Disclaimer: The bastards wouldn't let me use my video camera on the jump. Despite this, I was not about to buy their video (taken with the same exact camera) for the added price of $125 AUD.
Safe Landing
Preparation
I must say skydiving over the beach is superior to skydiving over the plains. It was the typical start. We signed paperwork, they tried to sell me a video ($125, yeah I’ll pass), and we had a nice little pre-jump instruction sesh, as if you remember anything they say when you are dropping through the sky at terminal velocity. After all this is was time to piss off mom and dad and fly through the sky once again. The plane was packed. I was sitting smack dab in my certified jumpers crotch and had another instructor all up on me. Ah, the beauty of skydiving. The views were beautiful. The endless blue was dotted with gigantic oil tankers and the coast stretched to the horizon. As we rose above the clouds, it felt as though we entered a new world. There is something about being in a plane that you are about to jump out of that makes you notice everything in the sky. Maybe it’s just so you don’t run into anything on your way down. As we neared our desired altitude of 14,000 feet I told my instructor to make the ride as fun as possible. I didn’t want the straight freefall like my first jump experience. He did a wonderful job. The door opened and one after another the whoosh of a tandem thrusting out into the open air left a dent in my eardrums. Each face was priceless. Sheer terror laced their eyes. Their open jaws were left vacant of air as there was a loss of all ability to breathe. I inched closer and closer to the door. I don’t care if you have jumped 1,000 times, sitting in front of that open door never gets old or less terrifying. I swung my legs opposite the door, leaned my head back, and tucked my knees. That’s right, we back-flipped out that motherfucker. And not one flip, four of them. It was a blur. There was no sky or ground; there were only flashes of color. The world came back to me as we leveled out and I threw my arms to the side. We were flying and man was I screaming. My instructor then shifted his arms, taking us into a circular frenzy where g-forces were pushed. Again, life was a blur and all I could see were mashed colors. We leveled out again, celebrated a bit, and then pulled the chute. This gave a feeling like we were shot back into the sky, and is displayed by the bruises on my shoulders. The rest of the ride entailed a bit of spinning and ended with a light landing in the grass. This was much better then the high speed slide that almost put a tuft of grass up my ass on my first jump. It was a jump to remember. There is something so surreal about freefall that is a wonderful release from all the stresses of life. I don’t know if it’s the silence, adrenaline, or emotion that comes with the fall, but there is truly nothing like it. Meditation at its finest. Can’t wait to jump again and for my next Australian adventure.
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