So awesome Thursday, July 09, 2009

I'm a shit and haven't written about my totally awesome sky diving experience. Blame my super full social life, seriously WTF? I've been home a total of 3 nights in the last two weeks.

So Saturday morning up bright and early with a weird vicodin hangover (my shoulder was really pissed at me the night before). A coke and some eggs seemed to clear it up, and thus I was ready to go. GO!

We got there and did our 5 minute tutorial and then signed a whole bunch of papers saying we wouldn't sue if our shutes didn't open and died or were torn limb from limb or other nightmare scenarios. We suited up (SUIT UP!) and climbed aboard the little plane for our jump. My back was against the control panel/engine so I couldn't hear a damn thing during the 20 minute ride up to 10,000 feet.

Once we hit it, I had to do this twisting roll over so that I was facing the nose of the plane and then my tandem dude hooked up to me- really it's like the tightest spoon of your life and you don't want it any other way. He said "I bet this is the closest you've been to a married man in a plane before!" To which I replied "Well, only a married man." because he totally walked into that one.

Then he opened the door and we stepped out onto a platform the size of textbook. We'd practiced this on the ground and while the platform seems small it's totally do-able, what I wasn't even considering was the wind speed. It's awesome. It takes your breath away and you can't believe that you are actually standing outside a plane with a ton of wind batting against your body.

Then the tandem guy goes one, two, three and suddenly you are hurtling through space. It's the most intense experience of my life. It's hard to register that the ground is rushing up to meet you and the force of everything on your body is crazy. The clearest thought that I can remember having is "Holy shit, these goggles are pressing against my face so tightly! I'm glad I'm wearing them!"

Then Chris (my tandem dude), pulled the cord and it was silent. Seriously, so quiet and crisp. I could see the slight curvature of the earth, the hazy point where the earth and sky met, everything looked tiny and unreal. It didn't feel like I was hurtling towards the earth any more, the contrast between the two was so startling. Chris gave me a set of cords to pull and showed me how to use them and we did a fun series of tight spirals. We practiced our landing stuff, and when we pulled down on the cord the chute collapsed and for a second we felt weightless and a touch of the freefall rush came back. It was mind blowing.

We had an excellent landing and honestly my face hurt from smiling so hard. It hurt for hours because I continued to smile. Several hours later the inevitable adrenaline crash happened and I needed a nap.

We are already planning our next jump (next spring/summer), I really do wish it wasn't so bloody expensive because I'd be doing a whole lot more.

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Skeezix  Thursday, July 09, 2009

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