Blog XIII of Thirty Days – Thirty Blogs series
A funny thing happened this 18th July, I jumped out of a perfectly working airplane from 13,000 feet above the ground without any strings attached. The reason behind this insanity can only be explained once you do it yourself.
Ever since I came to know about skydiving during my studies at Texas A&M, I had decided that it would be my graduation gift. So once I graduated this mid May, I was looking for a chance to go for skydiving. That chance came soon in the form of Parachute Center that conducts tandem skydives at HALF the price of its competitors with NO strings attached (pun intended).
Tandem skydive is the only skydive one can expect to do without any prior training. You are harness-tied to an instructor who takes care of releasing parachute and manoeuvring it to the landing strip. For some money more, one can get the whole event covered in photos and videos.
The day started with an hour long trip to Lodi airport. The amount of airplanes that this place had seen was evident when junk airplanes were parked unattended just as old cars would be lying around at any other place. We watched a safety video that was apparently recorded in 80s when the Center was formed. After a LONG wait, our turn came and we got all excited. I was to fly with Roger with Jesse taking my shots. Roger had been skydiving for 30 years now. When I told him that I wanted to jump with a soft helmet (for photogenic reasons), he decided he would wear one as well so as to look like a team !
Our one way carrier to 13,000 ft arrived, an old airplane that took us to a height at which ‘things’ on ground looked way smaller than I had imagined. For a moment, the whole scene looked like one straight out of a Jackie Chan thriller where agents jump into enemy territory. Soon it was turn to jump, I had my timer ready to record the 1 minute long free fall and 4.5 minutes of controlled descent. When we reached the edge of airplane, I was happy that I did not have to take the jump and yet I was immensely excited to see and feel the surge as we started our free fall. This moment would perhaps go in THE moments of my life that i would cherish forever. Everything was so surreal. Seconds into the jump, I had done the banana posture and had been asked to open arms like a bird. I was looking around for Jesse, after all I had to pose as a $uperman, bird, whoop and Gig em !! We did the turnaround, released parachute and soon it was turn for me to control the parachute for a while. It was fun, although would definitely require skill and concentration when on your own. Minutes later, we slowly descended into the thin landing strip besides the Center. The first thought to strike my mind on landing was how cool would it be to do all alone. Guess we would keep it for some other time…
We visited few nearby places later in the day and watched Inception in night but the only thought which was there on my mind for the rest of the weekend was the jump and that feeling of being on the top of world..except for my instructor.
