well i’m on my way…

The day after St Pats I met up with Rebecca as promised.  We booked our dive and it wasn’t until hours later I realized what I had done.  CRAP!

The next morning I awoke with dread and looked at the sky.  The clouds were still pink from the sunrise and I suddenly felt calm.  I called the skydiving company to confirm my dive and they told me it had been cancelled due to the wind.  They also told me that my friend, Rebecca had resceduled me for the next morning.  I told them to remove me from the list, that I’d think about it and I’d call back if I changed my mind.  I hung up the phone and only stared at it for about two minutes.  I knew I’d regret this if I didn’t do it, plus, it’d be bad karma to ditch Rebecca like this.  So I called back, and they told me to be ready to be picked up at 1030, as the weather was supposed to clear up by then.

At 1030 I met up with Rebecca and a few other people not-so-ready to skydive for the first time.  We took the hour and twenty minute ride to the field, and as we got close, watched big rolling clouds coming our way.  We filled out some paperwork, suited up, and got instructions about the jump.  Rebecca and I were starting to squeal to each other about how scared we were…and then the guys we were to be strapped to came up to us and told us that we couldn’t dive.  The wind had picked up and the sky was getting dark.  We were disappointed and relieved at the same time, but booked ourselves for our second (or third?) attempt the next morning.

I woke up the next morning very calm.  I felt like I was done being scared, and now it was just about completing the dive.  When I called to confirm, the woman was super cheerful when she told me the weather was great, and to be ready at 830 for pickup.

The drive out to the field seemed longer this day, as Rebecca and I watched horrified as the sky went from being clear to completely overcast.  We got to the field and were told that as long as the clouds stay high, we were fine.  We suited up rather quickly and were practically rushed into the plane.  My emotions kept on switching from excited to terrified and back again very quickly.

I was a bit calm on the ride up, looking at the scenery and watching my tandemmaster’s altitude meter.  When we got to 10,000 feet, he told me to put my glasses on and that was when I got scared.  I told him that I didn’t want to do it and he just laughed.  There were seven of us in the plane, Rebecca and I, our tandom guys, our photographers, and one random guy.  We both freaked out when the random guy just pencil dropped himself out of the plane.  She went first and screamed bloody murder until her tandom guy nonchalantly slipped out of the plane.

I was scared shitless at this point, wondering if I had made a mistake, although I knew there was no turning back.  My tandem guy slid me towards the door and before I knew it, I was hardly balanced on the edge of the plane.  I had no time to think when I felt myself hurling towards the clouds below.  The fear only lasted about 5 seconds (??) until the falling feeling from dropping from the plane dissipated.  My instructions were to look at the camera guy and smile so I was focused on searching for him, but not before I checked out what I was falling towards-the tops of mountains.  It was breathtaking-literally, though I’m not sure it was from the view or myself falling at a very fast speed.

I was looking at the photographer and smiling hard.  I even did the devil horns sign and tried to stick my tongue out-an impossible feat when you’re falling through the air.  I had time to think to myself that this is the most amazing thing I’ve done or seen in my life right before I felt tears coming to the backs of my eyes–and then I felt myself jerked back when the parachute opened.  It was amazing floating around, looking at the mountains and fields.  I felt like a bird.  The tandemmaster offered me the handles to steer, but I was completely happy not doing anything, just enjoying the scenery and the flying feeling.  I thought the ride was too short and I definately preferred the freefall to the floating.  If they offered a second ride at half price, I would have gladly hopped on the plane again.

When we landed, we slid on the ground on our bottoms.  The grass felt like a slide and the landing was so much smoother than I had expected.  My camera guy helped me to my feet and I realized I was shaking.  Rebecca and I took photos of ourselves together, and realized our hands were still shaking!

We were the first to go out of six people going, so we had to wait around.  It was fun not being the rookie anymore and looking at the fear on their faces.  We finally calmed down and enjoyed the scenery-mountains, hills covered in pines, horses, sheep, and wide open skies.

When we got back to Christchurch I called my father.  He was a paratrooper in the Army years ago, and I knew he’d be proud, that the ‘apple didn’t fall far from the tree’.  He was thrilled to hear from me and sounded so excited that I had skydived, excited that we could have another thing in common.  He told me that he would get me a tattoo when I got home of a paratrooper-which is something that I’ll hold him to!

This entry was posted on Friday, March 20th, 2009 at 11:57 pm and is filed under New Zealand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.