Skydiving
Well, I've got to be honest here. I first ran this post on Christmas day, a month after Tyler and I went skydiving. One of my three favorite sons, Jacob , accompanied us, but was grounded as mom said no way to three of us on the same jump. (Does that mean T and I are expendable?) It took me until now, February 19, 2006 to write about our experience. So, here we go. How on earth do you describe something that very few people can relate to? I'm not boasting, I'm stating a fact. Although many people have gone skydiving, it turns out that number is miniscule in relation to the general populace. Hence, it is safe to say that only a handful have actually plummeted out of the sky at breakneck speed. I was under the assumption that maybe they'd just pull our chute as we hopped out of the plane. Nope. So I'll start at the beginning.
After a weigh in and signing eight pages of releases that more or less say, in differing languauge, "you can die, you might die, you will possibly die, you may expire, you are preparing to terminate...", well you get the drift.
Then on to a quick lesson in basics from your T1 instructor (Tamdem, first time, doesn't know nothing
designation) and a run through of what to expect as well as the big question. My guy was considerably smaller than me and he asked, " now, you're not going to try to wrestle with me, are you? I mean, if you are going to go wacko up there, clue me in now." I calmly replied, "no...I don't think so." I got the feeeling that others had previously freaked out on him at 2.5 miles elevation and left a few mental scars. Time to suit up. Man, almost felt like football and the adrenaline started pumping. Complete jump suit, harness and my good ole tennies. Guess shoes don't really matter as my instructor wore sandals. It was comforting to hear that he had jumped so many times that he was the only one allowed not to wear shoes. (8100 minutes in the sky falling to earth as I recall). So, we sit around and one at a time everyone is prepared, then the loudspeaker calls for all to report to the loading area. As I heard the engines of the plane that we were walking toward, I thought wooow, this is it. We all load in a certain order, with Tyler and his instructor behind me and my instructor in front of them, then me and a whole group of folks piled up to the rear door. Everyone is talking quietly as we sit single file on two parallel benches, all facing the rear of the plane, packed like sardines laying against each other. Suddenly, as the door closes down, everything is blurred out and we begin to move. The engines are roaring as we head for the end of the runway. Throttle down, a quick u-turn and throttle up to full blast down the runway. The rear falls out and the plane lurches up at a 45 degree angle, hauling a bunch of ass up into the wild blue yonder. I look sideways out the window as the ground is leaving us behind. As we continue climbing, my instructor thumps me on the shoulder with a fist. That's a signal and he's yells, " you O.K.?". I said, " Yep, just focusing on the situation and no time to talk." At a certain point, as I review my mental notes, I sense we are approaching the drop zone. "O.k. Jacob, stand up and sit on my lap. " "Exqueeze me?" "Sit down on my lap so I can strap you down." Now, not that I'm homophobic, but I'm homophobic as I sit on this guy's lap. Soon he is running through a checklist of snaps, out loud, and checking each one. One,two, three, four..up to eight and tightening each one until, after pushing me off his lap to sit between his legs, we are one. A final tug on each strap and I can feel both of us inhaling and exhaling in unison. "O.k., when I tell you to move toward the door, we've got to move. Do you understand?" Yes, I nod. I reached my hand way back over my shoulder and Tyler grabbed it reassuringly. We couldn't talk, but we could still communicate. Suddenly, we're there and the rollup door is zipped open. There warm air exits the cabin instantly and there is nothing but cold air rushing about. The green light goes on and suddenly, they are gone. The entire rear of the cabin is hooting and hollering expletives as they exit instantly as a group. Then it's "scoot, scoot, scoot!" as we move into que at the door. Feet together, head back, thumbs in my harness, I momentarily tried to grab a bar above the door and he yells, "thumbs in your harness!". I as put my thumb back, he rotates us and out we goooooo......falling so fast, like a 400 pound boulder strapped together. A veritable human rocket out of the sky, we continued to plummet for over sixty seconds...over one mile. When we finally stabilized, he thumps me on the shoulder as a signal that it's allright to remove my thumbs and fly, hands out, and relax. The more you relax, the more fun you have. He spins us to the right to look at the horizon and then spins us to the left once, twice, three times and then aims at a cloud below us. Suddenly , we enter the cloud and all is white and cold. I thought to myself, "God, am I already in heaven? It's so white..." total disorientation prevails and then... blue sky, daylite and Wham! He popped our chute as we exited the bottom of the cloud and proudly asks, "How was that Jacob?" Holy shit was all I could think. "Holy Shit! that was something else!"was al I could say. And it was. Probably the most exciting single thing I've ever done in my life. And I did it with one of my son's on our birthdays. He turned 19 and I turned fifty. I may not be the perfect dad, but I ain't bad. Not bad at all. Realizing that all was well now as I had just seen my life flash before me, I thought about how much I loved my sons and my wife as I floated though the sky. My mother had told me, "if you're going to do this, make sure you say something to God while you're that close to heaven." I did, I can assure you. And then...I was back on earth again as we skidded to a stop on our rear ends. I thought how good the warm sun felt on my face as I looked up at the clouds in complete awe, realizing how small and insignificant we really are.
