The beginning

So the whole idea for skydiving started this past holiday season (2007) when my wife was asking me what I would like for Christmas. Being a fairly blessed family with few needs or wants I was unable think of any material items that were of interest to me. I’ve always been into alternative type sports, some would say extreme (not me though), like surfing, snowboarding, wake boarding, motorcycles as well as an on and off hobby of flying, so I decided to try and think of something in these areas that were of interest to me.

First I’d set my eyes on taking an acrobatic flight or taking part in simulated air combat in old Air Force training jets. Unfortunately these items were a bit on the expensive side. Next I thought about bungee jumping and skydiving. I quickly chose skydiving over bungee jumping as it interested me the most and I felt it was the safer of the two. This may sound strange to some, but as you read my future posts I will explain why this is true (in my humble opinion).

Now that I had this set, and my wife had agreed (my wife is incredibly supportive of the crazy things I like to do and seldom worries for my safety) it was time to find someone who would want to do this with me. Right off the bat I went to my good friend Seri. Without hesitation he agreed to accompany me on the journey. From the beginning Seri and I were in complete agreement that we didn’t want to do the tandem jump. We starting researching and decided to do at least stage one of the Accelerated Freefall (AFF) program. Time permitting we would also try and attempt a second jump, hopefully of stage two in the AFF curriculum.

Next we began our search for a good school and dropzone. A good place to start a search in your area would be http://www.uspa.org/. If you are in the Southern California area I highly recommend the Jim Wallace skydiving school (http://www.jimwallace-skydiving.com/). I must admit that our jumps might not have happened had Seri not taken the reins to workout all the details.

Jumps are all scheduled for January 12th, 2008

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.