The two hour drive was infested with excitement and jitters. I was surprised to find ourselves on this road – for real. We were booked for a 3 pm jump. Our first sky diving session! We manipulated arriving just in time. Enough to pay up and board, but not enough to room a change of mind. However, after reaching we realized, our batch was scheduled for two hours later. We changed into our diving gear (quite pleased with the astronaut look), ate, sipped on coffee, took loads of exciting pictures of others and ourselves , just in case if we chickened on the jump, we could lie about having done it anyway. Or, if we didn’t make it down safely, they would have retrieved my camera. Either ways I wanted to leave enough evidence of what was about transpire.
We were led into a room and made to watch a safety video. A track from Top gun played in the background, six total strangers bonded over the most coveted task their lives were about to experience. We smiled, exchanged jokes with the instructor while she handed out declaration forms to be signed. My cold palms had no idea about the journey my nervous system was about to embark on. I had been handed a declaration of full waiver – IN CASE OF DEATH.
WHAT?!!!!
The man in me was not about to fright. I decided to read on:
1.…Sport parachuting is not completely safe..we cannot guarantee that both or either of your parachutes will open properly. We do not guarantee that any of your back up devices will function properly.
(Ok! Good to know)
2.…You may get hurt even if you do everything correctly (Very encouraging)
3...Typical injuries include broken legs, broken ankles, broken neck or death
(hahahaha! Who they trying to scare!)
4.….your instructor is human and is capable of making mistakes.
5.….Your equipment is made by human beings and therefore is not perfect and can malfunction(Stuff you really should know, before you decide to jump!)
6.…I WILL NOT SUE whatever the reasons are for attaining any bodily, moral or material injury sustained by me or even death due to reasons including negligence….
(the man in me is just about to fright!)
Slow motion was stranger than fiction now, people were blurry, the track from top gun was skipping as it played off a beaten record. I was slowly recovering from my partial comma when a distorted contralto pitch spoke “please sign on each page and have the person next to you sign, as witness.”They gave us another hour for the message to sink in, or to quietly use the back door. The next hour as we acclimatized with our jump suits there was more coffee, shots of people scooping out of the sky, some perfect landing marvels, some just "landed,thank god!" marvels and nerves were much calmer now. That’s when I heard my name on the loudspeaker.
“Hi I’m chad”
“Great! So you’re the guy who’ll save me from dying?”
“No! I’m the guy who’ll film you dying!”
Rule No:1 – always maintain your sense of humour.
They shoot your first experience for memory with the extra 100$ that you pay. Which reminds me I should ask for a refund cause mine has more branding and someone doing a cheap imitation of me, only a more nervous & nasal combination of Chip and Dale on XTC!
At an altitude of 11,000 ft, my instructor asked me to sit on his lap?!! To get strapped on ofcourse. What if he figures out what my weight is? Knew I should have passed on that cheddar cheese bagel from Tim Hortan’s! At 13,500 ft the doors opened. It was all fine, till I blinked and in that second missed seeing the person ahead of me disappear. That’s all it takes? A second!!!
I was too shocked to scream. The lack of oxygen in the free fall slapped me in the face as I tried to recall a reason for not mentioning ‘asthama and sinus’ under medical conditions. My nose was no longer capable of performing the primary function it was designed for , I grasped for air, panicked and occasionally remembered to smile for the guy filming the fiasco (if something did happen to me, imagine the number of people who’d view this video. Looking half a pro was a must!)
At 5000 ft above ground is when the parachute opens up and whooopaaa! Away it jerks you. This is the point when you start enjoying the ride as your glide slowly descends & the phase of morphing into THE MASK is over. The next one minute was very peaceful and so quiet that I thought I’d reached heaven. While I waited for god to speak a rather familiar voice asked me if I was ok?! He also let me know that in his 26 yrs of experience he’s never been kicked as much as today. I let him talk, I was enjoying the decent. Soon the earth started looking greener, the gushing sound of wind reduced, objects under my feet enlarged , there were more colors than blue. Vision and other senses started to resurface, and I felt the soft ground underneath. Tears of joy clouded me. My bucket list had one more tick.
And Yes! ALL OVER AGAIN!
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