I jumped out of a moving plane at 10,000 feet. There, the cat’s out of the bag haha.
Right here’s some backstory, my friend Saga had asked me if I wanted to go skydiving and I said “it’s E for Enjoyment not Endangerment” but a few weeks later, I was chilling mid-air. Haha!
My siblings and friends were so on it! So I just agreed and forgot about it lol. Getting to the site, Joyce and I registered (my brother Isaac had to pull out as his weight tipped past the max, but he will do his when he sheds a few kilos) and waited for like 5 hours till it was our turn, as it’s first come first serve and the staff had to refuel the plane in between a few trips. In those 5 hours I watched over 30 people jump from the plane and land safely, so somehow it eased any nervousness from me – kind of like – if they can do it, so can I!
When my name was finally called to come and wear my harness I was like YESSS! Let’s get this over and done with lol – my instructor was called Rich Parker and he’s the spitting image of Prince Harry! Lovely chap, he made sure I was very tightly strapped in, but I guess it’s a safety first thing.
Getting into the plane, we sat on the floor (not going to lie I was expecting to be seated opposite each other with seats like in the movies Lool) and started flying. The instructors had watches that showed how many feet we were in the sky so we knew when we had reached 10,000 feet. My people, I wasn’t one bit afraid. In fact my instructor was like “hold your hand out” to see if it would tremble – my hand was completely still! I just knew I would land safely and was more about enjoying the experience really!
So after two people jumped it was my go. I had been reminded by Rich of my training, which is to tuck my feet under the plane, push my hips out and lean my head back just as we dropped out of the plane. To be very honest with you, when we first dropped it was only scary when I couldn’t really breathe, so I had to take deeper inhalations but I got used to it after a few seconds. I had planned to do a “woahhhh dance” but the pressure didn’t allow my hands to come back to my chest once I had spread them as was described in my training lol.
After like 30 seconds of free falling, Rich pulled the parachute and it jerked us back up – dragging my already tight harness even more, but he let me stand on his feet to take the pressure off my groin a little, it really helped! Rich showed me how to steer the parachute by pulling one side at a time, we had a nice chat and he pointed out some landmarks whilst we were descending. It was quite relaxing and therapeutic I must say!
As we were nearing the ground, I raised my legs into a pike position (I used to be a cheerleader in my first university, UEL) and had a perfect landing – but then I couldn’t stand straight – it felt like the blood supply to my legs had been cut off and I had to stay on my knees for a minute to recirculate lol, but then I was fineeee!
Skydiving was such a vibe – I would highly recommend everyone does this at least once in their lives. Can’t wait for the next adventure hehe!
Till next time,
Dr. ETP xo
