Wanderings of a Tactless Mind: The Birthday Jump

Now that the excitement has sort of faded...but only a little bit...from Saturday, I feel compelled to tell you what the experience of skydiving was like =)

First off, I hadn't been nervous at all in the days leading up to my birthday. Yes, the day that Dave made the reservation, I had a few butterflies, but they quickly subsided and I got on with my day to day life. Saturday morning arrived and I was still cool as a cucumber. It was only when we were anticipating the other three people's arrival at our house did I start to get a little sweaty. This could have been due to nerves...or the fact that it hit 80 degrees at 10am that day.

Those butterflies and sweaty pits left and in their place, excitement, laughter and anticipation took up residence. We drove up to the airport, which is about 45 minutes to an hour from our house, checked in, was nervous about the weigh in, but happy that everything was ok. We literally signed our lives away that afternoon (according to the disclaimer), but seeing people go up and down all afternoon made me feel confident in our adventure.

Finally, after three hours of waiting, our group was called up. When they told me it was time to suit up, I suddenly had to pee (better to do it before I'm 20,000 ft up in the air, right?) and I felt my heart leap. Again though, weird as it sounds, my nerves went back to being calm and I became extremely excited when I made my way back to our staging area and saw everyone else suited up. I met my tandem partner/instructor and he was very nice. Everyone was in a good mood and excited to jump.

Soon enough it was time to get on the trailer that would take us to the plane. Dave's dad and sister came along to see us jump and they were able to ride out to the plane as well. I was the first one in the plane and of course, the only mishap of the day happened right there on the ground. I almost fell off the ladder that we had to climb into the plane. I righted myself quickly though and hightailed it into the back of the plane...or rather, the front, closest to the cockpit.

My tandem partner sat behind me and started strapping me in. We quickly gained altitude and before I knew it I saw one, two, three people go out of the plane. Dave and I had discussed beforehand how he was scared that if he saw me jump out of the plane, he wouldn't be able to do it, so he was the fourth to go...and then it was just me and my tandem instructor. We scooted up to the open door and waddled over so I could see what lay in front of me. Nate, my instructor, said, "lean forward"...so I did and before I knew it, we were out of the plane and in free fall. I had sort of expected a jump, but just a lean and that's all it takes =)

The free fall was amazing. I can't accurately describe what it was like, but I can tell you that breathing was interesting. I couldn't tell if I should breathe through my mouth or my nose. A combo worked just in case you were wondering =) Nate spun us around quite a few times while in free fall so I could get an amazing view of the landscape. The plane had dropped us quite close to an active thunderhead, but we were in no real danger as it was moving the opposite way, but man, it was pretty cool seeing that close up. The only other thing I can tell you about the free fall is that you don't feel like you are falling or that you are floating...it is truly indescribable.

Soon (still in free fall) I noticed that the altitude had changed and that breathing became easier. Almost instantly the parachute opened up and we started to glide. The chute opening didn't hurt at all, but I can imagine that if I were a boy the harness would have tugged uncomfortably. Nate then told me I would feel a few pops and loosened the harness a bit...I wasn't sure that was completely necessary, but I was still securly strapped to him, so I knew he wasn't going anywhere. Once that was done, I was able to take off my goggles and get an amazing view of the world around me. It was quiet and peaceful and truly amazing.

Nate asked me if I like rollercoasters, and of course I do, so we then did quite a few spins in each direction, which was truly exhilarating. Then he let me steer the chute, which was pretty fun too. Soon enough though, it was time to land. We had the best landing of the day. Neither of us touched the ground with our butts...100% on our feet in a nice, smooth landing.

Even though I was the last to jump out of the plane, I was the second to land because we did so many spins...when you spin you lose altitude fairly quickly, but I'm definitely ok with that because it was so amazing.

Once the chute was unclipped to me, and everyone was down on the ground, we all ran to one another, hugging and excited about everything.

Then it was a ride back to the hangar on the trailer so we could toast to one another with a very expensive =) bottle of champange while we waited for everyone else's videos to be completed. Dave and I decided against getting a video done...mostly because it would have been an additional $200 and because we plan on going again sometime in the future.