Skydiving!
by Josh Staiger
I jumped!
Skydiving was incredible! What an experience!
I am so glad that I went through with it, and I would definitely do it again (in fact, I probably will sometime)!
Standing in that open doorway, looking out at the ground 11,000+ ft below is just completely unreal...and then falling...flipping over...catching one last glance at the plane as you tumble...and then the wind rushing up at you. There's nothing like it. Not even close.
Looking down at the ground below you, rushing up at you at 120 mph (yet looking so still) and knowing that there is nothing around to hold you up� The whole thing barely registers until you are a few seconds into your fall, and then it's just like "Damn, who would have ever thought that I would be in this situation right now?" And you're just there for a full minute...falling...and it doesn't even feel like you're falling...more like just floating there. And then the 'chute opens and things are just so peaceful and you look around and down and up at your parachute holding you up now, and again, it hits you that you're just there in the middle of the sky with nothing else around but your instructor behind you.
It's amazing. I literally cannot put it into words.
As we were coming down, I guess the wind wasn't fully cooperating so we missed the drop zone by a good mile and ended up landing in the middle of some farmer's corn field :) I bet that they really get pissed about the skydivers around there, but I'm told that to miss the drop zone is unusual. The weather was just unusually nasty the day that we went...and thank goodness that we get a little window where conditions were right and could actually jump.
Of course, not everyone that went got so lucky (or maybe they're breathing a sigh of relief, even though they really should be disappointed ;). There were seven of us in total who went...all intern IBMers. Of the seven, only three of us got to actually jump. The weather was pretty flaky all day. We were originally scheduled to jump at noon, but shortly after we arrived at The Skydiving Place, the rain started pouring down and we had to wait a good three or four hours or so to get our "window." After my group jumped, the others got all suited up to go, but unfortunately the weather turned stormy again and they didn't get another good window of weather before we had to leave at sundown. I felt bad about that. Especially for Pratik, who organized the whole thing and was so excited about going. Ah well, it was good being able to get to know everyone who went, and I hope that they will get there chance to go for real shortly.
Quynh, especially, really cracks me up. I really like her a lot :) When we were first going that morning, she claimed that she was feeling "sick," and "shouldn't jump today, but maybe some other time," and that she was just "along to watch the guys jump," but after my group jumped and I and the others came back raving about how amazing of an experience it was, and I told her that I would definitely do it again, she was signing the paperwork and suiting up in no time :) Again, too bad that she and the others didn't actually get to go :(
The absolute worst part of the experience was the anticipation, just like everything else. I'm really glad that I decided to go so spur-the-moment (at 8pm Friday night - the night before). Otherwise I would have been agonizing over this for weeks with many sleepless nights. As it turns out, I only had to endure one :)
The release forms were also really nasty. "By signing this, you acknowledge that you understand that skydiving is an extremely hazardous sport and that serious injury or death may result..." Makes you really sick to your stomach right before you are about to go...that "holy shit, what the hell am I doing?" feeling :) But in hindsight, I think that's part of the fun (even if it really wasn't at the time). When you're standing in that doorway, and during the fall, none of that comes to mind at all.
If I ever go again, and I think I probably will someday, I definitely want to look into training to jump by myself. This time it was a tandem jump, with my instructor strapped to my back, doing all of the important stuff like pulling the ripchord. That means that much less training is necessary for the novice skydiving student like me. And by the way, thank you very much to my instructor, Darren, for doing an excellent job and helping to put me at ease!
I guess that's all I have to say about that. Words just don't do the experience justice. There really is nothing like it. I highly recommend that anyone and everyone who has even the most remote interest give it a shot. I assure you, you will not regret it at all. I wouldn't doubt that it would become a regular hobby of mine if it weren't so friggin' expensive ($130/jump), but it is definitely well worth it.
I will be posting pictures, as soon as everyone can coordinate and send them around over email...
The group before jumping.