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I finally did it! This past weekend I went skydiving for the first time ever, and it was one of the coolest things I've ever done.
I've always wanted to skydive, but I've just never gotten around to actually forking over the cash and doing it. However one of my friends up here in Huntsville skydives a lot, and sent out an email last week saying she found a great deal on tandem jumps (only $120, compared to the normal $180) and that we could go this past weekend, and invited all the other interns to come as well. So I of course went for it, and we ended up getting 10 first time jumpers to try it out. A few of them were sorta nervous, but I was excited the entire time. We also decided to camp out then that night at the drop zone, since skydivers are (as you would expect) pretty crazy people and the after parties are pretty cool.
Anyways, after an early start on Saturday we drive about 3 and a half hours to get to the drop zone, which consists of a main large building where you can repack chutes inside and where you register and wait around and things. Then there's a few houses for the workers, and a hanger and runway for the plane. We got there about 1, and began the massive amounts of legal paperwork to basically say that they aren't responsible for anything no matter what. And then the repeated warnings about death and dismemberment. You also watch a video that reiterates what you're signing, which the guy speaking on it has a ZZ Top type beard that's incredibly long. But you just keeping initialing and signing and eventually it's all over with, and you pretty much legally signed away all your rights. Then the waiting began. We thought that since we had an appointment and it was a large facility (as skydiving places go) that we would be done in a few hours. However it was REALLY busy so I personally didn't get to go till almost 7:30. In the meantime we just all hung outside and watched the other jumpers come down. Some of them are pretty fancy with the landings, so that when theyr'e coming in, it really looks like they're out of control and will slam into the ground, but at the last second they flair their chutes and end up just skimming a foot above the ground until they make a soft landing so that they pretty much just "walk" to a landing. The tandems however for the most part slide to a stop.
For those of you not familiar with tandem skydiving, or skydiving in general, we fly in a tiny little plane to 14,000 feet and then, well, jump out. I myself don't really do anything, I'm literally just along for the ride. Finally they put my name up on the board for the next flight, so I met my tandem master (which by the way, has over 8,200 jumps) and he put me in a the harness (which goes under you legs and under your arms, and tightened it most of the way. He then has 4 metal hooks on the front of his harness, and I had 4 on the back of mine, and thus you end up flying in front of him on the way down. The parachute is attached to him, and he's the one who decides when it's time to pull and controls it all the way down to the landing. So my "instruction" consisted entirely of about 30 seconds: Bend your knees on the way to the door, arch your back backwards when you jump out, and then left up your feet right before you land so you slide to a stop on the ground. And that was it. After a little bit more waiting the plane was ready and we began boarding. Tandems are put on first since they'll be the last one's out, since you jump according to how high you pull the chute. Tandems pull at about 6,000 feet while everyone else pulls around 3,000 feet. The plane itself is very simple, consisting of two long benches that go down the length of the plane so that there are two rows of people crammed in. All told it holds about 30 people each load. And I was still really excited about the whole thing, especially since everyone who had jumped already had said how awesome it was. Then the plane starts moving and the takeoff is like any other airplane. And then you climb and climb and climb. During the way up my tandem master finished tightning the straps so that there was no way I was going anywhere. I also paid for a film of it (figured I might as well do it once, since it wasn't cheap to do that either) and so he was asking me how I was feeling. They strap a videocamera and a regular camera to their helmet, and take pictures by biting down on a sensor they put in their mouth. Finally we reach altitude and they opend the back door and immediately a cold blast of wind starts ripping through. Once you start jumping the line moves really fast, and before I knew it I was at the door. However they had to wait a few seconds for the clouds to clear, so I was out there, staring out of a door 2 and a half miles above the ground, and knowing that in a few seconds I would be floating through it at 120 MPH. It was a cool feeling :)
You don't actually feel a falling sensation when you leave the plane, since you're already going 100 MPH, so you're really only accelerating 20 MPH, so you only feel it a little bit for the first split second. I also tilted my head to see the plane flying away as I fell from it, which was really cool. And from then on it's just the amazing sensation of floating. It's REALLY loud since the wind is rushing past you, and it's a little chilly, but it was absolutly amazing. The camera guy was playing around and flying upside down, and since I had told my tandem master I wanted a "crazy" ride, we did some spins and stuff too in the air (no flips or anything like that since you have a pilot chute open and trailing behind you during free fall so you don't fall too fast). Before you know it the 60 seconds of free fall are over and it's time to pull the cord. He gave me the signal, so I got to pull the ripcord (which was off to my right and bright orange). The chute opening was sorta harsh, and if you happened to be going really fast it can actually be dangerous. However it wasn't bad at all for me, and it's a pretty cool sensation to be floating idly a mile above the earth. He loosened the harness a little bit so that it wasn't so tight, and then he decided it'd be fun to start doing huge crazy turns that pulled some big G's. It was like an inverted rollercoaster, except instead of only for half a second, it's for 10's of seconds. Which I think next time I'll just go with a much slower and easier canopy ride, but it was pretty cool anyways.
Before you know it though the ground is looking awfully close (and you can read the sign painted on top of the building: "PULL!") and then he says when to pull up your legs, and ended up going into a long sliding stop. It wasn't rough at all though, and then he unhooks you for his harness and it's all over with. All in all it takes about 5 minutes to do, but it's one of the best 5 minutes of your life.
After that there were only a few more loads (that's what they call each ride up, there are about 25 on an average day) before the sun went down, and while you can skydive at night if you've done enough jumps, it's only on special occasions. There was a fun afterparty then with all the professional skydivers, and I ended up spending the night squashed in a tent with 9 other people. Needless to say not much sleep happened, but it was a lot of fun. One of the more interesting footnotes is the girl who was the most scared of us all to do it, ended up loving it the most and wanted to jump again that same day, and is going to go ahead and get her certification to jump alone. So who knows, even if you think it's crazy, try it, and you might just end up loving it! I'll definitely be doing it again, but not for a while just because it's so expenisve.
And finally, because you know you want it:
Pictures!
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