Recently, our friend, Wendy, a fearless adventurer, decided to go skydiving. She described it as “Insane and Incredible!”
She flew with a company called Adventure Skydiving, and found it wonderful. Excited for her, we went to watch, along with her two children, aged two and five years old respectively. We were a little nervous and apprehensive and excited, all at once!
At first we were surprised to see that the children were quite nonchalant about the whole thing, as if this was something Mommy did every day, but upon reflection, it made sense. They had no idea of the danger, the thrill, the exhilaration of it all – to them it was just another day, and they were just waiting for Mommy to come back. In fact, they were more interested in playing on the little slide and swings on the grounds nearby.
As an aside, near the swings is exactly where I suddenly started dancing around in my flip-flops because something was biting my feet. I chucked off my shoes and glanced inside, horrified. There were dozens of red ants crawling all over them. G came to the rescue, shaking the ants off while I quickly pranced away from the area.
We were told that the little plane that Wendy and her co-worker would wildly jump out of (into the vast unknown) would soon be visible.
We saw nothing…
“There!” he shouted, “There they are.” We scoured the sky, straining our eyes for the plane. We still saw nothing.
“Up there, to the left a little…” he pointed.
We searched and searched. Finally, we see a tiny speck very high in the sky. We could not believe they were to jump from that high.
“11,000 feet”, he said.
What?! 11,000 feet? How will they breathe???
A few minutes later he said, “They’ve jumped!”
“Where?! Where?!” We couldn’t see them!
Finally, there they were, two tiny figures high in the sky. Wow. How exciting to actually jump out of a plane and free fall into the sky, then later, which must feel like eternity, open the parachute! (photo zoomed 10 x)
Up in the plane, Wendy’s co-worker had jumped first. He had no choice – he was pushed out. Wendy laughed. Then it was her turn. The wind up there was fierce, she said, and during the free fall of about 35 seconds, she could hardly catch her breath. She panicked a little, but not for long. After she calmed down, she explained later, it was “absolutely amazing”!
(above photos courtesy of Adventure Diving)
We watched in complete awe as she fell from the sky…
It was even more dramatic when she and her tandem instructor began doing 360 degree twists mid-air. You can see it on the video! She was the one controlling the turns, pulling the cords on the parachute to maneuver one way and another, round and round in the sky!
Landing….
She was just glowing…
She said the landing was “as soft as could be!”.
“Insanely incredible!”
Here is the thrilling sky diving video of Wendy’s jump:
I’m next! Are you up for it?
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This was so much fun! And if you go I want to go again!
Wow…..but I think I will just experience that vicariously – thanks for sharing tho – you look like a pro, Wendy 😉
How interesting, my tandem experience paragliding in France was exactly the same, the way we were attached, and the way we landed. Just Wendy was up wayyyy higher, I think!
Makes you feel so ALIVE when you do something like skydiving or ziplining or white-water rafting!