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Freefall! Skydiving Pt. 2

  • Taupo Airport
    Taupo
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Freefall! Skydiving Pt. 2

  • stomps from Houston
  • April 29, 2006
Attempting to landMore Photos
This review is a continuation of Freefall!

Then, we were loaded onto the plane, with me hoping I would find out anything I needed to know before I actually jumped out of a plane. I was the second to last person inside the plane, so I was the last person on the two rows of benches. In front of me was the last person on the plane, who got to sit with his pro diver against the wall facing all of us. He looked petrified.

They didn't close the door, which I was sitting right next to, until the plane was in the process of leaving the ground. As we were taking off, I was thinking it was going to be an interesting trip, sitting next to an open door, but luckily that was not the case. I can leave it up to other people to decide whether it was lucky or not that the door was mostly see-through. I got great views of the Taupo area (and I think that much of the price is actually for the scenic plane ride up), but at the same time, everything was shrinking away all too quickly. My pro kept poking me and informing me, "Hey, we're only halfway up, look at that!"

Finally, it was time to jump--we had reached 12,000 feet. I had been holding on to a railing the entire time for support because of the angle of the aircraft so I wouldn't fall off the tiny bench, but when the plane leveled out and the door was wrenched open, my grip tightened, mostly because I was afraid of falling out before the guide was ready. Bill Engvall's words echoed in my head with his routine about skydiving, "I was never sure about skydiving with someone. I was always afraid that if I freaked out, I would yell, 'Oh my God, we're gonna die!' 'Nope, you are!'" The guy in front of me looked terrified as he was pushed out the door and then disappeared. My pro told me to hold onto my harness, and then literally pushed me out the door. But I wasn't falling yet. I'm guessing he was making one last check while I dangled out the door helplessly, not touching the plane at all. And then he jumped.

Wow, or as a Kiwi would say, "Sweet as, bro!" The first and only words I yelled during the free-fall were "Oh holy s---," before I realized my mouth would not have all the moisture sucked out of it if I kept it closed. The feeling wasn't that stomach-dropping feeling of a roller coaster at all. I knew we were falling, especially once I put my arms out, and could feel the air racing by the the Earth getting much closer. It was much cooler than any roller coaster though, which is I guess why it is that much more expensive.

This review is continued in Freefall! pt. 3.
From journal Crazy, Crazy Taupo