As a select few of you were aware (actually, just my parents) I went skydiving today with 17 of my fellow team leaders. We'd been planning it for a few weeks, and got a great group rate at this place in Lincoln, CA - about 30 minutes from the NCCC campus. When we arrived, we discovered that the plane that we were to be jumping out of was a Cessna built in 1968, which only had enough room for two tandem jumpers and a cameraman to film. Even then, it was a squeeze.
After watching 10 of my fellow TLs jump and land safely, it was time for me and Mikey to gear up and head out to the plane to get some air.
After a 25 minute ascent to about 11,000 feet my buddy threw open the door, the cameraman scrambled out onto the wing, and we stepped out into nothing. All told, it took about 15 seconds form when the door opened to the time that I was upside down and airborne.
The jump was amazing. I was really surprised how comfortable I was with the whole "free-falling at 120 mph" thing. Once you're stabilized and free-falling, it's actually very peaceful. We fell for about 30 seconds, then Chase (my tandem buddy) pulled the cord for the main chute.
Then something a little funny happened. I was enjoying the ride, still in disbelief about having just jumped out of a plane, when he said "we're about to have a little problem." I thought that he was messing with me, like he had been for the entire 45 minutes (with the exception of the pre-jump instructions) leading up to the jump. We were jerking back and forth a bit, but I had seen the instructors doing spins and things with the chute open and figured we were going to drop really fast and have a little fun. Next thing I know, I'm hearing a *click* and we're belly-to-earth free-falling again. Five seconds later: another unfurling sound, jerked upright. My first reaction was: "I loved everything about that!" Chase responds: "Fuck ya! We just had a cut away!" Even flying at 4000 feet, I figured out what that meant, especially when I saw the main chute floundering about 100 yards from us, then looked up to see a black parachute where a brown one should have been... the first chute didn't open properly and we used the reserve.
From there we floated peacefully to the ground and met up with the cameraman, who did a little interview and went on his way. The main chute landed in an adjacent field. After a while of hanging out on the ground, one of the main instructors came over and told me that, in his 5000 jumps, he'd only had 5 cut away. Then Chase told me that in his 2000 dives, that was his first tandem cut away. Crazy! Anyway, it was an amazing experience and I never once felt that I was in danger. The systems that these guys use are very safe and are constantly tested and refined. Overall, a great time and one that I definitely won't forget, especially since I have this video:
Skydiving Video!!
Enjoy!
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