After 22 jumps, I’ve spent at the very least 18:32 minutes of my life falling…
(Not including falling on the ground, falling out of trees, bungee jumping, or any other kinds of falls )
Today was an AMAZING day for skydiving, got 5 of my VR jumps in for my A license.
The day was mainly aimed at people coming to do free-flying, so I got to see a SICK formation being done with a 15 person big way. I was the last off the plane with my instructor Valerie, who was quick to point out to me that we should watch the plane, (we got to jump at 15000 feet instead of the usual 13500 on this jump, and since we were last off the plane (which is a rare occurrence unless you’re a Tandem) we got to watch it spike (fly downwards about as fast as we were falling) after 10-15 seconds of it spiking, we started out track practice for my 7th VR jump. This was a great way to end a beautiful day before going to another drop zone to meet Valerie again for my last 3 jumps.
This is a video of some great tracking…
For those of you who don’t know, tracking is very important when doing group jumps and formations… You basically do it at the end to split up in the sky so that you can get enough distance between you to not crash into each other when deploying your parachute
Earlier, I read mike’s status to say: “so it’s official, I enjoy falling.”
All I have to say to this is:
I don’t enjoy falling… I’m addicted to it… In my dreams, I’m falling, in my nightmares, I’m falling, in my DAY dreams I’m falling… I look outside and I simply want to fall… Soon enough I’m gonna make a living off falling, then I know for sure that I have a problem
That’s sum’s up for the most part my entire jump, but I wont be lazy and write the details for you.
If you didn’t already read Adam’s posts (or don’t want to lol) -> the weather was amazing, 30 degrees Celsius and a clear sky. In total we were 19 tandem jumpers + Adam and another solo jumper.
As soon as we got to the drop zone I wanted everything to happen right away, luckily for me I was on the first load. My tandem instructor was absolutely awesome (Jon) I don’t think I could have gotten a better tandem instructor even if I had asked. He made ridiculous comments/jokes that would have put a stressed jumper at ease all while being funny, but I was mentally prepped for this.. or so I thought. The entire time, from land til about 10 seconds before the jump I was completely relaxed, but at the same time excited like a little kid but I’ll get back to this point in a minute.
Roughly 2 mins before the door opened I had asked Jon if we could do a flip out of the plane and have a little fun he said no problem. He strapped up the harness and the door opened, it was go time. We were the second to last to jump. Watching people as they jumped was surreal on it’s own. I’ve watched countless videos of skydiving, but nothing comes close to witnessing it nor experiencing it yourself. We got to the door and it was 1-2-3… this is where my mental state went out the door and it hit me as we were flipping “I just jumped out of a plane, holy **** I just jumped out of a plane.” It was liberating. It didn’t feel like we were falling, it felt like the wind tunnel with fresh air, a harness, a camera man and a sick view. It really felt surreal, it was absolutely amazing/ridiculous.
I got the second tap on my shoulder, I closed my arms and didn’t even have the chance to think twice before the chute deployed. The ears popping thing was pretty uncomfortable but otherwise free-falling is something EVERYONE has to try at least once.
After our deployed parachute fun and super smooth landing (I’m telling you, this guy is mad pro) I wasn’t able to hear for a good 5-10 mins, people were talking to me and I had this huge smile while nodding and pretending to understand what people were saying. I tried all the usual tricks but nothing worked, then my right ear went back to normal … but the left ear stayed 50% muffled for the next 8-9 hours. Once I got home I did a little research as I was getting a little worried, and apparently having a cold and jumping is a horrible idea as it really messes with your sinus system and could potentially cause major damage. I wasn’t even aware I had a cold and didn’t think twice about it, but what’s done is done and I had an absolutely AMAZING time.
Once I’m able to sell some assets I’ll be doing my PFF for sure. I can’t not experience free-fall again. I must do it again, over and over and over until I get hurt and will probably continue even after that point.
So all in all, we ended up being 2 regular jumpers and 19 tandems.
Load 1 got off the ground without a hitch, well apart from a PFF student having a botched landing and face planting and a tandem with a heavier girl landing rolling into the parachute… We had a good laugh .
The twin otter stopped to gas up for load 2 which I was on with a buddy.
Jump went impeccably.
Load 3 also went without any problems…
Load 4 however… Never got off the ground, leaving 6 of the tandems I had brought hanging around waiting for their turn…
Turns out that the registration fees for the NAFTA weren’t paid… Or so Transport Canada’s inspectors claimed.
So we waited for 2 hours, and still nothing… By hour 3, the owner of the DZ announced that people could either take the risk and keep waiting, or go come and come back another day.
Needless to say, I decided to go home after having done only one jump, the same goes for one of the other tandem jumpers (who’s also my co-worker)… The others waited and ended up getting onto a load after 6 hours of waiting…
At this point, I’m obviously frustrated, as it was a PERFECT day for skydiving… and By perfect I mean: Not a cloud in the sky, 30 degrees celcius outside… a Perfect, sunny day. Which is something that VERY VERY rarely happens here… Especially in the month of May.
The tandems who got to jump were obviously extatic with the experience, two or three claimed that they want to take lessons… We’ll see where that leads… I know Mike’s in for the long haul, that’s for sure.
By the way: If any of you want to write for our blog, feel free to send us a note, we’re always happy to hear other divers’ stories and of course publish them
So this friday I’m bringing 20 people with me to have their 1st tandem…. That includes Mike.
Some of these people seem more excited than others… Mike for example kept trying to convince me to move the date forward and skip my trip to the Bahamas so that he could do it earlier haha.
