I WENT SKYDIVING! Ahhhhhh it was so crazy. I never thought I would, I wasn’t really planning on it at all for this trip but it just kind of happened. I went and talked to the people and they said if the weather got better they would try to squeeze me in. They were going to call and let me know. I thought that meant when they called they would give me 2 hours or something but nope! Around 1pm, she called and asked if I could come now. She said come quickly the plane was getting ready to leave. Holy cow…. I panicked and got ready super fast. Didn’t really have time to think it through or back out if I wanted to. I was more nervous about spending the money than I was about jumping out of a plane.
I got to wear a lovely blue jumpsuit. My tandem instructor’s name was Ceis. He told me that when we jump out of the plane I have to be like a banana with my head back, hands holding onto straps by chest, and feet trying to kick my butt. I talked a lot out of nervousness. Ceis was cool though. I told him lots of random things in my nervousness. I said that every time he said banana I thought of Bananas in Pajamas…he knew what I was talking about…said we were like B1 and B2 and started singing the song…this really surprised me b/c a lot of people in the US don’t know the show. We got into a bus that looked like a kombi and drove to where the plane was to take off. It was a small plane that I think dad would have really liked flying, especially over the beautiful mountains. The other instructors were giving me a hard time and joking with me. They told me that I was the last person Ceis had to jump with with his learners permit. He told me that they were joking, he had done 1000s of jumps.
During the day you could always hear planes and it looked like it was raining skydivers. They were dropping everywhere. It was quite cool. We finally boarded the plane; there were about 10 of us. It made me a little nervous that I realized they never took my consent form. They rushed me so much I forgot to give it to them. Oh well. As we went up Ceis would tell me how many ft we were at. I looked out the window a bit, not quite sure how to feel. I was nervous but more just shocked at what I was doing. It felt so unreal. At about 8000 ft Ceis strapped me to him. Finally we got up to 12000 ft. The plane ride was about 15 min. total. One guy got ready to do a solo jump, they opened the door (creepy) and I needed to move a bit so he could get out. I grabbed onto the leg of someone else so I didn’t fly out. It wouldn’t have happened but it was scary nonetheless. The guy just fell out and went soaring. Then it was our turn. It happened so fast. Ceis said to tuck my legs under the plane like he had previously explained and then we fell. It was so scary and such a weird feeling. I didn’t really like the 35 sec. free fall.
As we were freefalling, he tapped me and that signaled to let go with my arms and let them flap out…it was “lekker” he said. Then he tapped me again to signal that he was going to release the parachute. It was not as jerky as I was expecting. It actually was a lot slower than I thought. For most of the free fall my eyes were shut but I did blink them open really fast a few times. For the canopy (part with parachute..~4-5 min.) part I had my eyes open for most of it. At first I was a little uncomfortable but it got better and I started just chatting with Ceis. I told him to keep it nice and simple, no fancy business. He showed me how to turn it to the sides and asked if I wanted to try it. I wish I would have but at the moment I was trying to calm myself down. I kept saying holy cow. Holy cow. Oh wow.
The landing was fine. Not as graceful as I had planned, my legs kind of slide under me a bit, but it was good. It was just so crazy, fun, unreal and wow. Today felt like such a normal day, but really…I JUST JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE!!!!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment