Skydiving

February 7^th, 2004

Today would have to be the one of the most exciting days in my life. I did something today I never dreamt of doing, something which is scary and extreme. I skydived!

I had organized a trip to go to SkyDive Cottonwood with the skydiving club. Elie, the President of the Club, told me that we were leaving at 8 and everything went according to plan. There were 6 of us who left at 8. Me, Elie, Mike, Greg and two more guys. In about an hours time we reached the place. I didn’t know what to expect. I was a bit scared, but I thought it wouldn’t be too bad.

Elie and Greg were certified jumpers, the rest of us were novices. We had signed up for the Accelerated Free Fall program in which we would jump with two instructors and then solo on landing with our canopy. We had a six to seven hour training class before the jump. It was scary. They constantly reminded us that our life was on the line and we could get “killed or seriously injured”. I remember that every time they said that I had second thoughts about doing it. Finally the time came when we had to do the jump.

Unfortunately it was quite late and not everyone could do it that day. I wanted to do it then and so I opted to do a tandem jump and save the AFF program for later. I wasn’t sure how it would be up there traveling at 120mph!! I wanted to experience it first and then move towards certification and so that’s what I did!

I strapped myself onto a jumpmaster and we boarded the Cessna 206. In a few minutes we were in the air and the altimeter on my wrist started moving up, towards 11,000 ft. Cottonwood is at an elevation of 3000 ft, so we made our jump at around 14,000ft above sea level. When the door of the airplane opened, I felt a cold breeze and a huge adrenalin rush. What was I doing? I could see the ground far away…I couldn’t believe it!

Soon the jumpmaster strapped on to me started climbing out, I was freaked! I stepped out onto the side of the plane and did as told, and I tried not to look down. I thought to myself then how is this going to go? How is it going to feel? Just then, I was no longer with the plane, I was freefalling covering 1000 feet in 6 secs! I couldn’t believe it, everything was going so fast! I was shocked and pumped up! The jumpmaster signaled to me to do what we had rehearsed earlier, I remembered and did so.

He then signaled to practice feeling where the rip cord was, but my fingers got numb by then. I tried 3 times but I couldn’t feel it. I gave up, I couldn’t do it. So the jumpmaster did it. Just then, I felt a tug upwards. It was the canopy. Our speed was now about 30 to 40mph. I was gliding in the air. I looked down and moved my feet. I couldn’t feel any ground below them – I just saw the mountains way below. I couldn’t believe it. Then I got control of the canopy and moved it to the right and left. Finally we descended to our drop zone and made a smooth landing. When I touched the ground, I couldn’t believe what I had done. It was awesome. I was shaken and stirred, but still alive! It was unbelievable! Mind blowing!

Everyone asked me how it was and I found myself at a lack of adjectives to describe what I felt! They all told me they felt the same way on their first jump. Elie has about a 158 jumps under his belt! That made me feel like much less than a beginner, but it was a wonderful experience nonetheless. I am pretty sure I’m going to go for certification! I mean, after all, where else do you get to go at 120mph and not get ticketed for it?