I’m honestly looking forward to seeing everyone’s reactions on the plane and then their final reactions once they land on the ground…
I’ll be jumping out before them so I won’t get to see their faces as they get out of the plane… hopefully some people will get a cameraman haha =D
Note for Mike: If you feel the need to pee while falling… please do
Ever since I was little, I’ve always found myself participating in activities that most people would call stupid.
On my 5th birthday while everyone was outside the house waiting for me, I colored myself blue with the food coloring that my mom was using to make my cake… Then to my astonishment, when I went to show my mom, she got mad at me… At me!!! On my birthday!!!! Ok, given I was blue and everyone was waiting outside… But I looked so cool! I was a real life smurf =)
Fast forward about 10-11 years, before the movie Jackass came out, I found myself in the street at 3 am with a couple of friends pushing a buddy down a hill in a shopping card with a broken wheel. Sparks were flying, the cart sped up and went out of control, and I lost grasp of the handle as he sped towards a speed bump. Oh how funny it was! Until he went flying out of the cart into the street… I was still laughing as he rolled around in agony.
This winter, I decided to learn to snowboard. Armed with about 1500$ in new gear and Mike as my instructor, I took to the hills and within 2 months, I was on the double diamonds… Not to let anyone down, I decided it was time to attempt a jump… Without scouting it… I went for it, started flying in the air, then lost balance, hit some ice, sprained both of my wrists and hurt my knee… Aren’t I smart? (Side note: I’m DYING FOR THE SEASON TO START UP AGAIN!!!!)
On to the topic at hand… From what you probably realized by now, I’m a yes man… This doesn’t mean that I give people all my money, or jump off cliffs… Ok scratch the second part, I have that planned for the week of May 9th…
The “Yes man” thing lead me to try bungee jumping last August (See below)
Once I tried bungee jumping, I realized how much of an addiction to adrenaline I really have… It’s not the fact that I like doing stupid things, it’s the fact that I’m addicted to the rush of adrenaline that usually comes with the accomplishment of these stupid things.
So I decided it was time to step up to the plate and try the ultimate rush… Or so I thought…
I had spent the next 2 months organizing a group of 30 people to jump with me. On the day of the jumps, the weather was too cloudy for us to be allowed into the sky. The owner of the drop zone called me at 6 am to tell me that we’d have to wait till later in the day and we weren’t sure if we’d even get off the ground… So we went go karting instead… And after 30 minutes of go karting, out driving everyone who had came with me, I got bored and annoyed and decided to take the risk and drive an hour away to the drop zone.
Octobe 4th 2009, the day I did my 1st tandem jump. My instructor, who’s name I forgot at the time in all the excitement was a 6 foot tall guy who didn’t say a word and had black gloves with green skeleton hands printed on the back. He wore an orange and white jump suit, and towered over me like a hungry gorilla…
I asked him what brought him into the sport to teach and his response: “I don’t like to work.”
I turn to my friend Louis who was on the same plane load as I, and he says “This is the first time I get on a plan in which I will not be landing”… What great statements to attribute to my future addiction for which I was so excited to finally be part of.
It was the shortest minute of my life.
As soon as I walked back into the Manifest (For those of you who don’t know what it is or don’t sky dive, basically it’s like the administrative office for the drop zone) I went straight into the owner’s office and spoke to him about taking lessons. He was fairly quick to offer me to come with his school to Zephyrhills Florida (Skydive city) and take my PFF there in March. (The weather in Montreal isn’t exactly sky dive friendly between November and April)
So I started putting money aside and come March, I was on a flight to Zhills…
I am now CSPA Solo certified with 12 jumps in my logbook, I’m planning on completing my A license in May.
I’ve never actually jumped out of a plane. I have only had the pleasure of dreaming about it…
It all started a little while back when I was a wee little lad (17; for those who want to know, I’m now 20) I came across a thread on a forum about a bunch of locals (I live in Montreal) gathering to do a group tandem. Being the adventure thrill seeking child I’ll always be, it got me thinking “wow, that looks like an AWESOME time” but being 17, my parents would never sign the consent form.
A few seasons went by and I was finally legal! The internet, being as amazing as it is, once again got me really into the idea of jumping out of a plane and freefalling. I could complain here, but I’ll cut it short: I didn’t have the $ to get into the sport… so another year went by. This sucked, hard. Really hard, because there had been so much I wanted to accomplish and skydiving was still #3 (or 4, maybe 5..) down on my bucket list and it wasn’t going to be something I could do for another little while.
Then came this previous winter (2009-2010) Adam and I were snowboarding and he tells me he’s going for his AFF/PFF this spring, him being the first person I’ve come across who was also intrigued by this sport; I immediately gave in and said this spring I’m doing it. I will finally jump out of a plane.
In a weeks time I’ll be in the wind tunnel @ SkyVenture Montreal. Then in a few weeks I’ll be doing my first tandem jump @ Parachute Montreal. I’m already leaning into going far into this sport/lifestyle. I’ve been so excited that lately it’s the only thing that runs through my mind.. let’s hope I don’t go insane before it finally happens.
)
he said no problem. He strapped up the harness and the door opened, it was go time. We were the second to last to jump. Watching people as they jumped was surreal on it’s own. I’ve watched countless videos of skydiving, but nothing comes close to witnessing it nor experiencing it yourself. We got to the door and it was 1-2-3… this is where my mental state went out the door and it hit me as we were flipping “I just jumped out of a plane, holy **** I just jumped out of a plane.” It was liberating. It didn’t feel like we were falling, it felt like the wind tunnel with fresh air, a harness, a camera man and a sick view. It really felt surreal, it was absolutely amazing/ridiculous.