This morning Juliet and I woke up at 6am as today was the day of our SKY DIVE!!! When I woke up I wasn’t sure what to feel, we got dressed in the dark so as not to wake our roommates and then set off in the Australia Sky Dive minibus! On arriving at the sky dive base, we had to fill in some emergency forms.. A lot of emergency forms stating who to call if an accident does occur, asking if we want accident insurance, signing that they’re not liable, all of the fun stuff that definitely didn’t make us feel more nervous…
After weighing ourselves and watching a sky dive video showing us standard procedures, we met our tandem dive buddies and harnessed up!
I was lucky enough to get probably the coolest tandem diver – a real cool kiwi guy who obviously loves the rush of sky diving. He had also done over 2000 dives so far in his life and he wasn’t even that old, so I knew I was in safe hands.
With our harnesses on we boarded the bus and drove to the dive airport, all this time being filmed!
It all happened very quickly after that and was a bit of a blur but after a quite awkward interview for the film, some photos and more filming, followed by a quick chat with my tandem diver, we were soon on the plane! All except Juliet, she was still filming which meant she boarded the plane last, was sitting by the sliding exit door and so obviously would be the first to dive. (Slash fall out of the plane). It took us 20 minutes to reach our full height and the view from the plane was spectacular!! We were unbelievably high and when I thought it would soon be time to jump I looked at the height monitor at we were at five thousand feet, sounds so high yes, but not when we were jumping from FOURTEEN THOUSAND FEET. We weren’t even nearly there and we had a long way to ascend.
Finally the time came and while all the sky dive masters made sure our harnesses were sorted and then connected us to them in four different places, it was time to set off. The sliding plane door was slid open and Julie was hanging out of the plane, I saw her head tip back and she let out a small wimper then a scream and within seconds she was whooshed out of the plane!
Next up was a girl who had paid for another photography diver to sky dive along side her while filming and taking photos! This photography diver actually climber out of the plane and hung from the side of the door until the girl and her tandem were ready to fall and then they all fell together.
Next was me, within milliseconds of the girl before me jumping, we were already moving towards the door. I was trying to remember all the instructions from the safety video about tucking legs underneath the plane and tipping my head back but when I got to the door it was all swept from my memory! I remember getting an icy blast from the cold altitude chilled air and then suddenly becoming overcome with fear and screaming I can’t do this I don’t want to do this but my tandem diver simply said “too late”, tipped my head back and (honestly this all took max three seconds) then we were falling from a plane, at 14000ft. (4200m)
Sky diving was honestly the most incredible experience I have ever had in my life. We free fell for 9000ft and it felt like forever, it was amazing. Within a couple of seconds I felt a tap on my shoulder which was the signal to open my arms up like a bird and then… I WAS FLYING. I can’t even write down or stress how incredible the feeling was, I was literally falling through the sky and the clouds. It even took me a while to actually remember to look at the unbelievable view as I was so engrossed in falling! The whole way down I was screaming ohmygod, ohmygod and also a lot of swear words but you couldn’t even hear me a tiny bit! The noise of the air around us was so loud, the air was giving me a face lift, I was falling so fast but I felt like I was flying. It was A M A Z I N G.
At 5000ft the parachute was pulled and it happened to be just as we reached a really thin layer of cloud and so I floated through them, literally screaming about how good that experience had been. We floated gently downwards, spinning and looking out over the ocean. He also let me fly the parachute but I actually couldn’t even change it’s direction it was so heavy so soon the pilot job was swapped back. The landing was also so simple as I just kept my legs up as we span down to shore and before I even knew it we were on the ground, obviously I tripped (but that’s a given for me).
I envy the people whose job it is to sky dive. After we arrived back at base, they literally met their new divers and did the same thing again, I was SO jealous that they were off to jump out of the plane again! A girl and I even thought about pretending to be one of the new divers and saying yes when their names were called to get geared up! It was the most crazy, exhilarating, amazing experience I have ever had and the best thing I’ve ever done. I’ll honestly never forget my sky dive and it’s definitely not going to be my last!!!!
PHOTO TIME
Juliet and I before we took off!
The ascent.
The sliding door that we leave from!
Just as I fall out of the plane…
MY SKY DIVE!!!
JULIET’S SKY DIVE!
Let’s just say, the rest of my gap year has very big shoes to fill…
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