So I was having a very hard time convincing my mom to come jump with me… When she got there, she loved the atmosphere and the people and everything, so I popped up the idea of letting her ride co-pilot.
She asked me to go find out how much it would cost, so I just manifested her, and brought over the form for her to fill out.
She looked at me and said something along the lines of “I didn’t tell you to book me, I told you to ask how much it was!”
So I pulled her chair up to a table and made her sign the form.
Within 20 minutes, she was being explained how to use a parachute in case the plane had a problem.
I was the 2nd to get off that load, so I didn’t get the chance to see her, but she looked ECSTATIC when she got off.
A friend who came along snapped some photos which I’ll post at a later date. (I didn’t get my hands on them yet).
The conditions weren’t that great, it was cold and was raining in altitude… Let me tell you, rain drops sting like crazy when you hit them at terminal velocity!
All in all, was a fun day, got 2 jumps in, practiced some barrel rolls:
Did some more mantis practices as well… I Couldn’t find a good video of it, but basically, you’re in a position where you’re more arched, your arms are a bit more tucked in, with your hands around your chin.
You’re less stable, but you get a lot more control and speed with your movements.
So my mom finally accepted to come to the drop zone and watch me do some skydives.
I’m actually hoping that once she’s there, she’ll let me pay for her to get a tandem.
She’s somewhat adventurous, but has been extremely against the idea of her jumping.
She’s been super supportive of the fact that I love the sport though, so I’m happy about that one =).
I’ll write up a post about what happened tomorrow next chance I get.
I finished my A license courses, I’m now at 27 jumps, started my studies for the A license exam…
Basically, I gotta memorize two books about skydiving. That, and finally learn to pack a parachute… Back pain awaits =)
I was playing some Simon says in the sky with Valerie, basically just following her movements (swimming in the sky, learning the mantis position, grabing my foot with my hand, etc…)
Did more Tracking, some dive exits, and ended the day with a huge grin on my face, knowing that 1 month from now, I’ll be doing my A license exam.
As it stands, I’ll probably be doing my B license exam at the end of the summer… I’m going from having planned it for the middle of next summer to planning it for July/August .
Damn this sport’s taking all my money!
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 past Saturday was opening day for most of the drop zones in the area. It was a fairly cloudy day with clouds at 7500-9500 feet. But that’s not something that’ll stop us from jumping out of a fairly good aeroplane, that I can say for certain.
So I was waiting in the Manifest as the first load took off and hopped on the 2nd load for a fun jump.
Injured myself on that run… My left index finger got a scrape… (Bet you all thought that it was something way worse haha). The landing strip for the plane is simply a patch of grass, on my 1st run I landed on it as the plane was coming in, I had to run out of the way canape in hand haha.
The next load I was on, I was the only fun jumper and was accompanied by 4 tandems who came for someone’s birthday… We sang him happy birthday on the plane as his girlfriend shivvered in fear and held onto her friend’s hand for dear life… So we made fun of her and everyone held hands with the person in front of them… We were 9 people holding hands on the plane making whiny noises and laughing at her…
I hopped out first, did a frontflip and got a great run in.
At the bottom, the girl who was shaking seemed to have enjoyed it more than anyone else… I doubt that they’ll be doing this again though.
Come time for my 3rd jump, my buddy who’s also an instructor at the DZ decided that we should do a few of my required jumps for my A license, so we planned it out and hopped on the plane for a run. It went well, it was basically just forward movement practice.
At this point, I was starting to feel hungry… I then realized that it was already 1 pm and hadn’t eaten a thing all day… (I woke up early, wasn’t hungry, drove to the DZ, the restaurant wasn’t open that day, so I just proceeded to start my jumps…)
Anyways, this was obviously a big mistake, but I only realized this once I was on the plane for my 4th jump…
Everything was fine until about 8000 feet… That’s when I started to feel nauseous.
My stomach was churning, the pressure changes had gotten to me and here I was, sitting in front of a cute chick who I had just met who was doing some fun jumps to get enough for her A license and sitting just across from my instructor buddy.
My stomach’s going nuts, finally I feel it… I’m about to burst, my buddy sees my face and jumps up onto the bench (we’re flying on a twin otter). He knows that look all too well..
I’m about to explode when we hit 13500 feet and the doors are opened.
The fresh air rushing into the plane instantly makes me feel a bit better.
We’re 2nd to hop off, so we get out the door, I’m praying I don’t puke right into my face
Countdown, 3, 2, 1, we jump, and instantly, I feel better.
we work on some 90 degree rotations (I’m rotating 90 degrees around him at a time)
I do 10 or so of them, then we just grab onto each other and spin each other around in circles.
I think I also figured out why I had been having some trouble with my landings.. I’m fairly on mark, but I’d usually hit the ground a bit rough, I think I finally figured out the sweet spot however I’ll only know once I test it out a few more times.
Hoping for good weather to get another few jumps in this coming weekend before I head to Jamaica.
)
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.