Was all about conquering my fear of heights. What better way to do this than by being pressured into jumping out of a plane?
Was Kimba's 21st. She wanted to go skydiving. This was Saturday.
So our jump was delayed by about 3 hours. By the time it came to get in the plane I had a lost a lot of my nervous. I jumped with B, Pascoe, Nash and Jess. Both Nash and I were extremely nervous. K and the first lot went hours before us, when they were getting their harnesses put on, I saw one of the instructors and pointed out to Beth that he was both sturdy looking and a total babe and I wanted to get him. I ended up getting paired with him, his name was Phil and he was Irish. B was sorely dissapointed.
So I get my harness put on, when it comes time to do the jump. We all load into the little bus that take us to the airport. We're all introducing ourselves and loading up on the plane and it is decided that Phil and I will be jumping first. I am sitting facing the others at the back of the plane because I couldn't fit my legs in unless I was there. It is cramped. There is a guys foot on me.
Phil is eating a sandwich.
The plane starts to take off, and that in itself is absolutely terrifying. Phil is holding my shoulders and pulling me back to lean on him. He's whispering in my ear the whole way up, reassuring and pointing out landmarks. He has his hand on my leg and joking with me. He ended up hugging me the whole way up. At one point he remarks 'You're alright, we're at 9000ft, even if the plane crashed now I'll parachute us to safety'. So he's talking to me the whole time and adjusting my goggles, we're close to 15,000 feet now. The red light signaling to jump goes off. I pull open the side of the door and he moves over to sit on the edge. I go to jump out but now he is sitting on the edge of the plane and I'm strapped to him just dangling out of the plane. I'm dangling out of a plane. Phil is pretending to jump and trying to tease me and sike me out, this was not neccessary.
After a minute or so of this he jumps.
Banana! Banana! Banana!
I can't really compare it to anything. The freezing air feels like its trying to pull the skin off your face, I opened my mouth briefly which was a mistake. The pressure makes it feel like my head is going to explode, we're flipping through the air.
Freefalling is absolutely fucking terrifying.
He pulls the parachute cord and we go shooting up into the sky. He spends the rest of the trip stroking my hair and telling me its going to be alright. He has to do some turns which he says 'will be just like a rollercoaster' This is a lie. So we're floating about, and I'm saying 'Please stop Phil, Please Stop Please Stop Please Stop' and he's saying 'Its OK, It's fun, WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE' Lets test the brakes. 'WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE'
He said lets make you more comfortable, and undid the bottom hooks, which was absolutely fucking terrifying. He asked me if I wanted him to loosen my leg straps and I was crying saying, Please don't, Please don't, Please don't.
The worst part is the brakes, when we stopped moving it feels like we are just going to plummet to the ground.
It feels like you could just step off the parachute and land on the ground, Phil points out that we are still a kilometre from the ground. We try to spot some dolphins, but are not successful.
We chat the whole way down, we are far away from everybody else. Everybody else lands and we are the second last to come down. Everyone else lands on their feet but I land in Phils lap on the beach. We hug. Kimba and a large group of friends were at the beach taking photos.
It was such a bizzaro experience, made even more bizzaro that my instructer and I were in love in the moment.
I say goodbye to Phil and attend the beach BBQ where I eat far too much cake.
Everyone is teasing me about the loving going on between me and Phil. Apparently their instructers just threw them out with no warning a few seconds after Phil and I jumped. B is so jealous she did not get Phil. She said " I was comforted just looking at him comfort you." Phil was the only redeeming thing about the jump, the whole thing was absolutely fucking terrifying beyond words. B says she had no redeeming quality and I quote she 'Just isn't into extreme sports like she thought she would be'.
