3 Comments

This year, on October 16 I jumped out of an airplane. Why? Click here.

Knowing that I was going to skydive this year, was very terrifying for me. I wouldn’t really say I’m afraid of heights, but jumping out of a perfectly good airplane at 3 miles above the ground, definitely scared me. It’s not like Shark Diving where you could wait for hours in the cage and possibly not even see a shark. There’s no grey area about skydiving. I mean, you either jump out of an airplane or your don’t.

I DID! And it was totally amazing! It’s definitely something I hope to do again over and over, but I was SO scared to do it before hand.

When I left Santa Cruz to make the 2 and a half hour drive to Lodi. It wasn’t until I actually arrived at the Parachute Center, that I found out there’s a skydiving place here in Santa Cruz! Oh well, I’m glad I had the quite time to myself in the car to just drive, think, and remember.

Anytime somebody would ask me what I was going to be doing this day, I’d always answer “this year I’m going to go skydiving, but I’m really scared and trying not to psyche myself out about it.” That pretty much shut down any conversations about it. However, after paying my fee, and sitting down to sign the “I-promise-not-to-sue-you-if-I-die-and-my-family-promises-not-to sue-you-if-I-die” waiver, it started getting a little bit more real.

After signing the waiver I had a chance to go outside and watch some of the other skydivers land. It was such a beautiful autumn day, the sun was shinning, and the sky was blue…perfect conditions for skydiving, I was told!

Finally, my number was called and I went back to meet my Tandem Skydive instructor, Logan, and to get suited up. So, the first time you go skydiving, you get to be attached to somebody else that knows what they are doing. I paired up with Logan, and I’m really glad I was because he helped me feel really at ease and calm.

We boarded a little plane and then took off into the sky. It was pretty much like any plane ride, until the door just flew open and people “fell” out! I distinctly remember thinking, “hmmm, it’s cold, maybe I should have brought a jacket”. I also recall that that was when my palms started sweating! We flew up even hire, and the people in line in front of us jumped out. Before I even had a chance to think about it, we were up and moving to the door.

Then we jumped! Or fell…or stepped off….we were just simply in the air. It only felt like we were falling for a few seconds. You know, that “falling” feeling you get on a roller coaster, where your stomach seems to drop out from underneath you? We were falling, and spinning and rolling, and then…it was just super windy! It was like I was flying!

After about a minute of free falling we pulled the parachute and just kind of glided down. Logan pointed out some of the other people that had just jumped – they looked like dead bodies just falling. They were hurling down to the ground so fast, it kind of freaked me out, and for a second I thought they didn’t have a parachute, but then I saw that they did.

The 360 degree view is so much better than looking through an airplane window, once the chute was pulled, it was very serene and almost spiritual to just be on top of the world floating down.

But before I knew it we were coming in for landing, and the ride was over. Skydiving is definitely one way to remind yourself that you are alive! My heart was still pounding for quite a while, even after we landed!

I can’t wait to go Skydiving again! I know that Zach would have LOVED to do it. He often told me about dreams that he had where he was flying, and said that if he could choose a super power, he would choose to be able to fly. Now that I know there is a skydiving place right here in Santa Cruz, I think I’ll be skydiving again very soon! Skydiving is one very sick ride! :)

Click Here To Watch The Video.