Today was a day I have been looking forward to and dreading in equal measure. I was incredibly excited but also had that sick nervous feeling in my stomach. I was booked to arrive at the Pretoria Skydiving Club at Wonderboom Airport for 2:30. I drove out with Amy, just so I’d have a) a witness and b) someone to drive the car back if anything went wrong! We arrived on time, discovered there were 2 more jumps before ours and then proceeded to sit around watching the skydiving that was going on as we waited for my turn.
I was greeted by Mike with whom I’d booked and told that my Tandem Instructor would be Fred who would come and find me nearer jump time, which he duly did. I swear to god he was well under half my age but he was wearing a union flag t-shirt which was nice. He talked me through the process, fitted my harness and introduced me to the camera man who would be jumping with us.
When our jump was announced we clambered on to the back of an old pickup, or bucky as they seem to be called here, and were driven some few hundred yards to the boarding area. There were about 8 of us getting into the aircraft and it’s an interesting squeeze as the only seat in the plane is the pilots, everyone else sitting on the floor and quite crammed in.
The climb to 11, 000ft was quite long and it was only during the start of this that I still felt nervous. As we climbed higher and the feeling of height disappeared I got calmer and by the time we got the 2 minute warning I was quite relaxed about the whole thing. Fred strapped us together and explained the procedure we would follow to exit the aircraft and suddenly it was showtime!
Fred slid the door open and we swivelled round to allow the cameraman to climb out past us to be able to film us as we exited. It was at this point that I suddenly realised that I really was about to exit a perfectly serviceable aeroplane and that I’d probably left it a little late to change my mind. A quick tap on the shoulder from Fred and we went…
There was about half a second when I considered the fact that I should probably be scared stiff right now and then I suddenly realised that I wasn’t and was in fact enjoying one of the most amazing, exhilarating and awesome experiences of my entire life. If you have never done a freefall then I don’t think I can explain it, if you have then you already know what I’m talking about. There is a feeling not of falling but of movement. You are travelling through the air at speed and the thought of the ground below, even as you watch it getting nearer, is one of amazement rather than fear. After about 40 or so seconds of this Feed pulled the cord and our plummet to earth became a flight to land. Everyone will tell you that the chute part of the trip is quiet, relaxing and you get to enjoy the ride. It is all of this, and more! Even on this ‘gentle’ part of the jump the speeds are sensations are incredible. Left hand hard down and you execute a sharp left turn even as you are whipped outwards and find yourself thrown out horizontally to the opposite side.
The landing itself was nothing like I expected either. At the last moment before touchdown we raised our legs and basically slid in gently on our heels and then our bums, and we were down. The entire experience probably lasted no more than 25 minutes from boarding the aircraft to touchdown but it was one of the best experiences of my life and one I will definitely be looking to repeat at some point! To borrow one of Amy’s favourite phrases – Awesome!
