For those of you just tuning in or those that read this you will know by now that I have wanted to go skydiving for some time. Now to the left you will see a picture of my self and Mark my jump. Instructor. Now I tandem jumped which means I was tied to him the whole time. He has been jumping since he was 16 so I figured to be in pretty good hands.
Now I figured I would be jumping from some airport or some nice facility. However after driving two hours from my home here in Pittsburgh to outside Canton, Ohio I found myself turning down a dirt road next to an airstrip made of grass. Never judge a book by it's cover I have been told so here I am.
After going through pre-flight instructions and watching counltess videos played on the TV of other jumpers I found myself taking pictures and walking out to a Cessna. (Small Airplane)
There was another gentleman who had just come home from Iraq and his wife got him a gift certificate. Like most people there who were jumping they had family and friends, this gentleman and I were by ourselves. Funny how many times they asked if anybody would be joining me. Just kept telling them I was alone, always good when you are about to jump out of an airplane. Had to leave the good ol emergency contact number just in case. Sign the waiver so I won't sue them and I am off.
We took off using this long strech of grass field. It was a bumpy take off with 5 people (including pilot) squished into this small plane. We climbed which seem to take forever and up until this point I will admit I was not nervous at all, not even scared. But of course the higher you are going and the small the ground is, you can't help but feel a bit aprehinsive. I mean you are climbing to 10,000 ft. there is a lake below you, some roads and this small target (airport) which oyu are aiming for.
After reaching 10,000 feet, time to put on goggles and hat, get straped to my instructor and after the first team left it was our turn. Door is open, plane going 100's of miles per hour and you are supposed to fall away from the plane. Well since you are no in control, the inst. is you have no choice but to exit.
So here we are now outside the plane wind in face free falling from 10,000 feet. This is the point you start to scream and wonder what the hell I just did. Because I had not tucked my legs back we started to spin a bit as we were falling, the inst. kicked my legs back and we were able to faltten out. Now I have my arms out like I am flying hurling towards the ground. cheeks flapping and ground approaching.
The chute opend and we did not shoot up like you see in movies, made sure all was ok and at 5,000 feet we started our nice glide. It is very quiet up there and I can talk to the inst. I was able to grab the handles of the chute and could turn left and right, went out over the lake and headed towards the landing spot. Feet up and a nice butt slide on the ground to land and after about 10 min. I was back on earth.
After someone telling me this was a dumb idea, I had to do it. Any time somebody tells you what you believe is wrong, makes you want to do it all the more. This was the greatest experience I have had to date. Doing soemthing out of your comfort zone is hard, but sometimes we have to prove to others and ourselves that we can do it.
this is not the last time I will do this, it was fun and very self rewarding. I even got the Dvd if anybody ever wants to see it.
So moral of the story is Follow your dreams no matter what they are, you only live once so live your life to the fullest every day. Dream big and make things happen, only you can do that.
