Skydiving is a fantastic sport. It is one of the few times in your life that you can move in all 3 dimensions. When you see someone's jump on TV you only get a fraction of of the experience. There is so much more. The 120 mph wind, looking at the ground with the feeling of floating as the very slowly is getting larger, and there is a feeling of you are the only person around for miles. This is the story of my first jump.
It was mother's day 1999, beautiful blue skies with a few white puffy clouds, basically you couldn't have asked for a better day. After 1/2 of an hour of driving me my roommate Seth and friend Balki arrived at Skydive Green County (http://www.skydiveohio.com). I immediately fell in love with the family type atmosphere. We walk up to manifest and were greeted with a very friendly " Hi, are you here to jump? " Before I could respond I was distracted by a loud roaring noise above me that sounded like a jet, I looked but all I could see was a 40 little black dots that were getting bigger. Soon the dots had bright colored nylon over top of them and I realized that I would be doing that soon. SHIT! was the only thing that came out of my mouth and with that my friends and I were lend into this little room to watch a video staring Capt. Longbeard telling us about the tandem skydive we when about to do.
Soon after the video I was introduced to my Tandem Master Jim West. Later I found out that Jim has over 13,000 skydives and holds virtually every certification that relates to skydiving (Jim West). He instructed me on what my responsibility was in the coming skydive. 1. Have fun 2. smile 3. arch! The first 2 are obvious but the third I questioned. He explained than an arch was the body position that we would hold in order to fall belly to earth. Have you ever seen Wayne's World ? Shwing! That is your arch. It tends to be a little hard on your back.
My new best friend Jim and I put our gear on and prepare for your plane ride. I say my new best friend because in 30 minutes or so he will save me from striking the ground a 120 MPH. My gear consists of a jump suit and a tandem harness. Jim's gear is a 450 square foot tandem parachute, jumpsuit, and altimeter. After Jim performs a brief gear check we are off to our silver chariot.
Actually it is a green and white Beech-18 twin engine propeller driven airplane. (pictures on the way) We are the first ones in the plane and Jim tells me to sit up front with Dewey (picture also on the way) the pilot. I climb in the seat and Dewey introduces himself. I tell him that my name is Jon and that I am a little nervous because that this was my first ride in an airplane. He tells me that he is glad that I was nervous because if I wasn't nervous then something was wrong. Before I knew it we were in the air. I loved it it felt so free and I was still in the airplane. When we got to about 7,000 feet Dewey asked me if I wanted to fly. I wasn't about to pass this up My first time in an airplane with the chance to take control. I placed my hands on the wheel and he let go. It was the best feeling I've ever had. I was in control of a 1 million dollar airplane. We made some turns as we climbed to 10,000 feet and then Jim called my name in order to get ready to jump. I seriously thought for a second about asking if I could skip the jump and keep flying but I deciding that I came to jump and that was what I was going to do. The $180 I paid to jump had a little to do with it. Jim and I got strapped together and the door came open. The fun jumpers were the first ones out the door, they left in a flash. Balki was next. He walked to the door an in an instant was gone. Jim told me to get in the door. I got real nervous walking to the door, thinking that I was really going to do this. READY, SET, GO!
In an instant we were in the air hovering above the earth, looking at the ground, adrenaline racing throughout my body. I mean, there we were, just floating above the earth, I had no clue how we got there and actually I had no idea that there was a we. I didn't even notice that Jim was strapped to my back. It was just me the earth and this loud wind. Where was the wind coming from? It was then that I noticed that I was not floating but I was falling very slowly. But this wind was very loud. Wait, I'm really falling at 120 MPH! It's just that I am at 13,000 feet - over two miles up. After 60 seconds of the most peaceful most exciting time of my life I was jolted by the opening shock of the parachute slowing me down to 10 miles an hour in about 2 seconds.