SKYDIVING omg
Dec. 1st, 2007 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
hazelbiteI AM SO DOING THAT AGAIN. Like, SOON.
...that should give you some idea of how the whole thing went :) I had to type this up right away to remember it because it's already starting to feel like a dream...Everything happened so quickly!
There was a group of 11 of us (one girl didn't show up) that piled into the van at 7 am this morning. The hour and a half drive to Davis felt like nothing, probably due to my anxiousness at this point. I only had a piece fruit for breakfast because, nervous!
Anyway, we got to the skydive place, signed the 'if you die, it's not our fault' papers, got instructions on what we were expected to do, and were put into groups!
Three other girls in our group went first, their names were called while we were all lining up for the bathroom, so they had to run back to the hangar. That group had a girl who was the most scared out of all of us, but she did okay in the end, paying extra for a video because she wasn't going to do it again and wanted record that she actually did it.
Myself and two others were the last group of us to go up, so we got to watch everyone else land first and take pictures of them. This actually helped me because I think that if I was in the first group, I would have been REALLY nervous. But once I saw how easy the landing was and how smiley and happy everyone looked afterward, I was tired of waiting for my turn and just wanted to GET INTO THE AIR.
So, overall, the experience wasn't all that terrifying for me. It was mostly just a HUGE rush that I felt after falling out of the plane! Considering that this is something that I have been wanting to do for a while now, I knew I was going to be okay with it.
Anyway, the last three of us were finally called into the gear room and we all suited up and met our tandem guides and went over everything a couple more times. The plane we went up on was so cute! It was tiny and I wasn't sure how many people it would fit, because there were five other solo jumpers in with us, plus our three tandems.
I had payed for the 9,000 foot jump, and so had the other girl I went with, so we were the first off the plane, the guy from our group payed an extra $50 to jump from 13,000 feet.
Next time, I'm going to 13,000!
The other girl was the first to jump because everyone was telling her that it was easier to go first because then you don't have to watch everyone else go out before you. So that meant I got to see her go, which was kinda of awesome by itself. One second she was in the plane, and the next she was gone, it was insane! You just fall out the door and disappear!
At this point, I'm all "omg my turn now omg" and my tandem guide started moving us toward the door. We had to sit at the edge and put our feet out the door. There was nothing holding me in the plane once I crossed my arms except for the fact that I was attached to my guide and then I put my head back like they said to do, and just like that, I WAS NO LONGER IN THE PLANE.
I had my eyes closed for a second, I think, and I KNOW I forgot to scream for a second. They told us that it was easier to breathe if we screamed, so I was all, "oh yeah, scream!" I remember feeling a little bit of the stomach drop feeling, but it wasn't to bad because it was more of a floating than falling feeling. The free fall was only 30 seconds and we did a few twists that I don't really remember cause I was all "omgI'mnotintheplaneanymorethisissoawesome" and then he tapped the altimeter, made sure I had the parachute handle, and yelled "pull!" into my ear.
One of the options for 9,000 feet was to pull the cord if we wanted to, so I decided I might as well go for it.
I GOT TO OPEN THE PARACHUTE!!!
So awesome, we coasted for about five minutes (that's how long they say it takes) and he pointed out downtown Sacramento in the distance, and Mt. Diablo, and Lake Berryessa and part of the bay!
Then I was shown how to use the loops to change direction. We practiced the landing in the air by pulling the loops down and we hovered for a moment before going into some spiral turns that, if I had a weak stomach, probably would have made me nauseous. Two others in our group told us later that they had to stop spiraling because of that.
It is the most dizzying thing EVER. It feels like the whole world is spinning underneath you and it kinda felt like I lost my sense of direction for a moment. We spiraled left and then right and then did some left-right side to side movements, which I really liked, before coasting around and down to the landing site.
After the parachute had gone up, I was able to see the girl who went first below me and got to watch her land before I came around and landed. We did a slow slide land into the gravel and my guide pointed out two other solo jumpers coming in for a landing behind us, so I watched them land as I was unhooked.
The solo jumpers are AMAZING. Most of them did this sort of swooping type landing where it looks like they're about to crash and at the last second they pull up into a smooth landing, it's kinda scary watching them!
M and the other girl rushed over to where the rest of our class was watching and we took pictures (not sure when I'll have them up, we'll get them in about a week) and were just, in general, high on adrenaline.
We watched our last classmate (the 13,000 foot jump) land with whoops and cheering and went change out of our gear.
The only thing I really didn't like was the ear popping. It was kinda painful and I think if it hadn't been so annoying, I would have been able to enjoy it even more than I did already!
My ear hasn't popped yet...I'm still trying to get it to, lol.
If we pull the cord on the first tandem jump, we can come back later and do a second tandem jump where we pull the cord and have more control over the steering and then take the 6 hours class and then do seven more training jumps to get certified as a solo jumper and then only pay about $20 for every jump instead of $150 for tandems.
I really need to save up my money to afford the class now!