Skyding 2005
After a weigh in and signing eight pages of releases that more or less say, in differing languauge, "you can die, you might die, you will possibly die, you may expire, you are preparing to terminate...", well you get the drift.
Then on to a quick lesson in basics from your T1 instructor (Tamdem, first time, doesn't know nothing
designation) and a run through of what to expect as well as the big question. My guy was considerably smaller than me and he asked, " now, you're not going to try to wrestle with me, are you? I mean, if you are going to go wacko up there, clue me in now." I calmly replied, "no...I don't think so." I got the feeeling that others had previously freaked out on him at 2.5 miles elevation and left a few mental scars. Time to suit up. Man, almost felt like football and the adrenaline started pumping. Complete jump suit, harness and my good ole tennies. Guess shoes don't really matter as my instructor wore sandals. It was comforting to hear that he had jumped so many times that he was the only one allowed not to wear shoes. (8100 minutes in the sky falling to earth as I recall). So, we sit around and one at a time everyone is prepared, then the loudspeaker calls for all to report to the loading area. As I heard the engines of the plane that we were walking toward, I thought wooow, this is it. We all load in a certain order, with Tyler and his instructor behind me and my instructor in front of them, then me and a whole group of folks piled up to the rear door. Everyone is talking quietly as we sit single file on two parallel benches, all facing the rear of the plane, packed like sardines laying against each other. Suddenly, as the door closes down, everything is blurred out and we begin to move. The engines are roaring as we head for the end of the runway. Throttle down, a quick u-turn and throttle up to full blast down the runway. The rear falls out and the plane lurches up at a 45 degree angle, hauling a bunch of ass up into the wild blue yonder. I look sideways out the window as the ground is leaving us behind. As we continue climbing, my instructor thumps me on the shoulder with a fist. That's a signal and he's yells, " you O.K.?". I said, " Yep, just focusing on the situation and no time to talk." At a certain point, as I review my mental notes, I sense we are approaching the drop zone. "O.k. Jacob, stand up and sit on my lap. " "Exqueeze me?" "Sit down on my lap so I can strap you down." Now, not that I'm homophobic, but I'm homophobic as I sit on this guy's lap. Soon he is running through a checklist of snaps, out loud, and checking each one. One,two, three, four..up to eight and tightening each one until, after pushing me off his lap to sit between his legs, we are one. A final tug on each strap and I can feel both of us inhaling and exhaling in unison. "O.k., when I tell you to move toward the door, we've got to move. Do you understand?" Yes, I nod. I reached my hand way back over my shoulder and Tyler grabbed it reassuringly. We couldn't talk, but we could still communicate. Suddenly, we're there and the rollup door is zipped open. There warm air exits the cabin instantly and there is nothing but cold air rushing about. The green light goes on and suddenly, they are gone. The entire rear of the cabin is hooting and hollering expletives as they exit instantly as a group. Then it's "scoot, scoot, scoot!" as we move into que at the door. Feet together, head back, thumbs in my harness, I momentarily tried to grab a bar above the door and he yells, "thumbs in your harness!". I as put my thumb back, he rotates us and out we goooooo......falling so fast, like a 400 pound boulder strapped together. A veritable human rocket out of the sky, we continued to plummet for over sixty seconds...over one mile. When we finally stabilized, he thumps me on the shoulder as a signal that it's allright to remove my thumbs and fly, hands out, and relax. The more you relax, the more fun you have. He spins us to the right to look at the horizon and then spins us to the left once, twice, three times and then aims at a cloud below us. Suddenly , we enter the cloud and all is white and cold. I thought to myself, "God, am I already in heaven? It's so white..." total disorientation prevails and then... blue sky, daylite and Wham! He popped our chute as we exited the bottom of the cloud and proudly asks, "How was that Jacob?" Holy shit was all I could think. "Holy Shit! that was something else!"was al I could say. And it was. Probably the most exciting single thing I've ever done in my life. And I did it with one of my son's on our birthdays. He turned 19 and I turned fifty. I may not be the perfect dad, but I ain't bad. Not bad at all. Realizing that all was well now as I had just seen my life flash before me, I thought about how much I loved my sons and my wife as I floated though the sky. My mother had told me, "if you're going to do this, make sure you say something to God while you're that close to heaven." I did, I can assure you. And then...I was back on earth again as we skidded to a stop on our rear ends. I thought how good the warm sun felt on my face as I looked up at the clouds in complete awe, realizing how small and insignificant we really are.
Skyding 2005
posted by Boxman at 10:47 PM
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