Skydiving!

On Sunday, June 13th, my boss treated me and a few other staff members to our first skydiving adventure! My sisters BF joined us as well. We met up at Orange, VA around 2pm and filled out a pamphlet of paperwork, signed our lives away and went through a quick class on tandem jumping. There were a lot of people jumping that day so we had to wait around for a few hours before it was our turn. It was a very hot day but fun to see everyone else jumping and then landing with huge smiles on their faces.
My boss, Tom, his flight instructor Mark, and two of my coworkers, Bobby and Matt, were the first of our group to gear up, board the plane and make that leap of faith. I watched from the ground with the rest of our group and waited to see their expressions once they landed...then it was our turn! I was paired up with a nice guy named John and my photo/videographer was Grayson. I was fitted with my harness and did a quick little interview for my video. Kevin, my sisters BF, and my coworker Steve and I then boarded the plane around 6pm. As we climbed higher and higher my nerves were starting to hit me more. There were a few solo jumpers at the plane door and one of the instructors had to communicate with the pilot to help find a clear spot to jump. The skys were getting fuller with clouds and FAA regulations do not allow you to jump through the clouds. We were told we might not be able to jump then. I was not happy about that. I did not wait around all day in the heat and then get my nerves all under control all day to come back down in the plane instead of hanging from a parachute. But we were able to find a decent gap and the instructor started yelling, "GO! GO! GO!" The solo jumpers hurled themselves out and within seconds my tandem partner and i were at the open door of the plane.
INTENSE! AMAZING! INCREDIBLE! I could go on, yet can still not entirely describe the feeling of freefalling from 14,000ft at 120 mph for almost a minute! I had also practiced on the ground how to pull my chute so John, my tandem instructor, signaled me when it was time to pull. It was so amazing floating in silence, with the exception of me screaming words of joy, as we slowly made our way down to the ground. I even got to steer the parachute and do some corkscrews in the air. What a feeling! Then we landed and i had a mile-wide smile. I was so ready to do it again! And i will do it again!

http://www.skydiveorange.com/

Kevin and Me getting ready

my tandem instructor, John

boarding the plane

that first steps a doozy

Thanks Skydive Orange crew!