Free Fallin'

Yesterday, I willingly paid money to get tossed out of a plane from 14,000 feet, and I would do it again in a heartbeat.

First off, this blog will probably be way too long, and for that I apologize.

I was so nervous leading up to today. Not about skydiving, but about the weight limit.  I had been consistently weighing about 10 pounds under the weight limit, but I was just sure that something would happen, my weight would jump up, and they would not let me do it.  They said in the forms they sent me in advance, very specifically, that they were strict about the weight limit. I worried about this a lot.

I was so nervous about that I didn't have time to be nervous about skydiving, not until we got to the center. They did weigh me, but I was cleared to jump.  Then a few minutes later we were in a room with a pretty funny instructor who told us a lot, but it turns out I misunderstood most of what he said. 

He said we would fall for about 55 seconds at 110-120 miles per hour.  He said once we pulled the shoot, I should keep my eyes on our videographer.  He waits and pulls his shoot a few seconds later, and since he is still freefalling, he would drop out of sight so fast.  He said that is the only way I would be able to tell how fast I was going.   

Before we knew it we were meeting our tandem jump masters and suiting up. Mine's name was Gene, but when I told him my name was Jill, he said his name was Jack and I believed him. I said "For real?" and he said no, but I just called him Jack the whole time anyway, and it was our little joke.  He was very cute. Amie's was Sal from Morraco.  Jack was very funny; Sal was calm and quiet.  I think we were both perfectly matched.  It was Jack's 5618th jump, his 13th of the day. 

We did interviews on the ground with our videographer (I paid extra to have a videographer jump with me to get photos and video). Jack volunteered him and I to go first, and I was fine with that. Amie wanted to go after me anyway so she could watch me jump. There was a married couple who went after us.

Then we're in the plane and it is so loud.  And it's full of tandem masters and videographers and a few solo jumpers.  And they are all so cool.  Joking, having a great time. I loved those few minutes on the plane. Then  a guy doing a short jump (he was really experienced) opened the door and flew out.  That's when it got real.  We closed the door and went another 3,000 feet higher.

Then the solo jumpers went out in a group, but not before high fiving all of us newbie tandem jumpers.  Then I turned to ask Jack if I should start moving and all of a sudden he was moving me!  We scooted forward on the bench and then took two steps to the door.

Here's where I got confused.  I thought the videographer would jump out and then we would jump out right behind him.  Instead, he moved to one side of the door and we  moved to the other and we jumped out at the same time.  Except I kept waiting for the videographer guy to go first, so I didn't even realize we were jumping until suddenly we were pitching forward!

The freefall was intense. It was insanely loud. I felt like I couldn't breathe, but the instructor had specifically said that if we thought that, it was all in our minds.  So I kept thinking "I can't breathe!" and then I'd argue with myself "Yes, you can, it's all in your mind. JUST BREATHE". That is what I was thinking almost the whole free fall time (55 seconds).  The other thing I kept thinking was "Where is my videographer?" because they told us a bunch of times to always look for him and smile, but he kept whipping around us that I had trouble keeping my eye on him.  

The videographer waved at me, and I didn't realize but that was my cue that we were about to pull the parachute. I didn't even realize when it happened. Didn't feel it.  All of a sudden the videographer dropped out of sight, though, because he was still free falling and we were floating.  

The floating was the best thing ever.  It was beautiful and the sun was perfect and I could hear again.  Jack tried to point out Rock Hill to me, but I didn't recognize it.  He also pointed out the nuclear power plant on Lake Wylie.  He let me steer and we took some fun, swooping curves.

And then it was over too soon.  All of a sudden we were coming in for a landing. I guess I didn't fully understand the landing position, because my videographer (who was already on the ground to film our landing) started yelling, "Pull your legs up! Pull your legs up!"  But I got them up in time and we landed softly on our butts.  

I had time to stand up, talk to the videographer, and then watch Amie land.   

I would love to do this again.  Next time it's up on Groupon (the discounting service that I purchased my ticket for about 40% off), who wants to go with me?