I'm not sure how I missed this one.  James had sent me a few emails before his jump, asking questions and such.  He made his Jump on July 1st, 2000 and sent me the story that same evening.  I guess sometimes life gets crazy, and stuff sneaks by.  Sorry for the delay James, here it is (finally) better late than never.   Hope you're still in the sport as you anticipated you would be!

It turns out I have psyched myself out on this whole thing, the anticipation being way worse than it should have.

So, there we were, about 10.5, when the pilot shouted "this is it, door coming up!!" This crazy fucker steps out onto this little bitty step and grabs hold of the ??strut?? and is just hanging there waiting for us to get into position. TM says "scoot, scoot, scoot. right foot out, clear left shoulder and leg, arms crossed, ready(rocking out), set(rocking back in, go(rocking right on out and pivoting off the right foot into the wide open sky). HOLY F--KING S--T, I CAN'T BELIEVE I JUST DID THAAAAAAAAAAAAT.  I got real lucky and had two video guys, one before us, and one after. We immediately go into a tumble, two flips, and I completely missed the plane, that tumble was disorienting, and all I could think of was ARCH, ARCH, ARCH, I didn't think we were ever gonna stablize. It was a planned flip, so I could see the plane, but it all went by too quickly. We finally did stabilize though, and here comes the second vid guy, after exiting he got into a head down (I call it a lawn dart postition, remember that game?) to catch up with us, shot right by, got onto his BACK and flew circles around us during freefall. Turns out this guy has almost 2500 jumps with no major injuries, no broken bones, save one, in his wrist on a rough landing. And totally deaf. I only saw him go around once, but he circled us at least three times, I was trying to remember to look at the other camera guy, and do the usual virgin sacrificial dance, some kind of thumbs up or something, not sure now. I remember going into a right turn, maybe about ninety degreess, and started to turn left, but stopped short, I think that was to come around face to face with the first camera guy. And WAY too soon it was over, I hear a bunch of fluttering overhead and the other two guys sink away into small dots. Then we were just floating there, practiced the usual rookie landing flares, wind blowing like crazy, then flare, and we seem to come to a complete stop, just hanging there, no wind noise at all, complete silence, complete peace. I was totally amazed at what it's like to aim for the landing field, and maneuver the canopy to come down right where you want to.

The last week or so I have been getting really wound up about this, wondering if I was going to chicken out at the last minute, hoping I had the balls to go through with it. Every single time I thought about it, I would get the jitters, stomach get all queasy, wondering what it was going to be like looking out the open door of the plane at nearly 11,000 feet. Nothing I could think of would scare me as bad as imagining looking down about to exit. The plane ride up was eneventful, the usual joking about the TM napping, a few questions about if I had ever been in a plane, or one that small, etc. Just a tiny little bit of turbulence right before the exit. The actual event didn't cause near as much stress as just anicipating it for the last week did. I did have a few little nervous attacks, mostly centered on the thought of exit.

It wasn't bad at all, but I still can't believe I didn't freeze at the door. Everybody said I had a really good exit, real good form, great arch, all that. I don't know if they just tell everybody that, or if they really weren't holding back. I get the feeling they would have said something in a constructive criticism kind of way had I really done something off or bad.

Well that's about all I can remember, I am sure there's more, but it was complete and total sensory overload. Overwhelming. Completely religious. And I am not a religious guy. Plus it is after midnight, and I have to come down so I can get to sleep. Jump school starts early in the morning. I almost didn't get to jump today, weather here is really nasty. Supposed to be the same tomorrow, so I may not get my first sl in, but maybe it will do like it did today, and clear up at the last minute. That big wet spot over Texas on the weather guy's map is right where I am at. Yuck. anyway, feel free to post my message on your site, if it is worth sharing. Mine seems kinda tame compared to some of the ones I have read. You can also edit it in whichever way you wish or need to.