Skydiving: Flying High

For as long as I can remember, I've always dreamed of flying. Whenever I went on an airplane plane as a kid, I'd gaze out of the window and fancy myself flying across the fleecy layer of clouds below. It would be so unimaginably quiet as I glide towards the glowing sun and if I was really careful I might manage to settle into an oversized cloud sofa or walk barefoot on what would feel like a floor of marshmallows. Actually, I still imagine all this when I look out of an airplane window. The only difference now is I'm effortlessly sipping a cool glass of prosecco as I streak across the clouds.

(source: http://www.scargosun.com/06.2012/exhausted-and-something-that-freaks-me-out/)

I also have a lot of flying dreams. I'd fly around my university quadrangle. I'd fly inside houses. Those dreams are amazing to wake up from. For the first few hours, my body still remembers that feeling of weightlessness and fluid motion. It feels like swimming only you don't have worry about your breathing and it doesn't tire you out.

I'm not sure how I developed this aspiration. Maybe Christopher Reeves as Superman did it when he flew Lois Lane across Metropolis in her diaphanous blue dress. Or maybe it was those microseconds of weightlessness while riding Magic Mountain. That's another fetish of mine - super fast roller coasters in the dark!

So you can imagine why skydiving would seem like a logical choice- to get a taste for flying anyway.  In April 2010, we decided to go tandem skydiving with a group of friends. We headed down to Wollongong which is about an hour and a half drive south of Sydney. 

We went with a company called Skydive The Beach Sydney.  We were told to wear loose casual clothing, similar to what you'd wear while exercising. Only closed toe footwear and of course no thongs, sandals, high heels or hiking boots.

We arrived at around 11 am and checked in at the front desk where we got weighed and signed a health and indemnity declaration form. You have to pay a surcharge if you weigh over 95 kg and subject to an assessment if you are over 110 kg. The weight limit is due to a number of reasons. The harness can sometimes not be fitted properly or safely if you are over the weight limit. A bigger person would need a larger parachute. A larger passenger would often have to jump with a smaller tandem instructor making their job difficult and risk of injury greater. 

After doing all that, we sat on the grass near the beach to wait for our group's turn to receive our harness and briefing. There were about 4 groups ahead of us and we'd see the same tandem skydive instructors coming and going. By the time I met my tandem master Tony, he had already done 10 skydives for the day. 

During our briefing, we put on our jump pants and were fitted with our harness. We were taught to cross our arms over our chest just as when we're about jump out of the plane and to spread them out to the sides when indicated by our instructor. As you would expect, some people in our group were getting quite nervous by this stage. Why wouldn't you? You're only throwing yourself out of a flying plane at 15,000 feet! Why wasn't my fight-or-flight response being activated? I blame Pavlovian conditioning - flying:superman; flying:marshmallow floor; flying:blissful weightlessness.

We couldn't bring our own cameras with us so we got a photo and dvd package. Tony had a wrist-mounted camera to capture my experience from briefing to landing. After our briefing, we took a 25-minute bus ride to Albion Park airport where our little plane was waiting for us.

We watched everything below us get smaller and smaller.

The view from the plane was spectacular. I couldn't have asked for better weather or a better outlook.

Each of our tandem masters strapped themselves behind us when we got on the plane. After about 25 minutes of climbing towards the sky, it was time to start jumping out like the SAS. Well, sort of.

And out I went!

Diving into thin air felt absolutely amazing!

The sound of 60 seconds of exhilarating freefall was deafening. Pretty much like the sound you hear when airplane doors get opened in movies.

I'm flying!

Nothing can beat this feeling!

Tony activated our parachute after those sweet but short 60 seconds. 

He taught me how to steer the parachute and we soared over the breathtaking views for about 5 minutes.

But before you know it, it was time to land. This was the part I felt nervous about. I have a friend who broke his ankle while landing. I also imagined that the impact of hitting the ground might be really hard. 

The photos end here because Tony had to focus on the most crucial part of the skydive- landing us safely. We swooped down onto the grassy area next to the beach with our parachute billowing behind us. I was asked to bend my legs in front of my body just as we're about to land. Tony landed us with such skill that I barely felt the impact. In fact by the time I put my feet on the ground, it felt like I was walking on marshmallows because it was such a gentle landing.

After Tony detached my harness from him, he kept videoing to capture what I had to say afterwards. I felt fantastic and wanted to do it all over again. Unfortunately, it's not as simple as getting off a slippery slide and then running to line up for another turn. So we headed to the closest pub instead and celebrated our mind-blowing experience. I was buzzing for the rest of the weekend- from excitement and the satisfaction of realising a dream. 

Skydiving: highly recommended!