Learning to Skydive

So it turns out that skydiving is harder than it looks. Having watched a few videos on Youtube, I immediately got into my crazy 'I can do this' mentality that surfaces every now and then. Its the same force that saw me hobbling across the finish line at our local IRONMAN triathlon a few years ago. Turns out that Raynard Tissink and Chrissie Wellington actually train, A LOT! But that's a story for another day.

So I enrolled for a course at our local drop zone, Johannesburg Skydiving Club. The course took a day and covered a lot of technical mumbo jumbo and procedures for what to do if something goes wrong. Naturally I dozed off and therefore couldn't remember half of it when we were asked to demonstrate what we had been taught in a mock harness. I languished and stuttered through the drills and after much frustration on the part of the instructor, he had to let me out to relieve blood supply to my legs. 

Assuming that this constituted a pass, I made a beeline for the aeroplane before he could strap me back into the harness. Remembering just in time, I doubled back and picked up a 100% genuine parachute which is a lot heavier than it looks. So that by the time I eventually made it onto a bench in the tiny plane, fatigue was setting in. 

I very much doubted I would have the energy to jump from the plane and I was just leaning froward to tell the jump master this when the door swung open. Communication became impossible at this point and he seemed to take my crazy hand signals as a sign of excitement. 

At this point, it is important to emphasize to the reader that their was no fear on my part. Any reluctance to jump out was purely based on the fatigue brought on by having to lug a heavy parachute on my back. No fear I simply needed a nap or a Red Bull.

Before I knew it though I was being corralled to the back of the plane and towards the door. My desperate plea was whipped away on the wind and before I knew it I had been gripped by the collar and thrown out the door.

The last thing I remember was the sadistic grin on the jump masters face as he watched me plummet towards earth. Next was a whipping noise as my parachute looked for purchase on the air.

'Right,' I thought to myself, 'I should be doing some form of check at this point.'

'Parachute open? That's good enough for me.'

The landing was surprisingly uneventful as I steered myself towards the ground (turns out its quite hard to miss) and landed with a jolt just fifty meters from the point I was aiming for.

So skydiving is not as easy as I originally thought, however the hardest part is most definitely a mental battle with your own genetic predisposition not to jump off high things. I will definitely pursue the sport further and maybe one day I will be able to do the amazing low altitude wingsuit swoops that have enthralled me on Youtube. Until then I will commit to trying to learn my checks and procedures before I need to use them for real. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TWfph3iNC-k