Totally Stoked: The Sky is the Limit!

Our craziest adventure this summer involved a jump from a very high place. Nathan and I went skydiving! Let me just start by saying I never thought I would type that sentence (more accurately the part that says I went). My wonderful sister-in-law Morgan had planned to take her dad skydiving for his 50th birthday and invited a bunch of people to join in on the fun. Of course Nathan was all for it, I had no desire to do it at all. As the date neared for payment to reserve our spots I was suckered into putting in a $20 for my spot. I guess I just wanted to say I had done it, I really don't know how I started to think I really would be doing this. Finally the day to jump was here and we began our drive down to Skydive Ogden. My heart was pounding the whole way, I was so nervous! Nathan just laughed at me the whole time. Everyone jumping was required to fill out a wavier for insurance purposes. I think the point where we had to re-write in our own handwriting that we understood skydiving was dangerous and could lead to our ultimate death. I don't think I have ever had such horrible handwriting from shaking so bad. Nathan and I were not scheduled to go until the second plane load. Waiting was the absolutely worst part of this whole thing. We opted to wear the jumpsuits to look legit while jumping and then we were paired with expert skydivers. My guy that would go tandem with me, his name was Fish, he was so sweet and talked me thru how the jump would go. There were four of us on the plane together, along with a couple videographers. The plane was smaller than I thought it would be and there were no real seats in the plane. The best way I can describe them is like a large rolled up wrestling mat that we straddled the ride up. Actually the ride up to the height was kinda cool and really beautiful scenery. Fish explained as he tightened up all the straps and linked me to him that as our time approached we would slide as one to the edge of the plane. From there he instructed me that we would rock back and forward, 1 forward....2 back....3 forward jump out the plane. He told me to keep my legs together and back between his own that we would flip once out the plan before letting our arms out and enjoying the fall. The ride up took about 20 minutes to get to the proper height. The next part went so fast its hard to explain. A red light turned on indicating we were at the right height and that we could open to door. I figured that we would take a couple Mississippi seconds before the next person would jump, but I was wrong. As soon as the door opened out went the first videographer and the first tandem jumpers, promptly followed by the next couple. Before I had time to swallow we were at the edge of the plane my feet dangling. I remember rocking forward, back, and then forward out the plane. Now I actually imagined that we would have to jump out of the plane but honestly I didn't think I would have had the guts to jump, (totally true) it ended up being more of one giant push and then fall out the plane. (even if I wanted to back out at that point, Fish basically threw his weight and there would have been absolutely nothing I could have done to stop us out that plane). I know we flipped out the plane but it happened so fast that I don't remember it, my stomach didn't even do a flip. We were free-falling for about a minute. What a weird exciting feeling, its like the feeling you get when you put your hand out the window while driving, except with your whole body. Fish actually at a couple points would grab my wrist and have me dip my hand into the wind which would cause us to turn it was so cool, after that he gave me the chance to do it on my own. Once our minute was about up he pulled the rip cord that released our parachute. It did kinda jerk us back a little but nothing too bad. (Nathan later told me this was the worst part for him. Something about the straps cutting into his inner thighs/pressure was extremely uncomfortable. I still laugh at this rendition of the jump). Fish adjusted us to a more comfortable situation and then came the slow parachute decent. He would pull one cord and we would spin one direction until he pulled the other and then we would spin the other way. I was so surprised when Fish actually gave me the cords to drive for a while! It was so awesome and before I knew it we were about to land. My instructions were to keep my feet up in the air parallel to the ground and depending on our position Fish would say either "sit" or "stand" which I would do. We landed so gracefully and stood right up. I found it funny that Nathan and his tandem buddy were the last ones out of the plane and the first to land. I am so proud to say that we both did something I never thought we would do. We were on such an adrenaline rush the rest of the day and it still seems like it was only a dream. I think we will be taking it easy for a while and I don't plan on anything too crazy right away, although I told Nathan that skydiving is something I wouldn't mind doing again sometime.