The door slides open and we're instantly hit with a blast of icy cold air, nothing out the windows of the plane but bright sunshine and a blanket of fluffy white clouds a few thousand feet below. The pilot has given the go ahead and it's time to go. First jumpers in position. They slide to the edge, the force of the wind in fierce and biting. Three-two-one GO! They're off, vanishing out the door and out into the endless blue sky. The next jumpers get in position. Go! They disappear in a flash as well. Just one more pair and then me. We shimmy to the door behind the next group and before I know it they've gone too. This is all going so fast. We're up. Moment of truth. My tandem instructor, Steve, signals us to get in position.
"Slide to the edge. Feet tucked underneath the plane" he yells from behind.
"Ready?"
I give a thumbs up. A pause.
Then…
We're out, skyrocketing to the ground like a meteor. We do a backwards roll as we exit the plane and I get a chance to look back up at the plane, by this time already 300 feet above us banking to the right to turn around. We tumble back around and we're now in free fall position. The adrenaline rush is incredible, freefalling to earth at 200 km/h. The force of the air is pretty intense and I find my goggles sliding up my face, but I can't get to them.
The blanket of clouds still seems like a long way down, but within a few seconds we're in the cloud lair. For a couple seconds all I can see is white and before I know it we're through and we look out over a never-ending landscape of farmland. It feels more real now that I can see the ground. Just then I feel a big tug as Steve deploys the parachute, It's kind of jarring when at first, kind of like slamming on the breaks on the highway. But within three seconds we've gone from free falling to soaring above the earth like an eagle. It's an incredible feeling, being up there with nothing below your feet. Steve loosens my harness slightly so I can slide the straps under my legs to use them more like a seat.
"If you look over your right shoulder you'll see a little rope that is slightly twisted around one of the main parachute lines" Steve yells down.
"Does that happen a lot?" I yell back.
"No, not really"
Hmm.
I didn't give it to much thought though as Steve has 25 years of skydiving experience so I trusted he'd bring us in safe. After about five minutes of floating majestically through the air we were set for our landing.
"See that little patch of gravel down there? We're going to aim for that" Steve says.
With that we're start our final descent, this time faster, almost at a 45 degree angle.
"Legs up, in your landing position" he yells again.
I lift my legs straight out in front of me as Steve pulls up on the controls, levels us off for a picture perfect landing.
I could go on and on all day about how amazing my skydiving experience was. After all of us had landed we wanted to go again (they offered a second same-day jump at a substantial discount) but we decided to let the experience settle in first and possibly come back again after our trip is over.
A huge thank you to my instructor, Steve, a consummate professional and all around nice guy for a great jump as well as everyone at Skydive Express in York, WA. It was an experience I won't soon forget.
