13,000 Feet Down

To those of you that have called me crazy, stupid, etc., you are all right. You have to be out of your friggin mind to successfully get through this. I signed my life away and the adventure began. From the video, you can see, in the prep room, that I am only capable of nodding and smiling. I do not have the ability to converse. It takes a few seconds for me to answer the question, "What is your name?" I will try to explain what this experience was like even though there is no real way. I suggest all of you lose your friggin mind yourself and try it out. This experience, to this day, has been my most exhilarating one. It truly is an out of body experience. It conquered my fears.

By the time we board the plane my intelligence level has plummeted to retarded. I am simply a baby following my parents instructions...AKA my white haired instructor. Now here's a guy that is about 40 years older than myself and about a foot shorter. The younger instructors have no problem telling me that my guy could die any second. Most likely during the jump. Not really what you want to hear given the present situation. Veteran jumper jokes I presume. All kidding aside, I came away with the conclusion that my guy had the most experience.

So, up we go. It took us about a year to reach jump altitude, or so it felt like a year. I was sitting in the front of the plane facing the rear, meaning I would be the last to go. Before I knew it, before I saw anyone jump, I was crouching at the open door. Below I could see the green and brown fields of the Sacramento Valley. If you read my lips in the video at this point you can make out, "Holy F%*cki@g Sh#t." I heard, "Put your head back." I did this and then without any effort the little guy popped us out that open door. Here's something I've never felt before. This instant, this very instant...think about it yourself for a second. Yep, your falling to the earth. There is nothing between the realm of life and death except a parachute which is attached to someone else. Which way is up? Where am I? Why is it so damn windy? And then.......you're floating. Within a few seconds out of the airplane you lose the feeling of falling and you become part of the sky. I finally got the opportunity to ask myself, "Am I really doing this?" WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Sixty seconds of freefall. My veteran instructor took me on spins, turns, and glided me through the sky. I even gave the camera guy floating in front of me the double thumbs up. This is the best! WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Wait..A parachute does need to open to live another day. ARGHHHHHHHHHH,

My croth was submitted to some terrible, temporary pain, but I was about to discover that floating calmly to the ground with a deployed parachute above you was just as awesome as freefalling. I could have a conversation at this peacful juncture with the little guy strapped to my back. The instructor put the reins in my hands and told me to raise them up as high as I could. SHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHIT. Straight down. 100 or so MPH towards earth. We then slowed down and I was told to raise one strap and bring the other down. 4-5 excruating and awesome rotations were made. When we slowed again I was told that we just executed a 3G turn. My back still hurts. I tell you this because some of the instructors did not let their passangers drive. This added soo much to the experience.

He brought us around for the landing, handed me the straps, told me to bring them all the way down and land on my butt due to the fact that he was much shorter than I. The landing was extremely soft. I see no risk for sprained ankles etc.

The rest of the day was boring.

So, congratulations to Becky, Bruce, Danny, and I for accomplishing this task. It is one that none of us will ever forget.