This past Friday, I did what most people say when asked "What's on your bucket list"; I went SKYDIVING! It was probably one of the most thrilling things I've ever experienced in my life.
Five of my friends and I booked our sky diving trip through "Skydive the Beach," a skydiving company that operates out of three different cities, including Sydney. The Sydney location is actually in Wollongong, right near where I live. Their jumpers land only a few meters away from the beach. After I got out of class at 12:30 (which I was hardly paying attention to), I took the free shuttle bus to the office right near North Beach in Wollongong. They weighed me and I signed a bunch of release forms... pretty much signing my life away to a contract that said "Skydiving is dangerous; people have injured or killed themselves from partaking in this activity. Awesome; I was going to throw myself out of a plane knowing I could severely injure myself. Here's to being spontaneous and daring while abroad! After signing all the release forms, we suited up in special pants and clipped on inflatable gear (that was tightly packed in a phanny-pack thing, in case of an emergency water landing). The company we skydived with only had four landings while they've been in operation. After suiting up, a skydive instructor taught us the proper way to fall out of the plane and land. We then took a 20 minute bus ride to a small airfield. My instructor, Andy, was the last one to get in the plane, so we ended up sitting right near the clear glass door. The airplane was pretty small, so you pretty much had to sit in your instructor's lap. The ride up in the air was beautiful! I got to see the coast of Wollongong and Fairy Meadow. The ocean was so crystal blue and beaches stretched along the entire coast. As we flew higher, Andy kept showing me how far we'd risen and how far we had to go... 9,000 more feet, 5,000 more feet. When we were three miles (6,000 miles) from our destination, a red light went on and all the instructors started strapping in their divers. Up to that point, I was only loosely strapped in to my gear, but Andy pulled everything tighter and attached my gear to his. Then an orange light when on, which signaled we had one mile to go (2,000 feet). By that time I was breathing hard and getting much more nervous... that's when skydiving started to feel real. "Yes, in about three minutes, I am going to jump out of this plane." At one point early in the plane ride, I said to my instructor "You're name's Andy, right?" And he said "You don't know my name yet! I'm going to save your life." Which he literally was going to do; my life depended on him. So the final light went off and Andy pulled open the clear door. So now I'm two feet from the edge of the plane that has no wall separating me from the outside. Andy and I moved in unison to the edge of the plane. I had to hook my feet under the plane as Andy held a bar inside the plane. After about four seconds, which actually seemed like three minutes, we fell/jumped out of the plane! Andy pulled my head back to make sure we fell flat (not a ball, like in the fetal position). The whole free fall went so fast I don't even remember looking down. There was just so much wind and so little resistance. It felt like what you think falling through the air feels like. I specifically remember falling through a cloud and thinking "This is so awesome... I literally just felt a cloud." I forgot that falling through thousands of feet of air was a big pressure change, so my ears starting popping alot, which actually kind of hurt. I also remember right at the end of the free fall wanting to stop because it was a little cold and my ears were killing me! Andy pulled the parachute and we glided down the next couple thousand feet. He let me steer a little bit, so we did flips and turns in the air with the parachcute. I felt like a bit of a weakling when I couldn't pull the straps hard enough to steer. We landed safely on the grass. I felt so dizzy and I couldn't hear anything! To top it off, when Andy unstrapped and stood next to me, he pointed to my cheek and said "You got something right there." I had spit all up the side of my face... attractive. I guess that's what happens when you're screaming and your spit doesn't fall prey to gravity; it falls prey to the air you're zooming past.
Overall, great time; I would absolutely do it again. I felt so alive--I know that feels corny, but you trying jumping out of a plane that high in the air! I bought the video, so I'm going to post that soon. Be prepared for a good laugh.
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