Skydiving

Ok; so I went out skydiving on the weekend.

Strangely enough, I was more worked up on the ground than I was in the plane about the whole "getting out of the plane" situation.

Got in, flew up, stepped out... and here we go!

I don't know if it was fun or not, I feel strangely blank about the whole thing.

So I wanted to give it a second go. Signed up for the AFF jump 1 for Sunday. Instead of jumping at 3500 feet, you jump at 11,000 feet. You have to deploy your own chute, though there are two instructors jumping with you to make sure everything goes alright. And you free fall for 40ish seconds.

The plane went up, I jumped out... it was sorta strange. Good strange, but strange. After I relaxed into it, it felt good; flying through the air. Almost like being on my bike going really fast... but it was a good touch faster than that; and you didn't feel the acceleration. your just... weightless.

There were a few moments of panic; I have to be honest... which was nice to work though. And I couldn't find my pilot chute (which deploys the main chute) so the primary instructor (who was awesome) had to deploy for me.

I failed that jump, so I have to do it again if I'm to proceed with the process.

But... but but but.

I don't know if I want to do it again. It was fun. But a strange fun. Compelling fun. One of those "I enjoyed myself, but I'm not sure how or where" types of fun.

Adrenalin rush...

Well; unfortunately, I've spent years in ninja class training that whole adrenal response out of my body. Not that I don't dump a huge amount of adrenalin into my system when about to jump out of a plane; but that it doesn't really make me feel good. I just notice my reactions being a little off unless threatened.

Two things the instructor noticed. 1) my hands are a lot different than most people he deals with. Apparently i have a rather large muscle between my thumb and index finger on both hands. Its a grip muscle I think. From hours of hitting things with sticks and stuff. (which is why its developed on both hands, instead of just my right) 2) even though I was in panic mode when I fell out of the plane, that my co-ordination was a little off and my thought process wasn't right; my awareness of everything was bang on.

He said that was very strange and amazing that I could remember anything at all. I recounted things like my altimeter reading when I checked it each time, what signals everyone made, in what sequence... things like that. I replayed the entire jump for him using words; the only details I got skewed were things I couldn't see and described using feel alone.

Awareness training - 1; adrenalin blindness - 0.

Summary; the skydivers at the club were awesome. Everyone was crazy cool about everything. threw the football around before the jump and some Frisbee after the jump; there was a fire with beer (which I didn't go to cause i was tired) Saturday evening and the atmosphere was wicked friendly.

The jumps themselves, while doing an incredibly dangerous thing (ignored until I heard some of the stories of whats happened on previous jumps) were elevated to an incredibly fool proof and safe level. (well... as safe as they can be.)

The cost? my first jump (with photos) cost $200. That included like 6 hours of class time, equipment and the jump itself. My AFF level 1 which included 2 hours of training and 2 instructors jumping with me (all equipment as well) ran $250.

All in all; I'd say that it was a good adventure.

Will I do it again? if I'm in town next weekend... I just may be persuaded to jump once or twice more.

(once you finish the training, its like $65 a jump... once you have your own equipment its $35 a jump!)