I’ve been #skydiving 2 times in my life. The first time is from the picture that is on my title page. This is a place North of #Pittsburgh called Skydive Pennsylvania in an area known as Mercer County. The first time I went skydiving, I did NOT do tandem. I did it BY MYSELF. Just crazy when I think back to it. Now to do this, you had to take a 6-hour course, then fly after that. I just looked now on their website, and it doesn’t look like they even offer that anymore. I can understand why. When you first get there, there is a small shack-like building, everyone is very chill, meaning on the verge of hippie link, there are dogs running around and playing in the middle of the woods in a somewhat cleared out area. Now before you start the training to jump by yourself, you have to sign a book of papers. I was handed this pile of papers and a pen and told to review, read and sign, I did this on a large tree stump, and thought multiple time to myself, don’t sign, just tell them I want to jump tandem and get it over with, but I didn’t. I signed the papers and started the training. Training included everything from practice jumping out of the plane, laying on the grass, and holding your arms and legs at the right angle, making yourself fall straight over on a matt for when you land, and oh yea, explaining how the parachute works. This is a lot, it’s just not like at Kennywood on the #SkyCoaster where you fight with your 2 other friends on “who gets to pull the line” (#Kennywood is one of the best amusement parks this side of Lake Erie that I’ve been to in Pittsburgh, PA, you often went here for a staycation growing up… again, being sheltered, but also you can’t forget about #CedarPoint in OH). With your Parachute, you need to know what to look for when you pull it and as it opens to brace for when it throws your body back. You need to know about the ADD “automatic activation devise”, this deploys your reserve parachute in the event that you can’t deploy your main or the reserve yourself. You need to have your Jumpsuit, helmet, gloves and eye mask (that fogs up when you are in the plane before you jump because you don’t know if you are hot from the Nylon suit, cold from being so high up, sweating because you are nervous or peed yourself). Let us not forget about the most important: training of reading the Altimeter. This is THE most important piece (aside from the parachute) that you need. So much time was spent on learning what this means, and I can tell you, as soon as I jumped, I didn’t remember a thing.
After I finished the training, it was time to jump, well I thought it was. The winds had picked up, so we had to wait, and wait. My parents came up to take pics of me (even though I would be just a little dot in the sky, and they had no idea how to focus and use the camera and both wore glasses, but hey, they came to see me, even if it was just 50 feed up in the air before I landed. While I was waiting to go up, a different plane landed on the airstrip, well…attempted to land, it was a tine ball looking helicopter, that bounced a few times before it landed and one of the propellers hit the ground and snapped. This is what I was looking forward to before I went up. While we were waiting, we were told a story of how someone landed at the local Wendy’s by accident (they weren’t taking direction very well that we received from our 1-way communication in our helmet), and a firetruck had to go get them while holding up all of the mall traffic at Grove City Outlets. Finally, I went up, so nervous, some guy went up in just jeans, a white t-shirt, New Balance and a helmet and jumped about halfway, it was is probably his 1,000 jump. We went up, I jumped and forget everything, I was tumbling through the air, summersaults, I saw the plane as I looked everywhere, the 2 people that jumped beside me (to make sure I didn’t pass out, but not connected to me) were nowhere around. I finally got my thoughts together and remembered how to fly with my arms and legs. By that point, I looked at the Altimeter and I was too close for any sort of comfort to not being able to pull my chord, SO I pulled it. And my body took a jolt and I flew back, I looked up to make sure the chute was all there, looked around, eventually, they came in my ear and told me to “have fun”, at that point, I was able to, during the 60-second free fall, not so much. I was guided into land and came right in.
After I was reviewed on how I did, I got low scores on jumping out, obviously, but it was worth the experiences.
Now my second time I did this was in the #OuterBanks, NC. It was a family affair (actually with my in-laws) when I say family, I mean it, the whole family except my mother-in-law who was stuck at the house like a nervous wreck watching my nieces and nephews. We did this with my father-in-law who was 60. It was HIS idea! We went to Skydive OBX, on a beautiful day and arrived about 30 min before our jump time. We got a few instructions, and all prepared to go tandem. Some clouds moved in so we had to wait a little while, everyone was excited with the exception of my father-in-law who was second-guessing, and nervous. Once it was clear, I was lucky enough to ride up in the plane with my father-in-law. He was white-knuckled the entire time, didn’t look down, and just gave a side smile when someone tried to make a joke. I am not sure if he really remembers any of this as it was probably an out of body experience for him. But he jumped! After he jumped, it was my turn, and I had an amazing experience, looking around, enjoying, not being afraid, or tumbling out of the plane. Everyone had a great time for their first jump (exception of my husband who had done it in FL as tandem prior.), and except for my mother in law who didn’t feel better until we all walked in the beach house after it was over.
For these 2 extremely different skydive experiences- Go TANDEM, and do it, you won’t regret it!
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