Skydiving - Trip Report

[Warik]

I decided to go skydiving today.

I had been thinking about it on and off for quite a while. I suppose I didn't have the time or desire before, but now that I'm bored out of my mind and had money lying around, I decided to do it. I remembered a former coworker mentioning this place called "Skydive Miami," so I Googled it and got the info.

I made my appointment yesterday for this morning at 10 AM. There were 3 choices for the jump. Tandem Basic, Tandem Deluxe, and Tandem Extreme. "Tandem" basically means that there is a professional, certified skydive instructor who probably spends more time in the air than on the ground strapped to you for the entire jump. Yes, it looks like he is SIIYP, but he's not.

The difference in levels is jump height. Of course, I chose the Tandem Extreme which is a jump from 13,500 feet (about 4,115 meters for you metric people). It involves a ~60 second freefall followed by 5-7 minute parachute ride to the ground. I also bought the "Ultimate DVD" package which is a ~10 minute edited video of my jump with music and stuff like that. Finally, I got the still photo package where they take pics of my jump (and then I have to go pay to get them developed because they didn't use a digicam... *groan*).

So anyway, it's morning and off I go to the airport. I get there and they first make me watch a video of the dude whose company invented the tandem harness device talking. He's a funny looking guy with a really long beard. We're talking Castaway x 10 beard length here. He goes on for about 10 minutes about how this is dangerous blah blah blah and lots of bad stuff could happen. Then he talks about how much fun it's going to be. Hmmm... decisions decisions.

They give me a long legal document to sign and initial all over the place, which I do. I leave all my stuff in my car, give them my car keys to watch over, and then take me to get suited up.

I put on this cool looking blue jumpsuit which is a bitch to zip up. Finally get it done and then I'm getting the harness put on. It's tightened up in every conceivable place so tight that it's probably going to be impossible to remove later.

He then gives me a bunch of instructions that he says so quickly that I don't remember any of them, but figure it will be OK since they will surely tell me later when I'm in the plane.

I sit around and wait for the plane to come back and for the instructor to show up. They do. He introduces himself, checks my gear to make sure everything's on right, and then we head to the plane.

I sit and a couple of others climb in. When the hatch is closed we've got the pilot, the instructor, the chick who will be taking the pictures, some other chick who will be jumping by herself, and this cool French dude who has jumped like 60+ times around the world and will be making his first US jump in Florida. How nice.

Anyway... we begin the ascent. This is actually pretty funny, since not only had I never skydived before, I have also never flown in a plane before. Well, I did when I was like 4 years old... but it is not part of my recollectable memory and thus it is as though I had never done it before. Cool.

The photography chick turns on the camcorder and asks me if I'm ready. I look at my altimeter and see we're at 6,000 feet (1820m). "NO... WE'RE NOT HIGH ENOUGH YET!!!" They laugh and we continue climbing.

At 10,000 feet (3050m), they have me put my helmet on and the instructor attaches his gear to me, double-checking everything like 3 times. I am now confident all will be well, for if I go *splat*, then he's coming with me. We've reached the jump altitude and it's show time.

The French guy leaps out first, followed by the other chick. The instructor and I move into position and the photography chick jumps out before us. A few seconds later and out we go. It quickly becomes impossible for me to refrain from excitedly screaming "WOOOO HOOOOO!!!!!" as we roll until the little tiny white chute (which I still don't know what it's called) comes out and stabilizes us. I'm now looking down at the world beneath me and the photography chick is snapping pictures.

It doesn't feel like you're falling at all. It feels that you're just laying flat and there's a huge fan under you blowing up. Since I am in a state of free fall, I don't even feel the presence of the instructor above me, until of course he starts doing spins and stuff and we start going around in circles. Super cool [censored]. Even cooler when I look straight ahead and notice the clouds moving upward behind the photography chick. Only then do I truly see that I am falling at close to 160 mph (255 km/hr).

The photography chick and the instructor are magically able to adjust their speeds to get the photography chick above us and below us to get better angles for shots. I feel safe knowing that if anything goes wrong, either one of them will be able to magically adjust our speed to 0mph (no metric help on this one) and bring us safely to the ground.

Before I know it, the instructor taps me on the shoulder, indicating that it's time to check the altimeter. We've reached 5,000 feet (1525m) - time to deploy the parachute. I always remember seeing on TV that when you deploy a parachute, it looks like you violently shoot up into the air, shattering every bone in your spine.

This couldn't be further from the truth.

The instructor pulls the cord and I start gradually feeling the effects of gravity again. Our descent gradually slows until we reach a smooth, safe falling speed. Didn't feel violent or jerky at all. He hands me the steering cords (don't know what the formal term for these are either) and has me hang on while he loosens the harness to make the descent (and landing) more comfortable for us. Afterward, I'm still holding the handles and he's holding the cords above. He tells me to pull the left one slightly, and we turn slightly to the left. He tells me to pull the right one hard, and we turn sharply to the right. I'm not sure if he was letting me play around or if I was doing actual steering, but he soon has me let go and relax while he mans the controls.

I look down and see the other jumpers chutes open and they're doing OK. I also see the landing area below. I'm amazed at how we're able to jump from such a height, see so much land, and land on a relatively tiny spot adjacent to the airport.

We then land and slide along the field (done this way because it's harder for 2 people to land on foot I suppose). He unhooks me and I get up. I'm most pleased with my experience and the photography chick finishes up the roll of film to make sure I remember it.

And, of course, since this thread is worthless without pics, here they are:

[KilgoreTrout]

Nice report. I'm terrified of heights but still love [censored] like this. Well done.

[DarkForceRising]

Now that's a trip report. Very cool post.

[ScottieK]

Nice nice nice.

ScottieK

[Kneel B4 Zod]

awesome report. I'm pretty sure if I did this I would have a heart attack and die on the way down.

[Shajen]

dude that is awesome.

those pics are screaming photoshop though.

[img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[bennyk]

This is almost exactly consistent with my experience. My heart is going faster just reading about it. Don't be surprised if you sort of "crash" later in the day from being so keyed up from the jump.

[4_2_it]

Excellent trip report!

[sushijerk]

Awesome. Really makes me want to try it.

[Warik]

I am not afraid of heights or anything but of course we can't compare standing on a roof to being 13,500 feet in the air... so I didn't know how it was going to be when I was up there. Surprisingly I was extremely calm during the entire ride up and didn't get nervous at all. When approaching the open hatch, the ol' heart did start pumping a bit faster but it was more out of the body's natural reaction to the brain telling it what is going on rather than pure fear. I felt very calm after seeing the French dude and the two chicks jump out and very comfortable knowing that the instructor has done this EASILY at least 1,000 times.

For someone who thinks he/she would get scared, the scariest part would most likely be the initial jump from the plane or the seconds leading up to it. It just goes so contrary to the body's natural survival instict telling you "yeah, you have a parachute BUT IT'S SAFER TO JUST LAND IN THE PLANE!!!" Once you're out the hatch all you can think about is how awesome it is.

Oh... one more thing... IT'S NICE AND COLD UP THERE! It was about 70 degrees on the ground when we went up. When they opened the hatch I could feel the cool air coming in, and when we jumped out and the air was hitting my face it must have felt like it was 50 degrees tops.

I would recommend it to anybody who isn't prone to panicking on roller coasters. Definitely do a tandem jump for your first jump and do it at a place that looks like it is run well and has been in business for a while. I felt very comfortable on the ground with these people too. They really knew what they were doing... or at least did a good job fooling me into believing it! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]