Sky-diving impressions

It has not started off as my original idea, but I have had embraced it quickly. I mean how could I not? It sounded really well. Scary, loaded with adrenaline, something to tell the grandchildren about (provided one lives to tell the tale:))))

The idea was basically to go to Miami, and jump off a plane at 14.500 feet. Since it's the first jump, it would be a tandem. A tandem with you, the innocent scared first time jumper and a very experienced (one hopes!:) skydiver.

Booked in advance, didn't think too much about it, and finally the weeks moved on and the day came. Left Grand Cayman, as there are no skydiving operators here, and taking advantage of a rare long weekend that I didn't work, and a willing Hungarian travel companion, off we went for 3 days in Miami.

Miami is great this time of the year....sunny and bright, and yet milder (around 20-22C daytime), and quite chilly at evening. We even ended up renting a convertible, just because we could:) and off we went, together with one of the greatest inventions imaginable, a very talkative GPS, to explore.

We even went to an indoor climbing wall on Saturday, to start the thrill, and I remembered just how much I missed it, while my travel companion did excellent on his first climbing indoor experience.

And then, before we know it, Sunday, the D-day came!!

Miami is a small paradise for yachts and air crafts alike. There are small airports galore, and at least a couple of skydiver operators. We went about 25 km away from Miami, in a field in the middle of nowhere, but which contained lots of air crafts of all sizes. I thought so often of my vet friends Ioana and Ovidiu which are the probably the ones that have inspired the whole thrill of it all, and who would have undoubtedly jumped before me from that plane!

Then we signed a very large contract, in which we basicaly agreed that we know we are about to jump off a plane and in case of an accident, neither myself (!) or any of my relatives would sue the company,

we were then given the suits, the harness, the instructions, and before we knew it, we were going on board a small plane, very basic, no seats obviously, tighly bumped in together. I was designated a quite large instructor that would be my tandem buddy, and kudos to all the staff, they were all so cool and cracking jokes about the whole situation, when everybody else was understandably quite nervous about the situation...and then we took off.

There was no door of the aircraft, but a plastic see through-door they used to cover the exit and which allowed one to see the increasing void underneath us. At 1000 feet I was already thinking Oh my God, Oh my God, this is so high....and I knew we still have 14 times more to go up....but the view was amazing.

The next big thing, the instructors finally hooked us up and we were strapped in very closely together,...and then the door opened. This is when an unbelieveble amount of adrenaline came onto my blood stream, as I realised there is no turning back and I am about to do this for real. From the chilling down mode, everybody started rushing in, and they all wanted to jump off as soon as possible.

I was the third in the line up....and all of a sudden they all started jumping. Seeing the first couple jump off was the scariest moment yet. The void sucked them off in a mere second, as if they were not there at all. It was like you see in the movies with people falling off. They were just gone. I closed my eyes as I couldn't bear to see Miklos leaping, being sucked into the vacuum and having this image on my retina... 1 second later they jumped as well and we were heading off to the exit as well.You have a buddy attached to your back, but you get to see the void very well. And that is scary again. There is no time to think thou. All together, you jump. It's very bad for the first moments untill some balance is aquired, and then there it is.

You free fall. For a minute. Seems a lot, but really is not. The speed is amazing, the view and the sensation is like nothing else. To make things even more thrilling, the instructor does with you a couple of spins, which have sent me screaming my head off, but just for the fun of it.

Then the instructor shows you on the altimeter that the 4500 feet limit is there, and one of you has to pull off the parachute.

He did it in my case, which they do with most people, and then we slowed down. 7-8 minutes followed, amazing thrill of being suspended in the air and seeing it all from above, and then a very good landing....and there it was, before we knew it, it was all done.

The post jump glow of adrenalin is something to be lived to be understood, .... and then we wanted to do it again:)