Why would you want to throw yourself out of a perfectly good airplane?

I’ll start with an apology, I know you’re never supposed to, but this is my article, so it’s my prerogative. I’ve written this entry retrospectively and have tried to remember as much detail as possible, but if it’s a little lacking then this is the reason why.

I’d thought about jumping out of an airplane ever since my good friend Paul went to New Zealand and completed his entire Accelerated Free Fall course. He made it sound more fun than terrifying, which made me seriously consider doing it myself if I ever had the chance.

A few years had passed since then and about a year ago I found myself in Los Angeles at the same time that the LA County Fair was on. In need of a day out and lacking in better ideas I found myself and family going along to spend the day eating too much, looking at attractions and just generally being tourists. On the way into the county fair I had noticed a bungee rig all set up with a large crowd of spectators and a small gathering of nervous looking jumpers. The day passed pleasantly enough, and we took a few rides on the cable car which gave a great view over the grounds and allowed me to watch the bungee jump a little more.

On the way out of the LA County Fair I made a decision to try the bungee jump, it wasn’t something I had ever really thought about doing, but it had been playing with my mind ever since I first saw it, so I decided to take the plunge (pun intended). I remember that I wasn’t very nervous on the ground in the lead up, and getting into the crane was fine, but once at the top the drop looked a hell of lot bigger than it did before.

I can honestly say, that being stood at the edge of the crane box with the bungee jump cord attached to me caused me to break out into a cold sweat when I looked down. I was told that they would say “1, 2, 3, Bungee!” and when they said Bungee I had to drop, jump or otherwise leave the crane platform. The time came, and when the words Bungee were shouted I stalled, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. I took a step back and collected my thoughts, then walked up to the edge and let go.

At the time, the bungee jump was the most scary thing I had ever done, it gave me a fairly immense adrenaline rush, but it wasn’t something that I really appealed to me to want to again. It was fun, it was a small rush, but that was all. Still, I felt good afterwards for doing it.

In mid December, my good friend, colleague, client and boss Bryce had been thinking about what he wanted to do for his Christmas present and had been considering some fairly intense activities. One of the things he was considering was Sky Diving. Me and Bryce carpool together, so quite often in the mornings if I haven’t fallen asleep on him, we’ll chat about various random things, and I think it was during a carpool drive into the office that I mentioned if he did decide on Sky Diving then I would like to do it with him.

By the time Christmas came, we had decided that we both were going to do it, and as soon as Christmas had been and gone, and I was back in LA and he had returned from Hawaii then we would make the arrangements and all would be good, after that I put it out of my mind for the time being.