Your first skydive is truly an experience you will never forget.
Yeah yeah yeah, you’ve heard all that before: your parents
told you that about prom, your buddies told you that about your
first year of college, yadda yadda yadda. And while all that is
true or whatever, it will pale in comparison! JUMPING OUT OF AN
AIRPLANE is an experience that will burn unforgettable and breathtaking
images onto your mind’s eye. Indeed, talk to any of the
tandem instructors at the dropzone, every one of them has more
than 600 jumps under their belt; ask them if they remember their
first. You will undoubtedly hear an emphatic “YESSSS!!”
They might not remember jump number 448 or jump number 397, but
they will definitely remember their first. Nobody forgets that
feeling of accomplishment, that true sense of human flight, that
intense rush of adrenaline that comes from making your first skydive.
Words do not adequately describe the emotion, the excitement,
the pleasure!
It’s like trying to describe the ocean to a blind man,
but here goes…picture the vivid emotions usually experienced
in dreams. More specifically, picture the intense pleasure of
a nocturnal emission. Now, picture the intense adrenaline of the
“I’m being chased by a rabid lama” dream. Couple
the two, and that’s almost what you feel like when you make
your first skydive. Stated differently, it’s like an orgasm
and a car crash at the same time!! Awkwardly however, you never
feel like you’re falling. You never get that “sinking”
feeling in your gut that you experience when you ride a roller
coaster or go over a hill really fast in your car. Instead, it
feels more like you’re floating. Picture yourself floating
in a pool, now replace the still water with a 120 mph breeze –
your hair is waving, your checks are flapping, you actually look
pretty funny looking, all things considered! But, you’re
10,000 feet above the surface of the earth. School doesn’t
matter nor does your job, your POS car that stopped working last
week doesn’t exist any more, and that parking ticket you
got because you were two minutes late getting back to your metered
spot, who cares!!! Is freefall scary? No! It is actually relaxing.
The climbout and exit from the airplane is the most exiting part.
In freefall, on the other hand, you are free. The ground looks
surreal and there is no sense of falling. You may be afraid of
heights, but that never registers in the sky, because the landscape
looks like a 2-dimensional picture.
After the rush of exit and “cigarette after you’re
finished” of freefall, your parachute gently opens and you
and your instructor fly it safely and softly to the ground. Now,
you get to look around, spy on the neighbors, buzz clouds tasting
their moisture.
So, that’s your first jump. Is it worth the money? Well,
that depends. Have you ever truly been free in your life? Do you
want to escape deadlines, parking violations, and the stresses
of life for a day? Or are you content to waste away playing Grand
Theft Auto, watching Virginia Tech football lose, and pissing
away your skydiving money chasing after some skirt you’ll
never get with at “Sketchy P’s”? If you want
to live, $209 is a small price to pay for the most memorable thing
you may ever do in your life. Skydive!
Blue Skies!
Your first skydive > |
