehouse building.  There were tons of cars and PEOPLE parachuting down from the sky.  I was really excited and not at all nervous.  I was ready and a bit in disbelief that we were really going to jump out of a plane.  After signing our lives away we met our tandem instructors and suited up.  Our suits were basically bright yellow jump suits with grass stains on the seats (that is how  you land - hopefully ;) ).  We then put on harnesses and were given flight helmets and goggles.  I chatted with my instructor Danny about life, relationships, work, concerts, etc. just as if life was normal and it was no big deal that we were about to jump out of a plan strapped to one another.  Really I was not scared or nervous.  We stood around joking and talking and I watched someone pack our parachute (it was pink!).  Danny asked me if I was afraid of heights.  I told him "No, just the ground".  To which he agreed with me.  Then the call came in that our plane was finished fueling and ready for take off.  We crammed about 18 people in the plane and took off into the sky.  Honestly I was so excited that I had no room for nerves at this point.  

The flight up took about 15 minutes to reach 13,500 feet.  The view was gorgeous and the weather was perfect.  Danny and I reviewed the jump plan.  I was in charge of having fun and he was in charge of all the work.  It sounded like a good plan to me considering he had made over 3,500 jumps in various countries on multiple continents and I had made 0 jumps at this point (plus he was getting paid and I wasn't).  

All of a sudden it was time and the door on the plane opened.  A few guys bailed out together and then our group started moving toward the door.  Out went Megan and she was out of sight in no time.  Leslie was next and I was after Leslie.  As I watched Leslie get ready to jump I started to get nervous.  I really freaked out when I saw her jump/fall into nothing but thin air, literally.  Danny and I walked to the edge, smiled at my camera guy and then before I knew it I was falling, falling, falling, screaming, screaming, screaming, and a million thoughts were running through my head.

Some of which were: I can barely see the ground, ahhhhhhh, the ground is not getting any closer, ahhhhhhhh, it is cold up here, ahhhhhhh, we are going past a cloud, ahhhhhhhh, am I really still falling?, ahhhhhh, this is awesome, ahhhhhhh, i am still screaming and I can barely hear myself, ahhhhhhh, I can't believe I am doing this, I am sky diving, oh my goodness, ahhhhhhhh, this is amazing, don't forget to smile at the camera guy, ahhhhhhhh, we have been falling for a while, I want to be done falling now, oh wait I have to enjoy every second of this before it passes by, ahhhhhhhh.

And before I knew it our 50 second free fall was over.  We had fallen 150 feet per second.  Danny pulled our parachute chord and everything quieted down and we were floating 6,000 feet above the ground where we could see for miles.  Our camera guy Adam was no where in sight because he kept falling to 4,000 feet in order to land before us and catch us on film when we landed.  

We floated for about 8 minutes. The only time I thought I was going to loose my lunch was when Danny steered (on purpose) our parachute in tight 360s causing us to spin in circles.  It was like a roller coaster ride without tracks.

As the ground grew visibly closer houses and swimming pools and roads started to appear and we were floating over the same air field where we started a short 25 minutes before.  We came in for a landing seated and our parachute landed off to the side.  We were safe!

I looked around and Tracy, Leslie, Keila, Megan and I all had HUGE smiles on our faces.  We sauntered back to the building as our instructors gathered up the parachutes (I wasn't kidding when I said Danny was in charge of all the work).  We each received certificates congratulating us on our first sky dive and our videos and pictures from that day.

As we headed back to the city that afternoon I kept turning to Megan in the car at random times and in somewhat disbelief would say "Guess what . . . we jumped out of an airplane today".  To which she would say nothing and grin from ear to ear.

It was awesome and I could easily be talked into going again.