Skydiving Experience

Watching the video, pre-jump

Our office was at lunch a few weeks back and someone brought up skydiving.  Several at the table expressed an interest in going, so I called and set up a date and time for two weeks later.  I figured, if we did not set it up, it would never happen, and if it was too far off, people would chicken out and not go.  So, it was scheduled at Skydive Tecumseh for a Sunday in September.

It ended up being myself, Lauren from the office and Jennifer (Kory's girlfriend).  We were scheduled to show up at 1145 to start our journey.  Got a call that morning from the business asking us to get there as early as possible because of weather issues.  We all ended up showing at around 1130.  Signed in and signed all required paperwork, then were sent to watch a short video that was required.  After that, we were sent outside to wait for our names to be called to be fitted for harnesses, goggles, and meet our tandem jumper and cameraman.  Were called right away, and fitted, and met the guys jumping with us.  Then, the weather started to be overcast and they told us we had to wait for it to clear.  After about 30 minutes, we started walking towards the plane!  Eek!

Me and Phil, walking to the plane to board

There were three others on the plane jumping with us, but that meant there were like 17 people on the plane as well as the pilot and co-pilot.  Pretty crammed.  No seatbelts required.  We all sat on benches and we were already connected to our tandem jumper at this point.  Took about 20 minutes to climb to 14000 feet.  Once there, everyone started jumping out pretty quickly.  I think everyone was out of the plane in less than one minute total.

Free Fall Fun

The free fall was insanely weird.  I was almost breathless during it, you fall so quickly.  But, I was not dizzy and my stomach did not drop at all.  It was the strangest, most cool feeling.  Once we tumbled out of the plane, we leveled out and the video guy took a bunch of pics.  I was a little nervous during the free fall, I think just because it was so different than anything I have ever experienced.  then, the parachute was pulled, and that was the one time during the jump that my stomach jumped a little bit.  Right after that though, we were slowly floating towards the Earth.  It was amazing looking around, seeing everyone else's parachutes, seeing all the sites on the ground.  The person I jumped with asked how I was and then asked if I wanted to guide the parachute.  I said OK.  So, he handed me the handles and then told me what to do with them.  We went right, left, up, down.  It was awesome.  Just before landing, I had to put my legs straight out in front of me and he landed for us.  Anyway, the landing was what I was most nervous about, and it was simple.

After we all landed safely and happily, we waited about an hour for our pictures and videos.  We all got signed sheets that showed we skydived, which I plan on hanging on my office wall.  I bought a t-shirt to remember the experience and we watched some other jumpers land.

Lauren, me and Jennifer, post jump with certs

It was an incredible experience.  I would totally do it again, and such an adrenaline rush.  I was not an adrenaline high for the rest of the day and part of the next day.  Who needs drugs when you can skydive?  :).  Totally high on life.

My video is in the post below, and pics can be seen on facebook here.

If this is something you have ever thought about doing, DO IT.  and if if you are in MI in the metro Detroit area, do it at Skydive Tecumseh.  The staff was awesome and the experience was the best.