Monday, December 22, 2008

Tandem

You only live once, so I went skydiving.

Tandem skydiving to be precise. Why exactly? Well, let’s just say I wanted to feel independent in the extreme sense. Or, I wanted to celebrate the passing of the halfway mark (six months) in my Middle Earth exchange. If that reason didn’t work, then . . . it was a Christmas gift to myself. I have pages of excuses, I could go on.

Tandem skydiving involves being strapped to a professional skydiver via a tight harness, and you descend together at terminal velocity (220kph). The professional opens the parachute, and guides you towards the ground in one piece. You’re just in for the wild ride. And what a wild ride it is, was, and always will be.

Skydiving is widely advertised in New Zealand and I always had the curiosity of trying it. Skydiving NZ is a thrill seeking business that operates out of the old control tower at Wigram Airfield (just steps away from the cadet unit I joined). The jumping altitudes they offer are 9,000 and 12,000 feet. I figured if this would be the first and last time I’d jump out of a plane, I was going to do it from the highest altitude possible.

My original plan was to jump this past Friday but rain forced me to postpone it to Monday. The weather was perfect today – sunny with clear skies.

Before jumping into the plane, you’re instructed to watch a short video on how the experience will look like, get fitted into a colourful (red, yellow, blue) jumpsuit, and briefed about how to properly exit the plane. There’s the option of getting your experience filmed & photographed then burned onto DVD.

Following the tradition of commercial airlines, the main aircraft used by Skydiving NZ had to be grounded for some time because the startup batteries needed to be replaced. During the anxious waiting, I walked around, went to the washroom 5 or 6 times, and watched customers ahead of me descend from 9,000 feet. I was shaking a bit, hoping not to ‘chicken out’ at the last minute. Although the staff didn’t draw attention to it, I’ll say that it’s imperative that you follow the golden rule – Dump Before You Jump! (This rule applies to bungee jumpers as well). That’s one incident you don’t want happening in the air. As an added precaution, I swallowed some Gravol to prevent the possibility of vomiting.

The main aircraft was ready when my turn came. There was no turning back now. Seven people including myself squished into the back and anxiously waited during the 15 minutes required by the young pilots to reach 12,000 feet. When we were one minute from jumping, we were instructed to put on our goggles and hold onto our harnesses. When the cameraman opened the door, -10 degree Celsius air filled the cabin. The cameraman leaned out to let me move my feet over the edge. Reality hit me one last time - I couldn’t believe I was going to do this. With nothing to lose, I tilted my head & feet back, and nodded when I was asked if I was ready. The next thing I knew, I was falling towards Middle Earth.

The experience was just . . . wow! It’s near impossible to explain! It feels like . . . falling towards a high-powered fan blowing in your face! At first, you want to grab something to stop the fall but there’s nothing and so you just let go and ride it out. There was no time to panic or scream; it just leaves you breathless. Several seconds into the fall, my tandem partner, Miro, a Slovakian with 32 years experience & over 4000 jumps, tapped my shoulders, telling me it was okay to spread out my arms. The terminal velocity speed was incredible! I did my best to look happy for the camera, and at one point I thought my goggles would fly off.

Suddenly, Miro opened his parachute and we stopped falling. Only 45 seconds had passed. While gazing at the majestic 360-degree view, I thanked myself for choosing 12,000 feet – the fall happened too fast. Miro let me take control of the parachute and we descended like a dandelion seed towards the airfield below. Before touching the ground, I was instructed to put my legs up and we slid onto the ground in front of the waiting cameraman. “That was amazing!” I proclaimed, silently noting that I was still alive in one piece.

The experience was absolutely euphoric . . . until I received the bill. The jump, the documentation, and production of the DVDs came to a total of $608NZD. Expensive but worth it; I’m so doing it again in the future. I used to be afraid of heights when I was growing up but I think this experience has rendered the fear almost non-existent. I hope the DVDs turned out great because they’re proof of my daredevil experience as well as Christmas presents for family & friends.

I encourage my family & friends to try it before it’s too late. The experience will blow you away!

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