The bird's eye views of the beach, mountains, and towns all the way to Sydney were amazing. It was so peaceful and calming. That is, until the Plexiglas door separating us and the outside of a moving airplane was flung open. My whole body was shaking. No turning back, it was GO time.
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Ok, so skydiving has been on my bucket list since I was old enough to know what that meant. But, I never knew when or where I would have the guts to do it. As I called the night before to confirm, Zane assured me that this was the best way to do it. Don't think. Just sign up, and go.
Me and a group of seven of my friends walked to the sky dive pickup point at 7 am. We couldn't help but giggle nervously while we walked. I decided to bring along the playlist on my Ipod that I used to listen to before soccer games to get pumped up.
We then proceeded to sign our lives away on papers warning us of injury "and mortality". Just what you want to think about. But, we signed our own forms and were "witnesses" for each other. We were handed special suits and jackets and sent off for training.
Basically, we learned how we would be connected to our tandem instructors and that the fanny pack looking thing around our waist contained a life jacket in case of a water landing. Perfect. Then we learned the proper way to throw yourself towards the ground at a height of 14,000 ft.
My instructors name was Leigh, and she was my size. I immediately thought "Great, I get the little one. Why can't I be strapped to one of the big strong guys...." But, I was relieved when I found out she has been jumping since she was 13, over 7,000 jumps. Quite a hobby.
We loaded up the bus that drove us to the airport. Up until this point, I hadn't felt nerves, I guess because it hadn't hit me that I was actually doing this. Seeing the little airplane with "Skydive" painted on the side, it all hit home. On of my friends, Kevin, started to sing the song from Armageddon as we walked toward the plane. Very funny. I took a few breaths, said a few "Oh my God"s and took my seat inside.
The flight up was a crazy mixture of emotions. The views were stunning, and looking out over the ocean was so peaceful. But, the second I looked away from the window at all the people and gear inside the plane hearing "5 minutes to jump!" my whole body started shaking and I couldn't help it. Leigh kept talking to me to keep me calm and my friend sitting next to me, Katie, kept saying "Kelsey, breathe..."
Leigh double-checked all of our equipment, and told me everything was good to go. The door of the plane flung open, this was it, the first of my friends disappeared into the sky. Four more went, I couldn't believe how fast they dropped. One of my friends let out a big "OH SHIT!" Leigh scooted us closer to the door, I looked out (not down) and concentrated on taking deep breaths. I crossed my arms, held my head back, and jumped.
It is so hard to explain what the first seconds of free fall feel like. The stomach-dropping sensation you get on a Drop Zone, I never felt it. It never really registered that I was dropping 19 stories a second, it felt like I wasn't moving, the wind resistance was so intense. We did some flips and spins. My mouth got so dry but I couldn't help from smiling. I could see all the way to Sydney! The beach, and the mountains seemed so close together.
After a minute of falling, Leigh pulled the chute (around 4,000 ft). Then, as we calmly soared across the sky, I took in the most beautiful sights I have ever seen. She then let me take the reigns and steer the chute.
As we came in for our landing on the field, I held my hands under my knees and picked my legs up. We, very smoothly, just slid into the field on our bottoms. After getting unhooked, I could hear the squeals from my friends who had landed. We ran and hugged each other, not believing that we had actually done it.
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