So, like I said, I AM SO GOING AGAIN :DDDDD
Man, I still have to work on my paper and I don't think I'll be able to now!
...that should give you some idea of how the whole thing went :) I had to type this up right away to remember it because it's already starting to feel like a dream...Everything happened so quickly!
There was a group of 11 of us (one girl didn't show up) that piled into the van at 7 am this morning. The hour and a half drive to Davis felt like nothing, probably due to my anxiousness at this point. I only had a piece fruit for breakfast because, nervous!
Anyway, we got to the skydive place, signed the 'if you die, it's not our fault' papers, got instructions on what we were expected to do, and were put into groups!
Three other girls in our group went first, their names were called while we were all lining up for the bathroom, so they had to run back to the hangar. That group had a girl who was the most scared out of all of us, but she did okay in the end, paying extra for a video because she wasn't going to do it again and wanted record that she actually did it.
Myself and two others were the last group of us to go up, so we got to watch everyone else land first and take pictures of them. This actually helped me because I think that if I was in the first group, I would have been REALLY nervous. But once I saw how easy the landing was and how smiley and happy everyone looked afterward, I was tired of waiting for my turn and just wanted to GET INTO THE AIR.
So, overall, the experience wasn't all that terrifying for me. It was mostly just a HUGE rush that I felt after falling out of the plane! Considering that this is something that I have been wanting to do for a while now, I knew I was going to be okay with it.
Anyway, the last three of us were finally called into the gear room and we all suited up and met our tandem guides and went over everything a couple more times. The plane we went up on was so cute! It was tiny and I wasn't sure how many people it would fit, because there were five other solo jumpers in with us, plus our three tandems.
I had payed for the 9,000 foot jump, and so had the other girl I went with, so we were the first off the plane, the guy from our group payed an extra $50 to jump from 13,000 feet.
Next time, I'm going to 13,000!
The other girl was the first to jump because everyone was telling her that it was easier to go first because then you don't have to watch everyone else go out before you. So that meant I got to see her go, which was kinda of awesome by itself. One second she was in the plane, and the next she was gone, it was insane! You just fall out the door and disappear!
At this point, I'm all "omg my turn now omg" and my tandem guide started moving us toward the door. We had to sit at the edge and put our feet out the door. There was nothing holding me in the plane once I crossed my arms except for the fact that I was attached to my guide and then I put my head back like they said to do, and just like that, I WAS NO LONGER IN THE PLANE.
I had my eyes closed for a second, I think, and I KNOW I forgot to scream for a second. They told us that it was easier to breathe if we screamed, so I was all, "oh yeah, scream!" I remember feeling a little bit of the stomach drop feeling, but it wasn't to bad because it was more of a floating than falling feeling. The free fall was only 30 seconds and we did a few twists that I don't really remember cause I was all "omgI'mnotintheplaneanymorethisissoawesome" and then he tapped the altimeter, made sure I had the parachute handle, and yelled "pull!" into my ear.
One of the options for 9,000 feet was to pull the cord if we wanted to, so I decided I might as well go for it.
I GOT TO OPEN THE PARACHUTE!!!
So awesome, we coasted for about five minutes (that's how long they say it takes) and he pointed out downtown Sacramento in the distance, and Mt. Diablo, and Lake Berryessa and part of the bay!
Then I was shown how to use the loops to change direction. We practiced the landing in the air by pulling the loops down and we hovered for a moment before going into some spiral turns that, if I had a weak stomach, probably would have made me nauseous. Two others in our group told us later that they had to stop spiraling because of that.
It is the most dizzying thing EVER. It feels like the whole world is spinning underneath you and it kinda felt like I lost my sense of direction for a moment. We spiraled left and then right and then did some left-right side to side movements, which I really liked, before coasting around and down to the landing site.
After the parachute had gone up, I was able to see the girl who went first below me and got to watch her land before I came around and landed. We did a slow slide land into the gravel and my guide pointed out two other solo jumpers coming in for a landing behind us, so I watched them land as I was unhooked.
The solo jumpers are AMAZING. Most of them did this sort of swooping type landing where it looks like they're about to crash and at the last second they pull up into a smooth landing, it's kinda scary watching them!
M and the other girl rushed over to where the rest of our class was watching and we took pictures (not sure when I'll have them up, we'll get them in about a week) and were just, in general, high on adrenaline.
We watched our last classmate (the 13,000 foot jump) land with whoops and cheering and went change out of our gear.
The only thing I really didn't like was the ear popping. It was kinda painful and I think if it hadn't been so annoying, I would have been able to enjoy it even more than I did already!
My ear hasn't popped yet...I'm still trying to get it to, lol.
If we pull the cord on the first tandem jump, we can come back later and do a second tandem jump where we pull the cord and have more control over the steering and then take the 6 hours class and then do seven more training jumps to get certified as a solo jumper and then only pay about $20 for every jump instead of $150 for tandems.
I really need to save up my money to afford the class now!
So, like I said, I AM SO GOING AGAIN :DDDDD
Man, I still have to work on my paper and I don't think I'll be able to now!
