Yes, I did. I did it. I jumped out of an airplane and it was amazing.
I did a tandem sky dive with GoJump Oceanside. What an experience.
I started out yesterday June 2, but the weather just wasn’t cooperating. Clouds were too low, so I had to reschedule or wait around and hope it would clear. I rescheduled. As it was, it never did clear and we would have waited around for nothing.
So here it is Monday June 3rd and it’s looking grim again. I was scheduled for 1:00 pm and at around 2:30 in the afternoon, there was a break. Little by little, the sky opened up. My original jumping buddy hadn’t shown yet. So while everyone was getting into their harnesses, Rob, this guy from the UK, who Hubby and I met the previous day, said he’d help set me up in the meantime.
Getting into my harness was easy and not unlike my rock climbing harness with the exception of the shoulder portion, which he cinches up for me. All the while, he’s telling me what would be expected of me, which was much more than I thought it would be.
Once airborne and it’s time to jump, I was needing to put my legs over the side, tuck them under the body of the plane, lean in to my partner, hold onto my straps and go. I had to ask him a couple of times, to make sure I was getting what he was saying through his British brogue. So, I think I repeated it a couple of times back to be sure. I was only nervous I might forget one of the four simple things he’d told me. lol Surprisingly, I was more excited than scared or nervous. Perhaps, it was because I’d always had flying dreams as a kid. It somehow seemed like a natural thing to do.
Then we did our walk to the plane and of course, I had to do the “cheesecake pose”.
Betty Boop, I’m not.
As it turns out Rob got to be my jumping buddy after all. It was nice to have gotten someone we had already built a rapport with earlier on.
Rob and the rest of the crew were amazing. Friendly and helpful. They recommend, no, they insist we take our jewelry off and/or any loose items off our person, but of course, they can’t force you. I debated on taking my wedding ring off. I sort of felt like it was on pretty tight.
So here we are on the plane, getting ready. The girl across the aisle from me and I were laughing and making faces but as soon as the door opened, the wind coming in made them for us.
We climbed for about 15 mintues.
At 13,000 feet, we’re off! Cowabunga!
It was exhilarating. I still can’t believe I did it.
And of course the face distortion shot. And, the chute deployment.
At first, it was just so surreal.
I was trying to remember if there was something I was forgetting. My ears suddenly popped and ouch that hurt, so Rob told me to pinch my nose and blow. That helped.
Then, suddenly my tummy started to flip flop. I got motion sick – squeamish.
That, fortunately didn’t occur until the chute opened and we were nearing the landing point. By the way, the chute opening did not jerk, like I imagined it would. It was quite smooth. What got me is the swirling around as we maneuvered into the drop zone. It’s all about timing for so many jumpers to land near one another, so we spun around a few times to get situated but, it was like a roller coaster with way too many loop de loops. I was thankful I’d had a light lunch.
And, here we are. Safe and sound.
Hubby did not do this with me. He actually didn’t want to but he did want to be there. Unfortunately, he had to work. As soon as he got off, he came running down but still missed it by about 10 minutes. Fortunately, for me it was a good thing, because shortly after we’d landed, I noticed my wedding ring missing off my finger and I thought crap he will absolutely kill me.
We looked around on the ground as though we actually thought we’d find it. I wanted to die. I had no clue. Then, I remembered handing over a baggy to the girl behind the counter. Did I?
Yes, I did.
P.S. Oh my, was my hair a tangle when I went to brush it later that night. I thought I’d pull every strand out getting the gnarls out. Thank heaven my hair isn’t that long.
A few hours later I’d return and hand it all back to him, not being able to spend it. I would get literally nauseous buying anything. So for the first few times, he’d go with me to shop. It still made me nauseous because in those days (the 70’s) $100 for one skirt was outrageous. Unfortunately, in time, I did get used to it.
There is also no buying of electronics. This comes from past experience and not worth the risk. Every once in awhile, I’ll break that rule. Like when a retired couple planned on moving into a motor home to travel the country. From them we bought a good many things, including approximately 2,000 vintage books and magazines for about $400 give or take. They had owned a book store at one time and had a garage and house full of cool books and mags plus several bookshelves which were included in the purchase. We still have a garage full of books and we’ve already more than doubled our money back on what we spent without even making a dent in the inventory.
joliesattic 