Skydiving Rules!

On that list of “Things To Do Before I Die”, I can now scratch off Skydiving!

On Saturday morning we got up quite early and drove out to Mesquite. The group was made up of Me, Chris, Matt, Rob, Mike & Jason. Mike had a buddy who met us out there so there were 7 of us in total. It was a chilly 51 degrees when we got there. There was some pretty heavy cloud cover and it looked like it might rain, but, thankfully that didn’t happen.

When you are going for a tandem jump, there really isn’t all that much instruction they give you. The instructions are pretty simple. When the door opens, place your toes over the edge in the middle of the door, hands on your chest. When you exit the plane, your partner will tap you on the shoulders, put your arms out, look up and enjoy the ride.

Honestly, I wasn’t nervous at all on the drive up, when we got there or even while putting on the gear. However, on the plane ride up, it sorta becomes REAL and hits you. Holy crap, I’m jumping outta this plane. On our way up, we stopped at 3500 feet to let a solo jumper head out. Watching somebody jump out of a plane from inside the plane is quite trippy! He’s there, and then, he’s not.

At around 5500 feet we leveled out to drop off 3 more jumpers. Then, we climbed to 11,000 feet. In the plane with me was my wife Chris and Rob. As we approached the drop zone, the opened the side door and we scooted down the bench towards the door. When it was time we waddled over to the open door and sorta hung there for a minute or so. Staring out of an open airplane door is fairly intimidating. But then, we rocked back and forth and a second later, we were no longer passengers on an airplane. The first few seconds are incredible. I felt weightless. At no time did I get the sensation of “falling”. It’s much more like floating. The wind is tremendous. The air is QUITE cold. Looking straight down is nearly impossible. My eyes were watering like mad. And then, about 45 seconds or a minute later, Simon (my tandem partner) pulled the cord, the parachute opened and you get jerked to an almost dead stop in a matter of seconds. Holy crap that hurts like a bitch! He told us ahead of time that the straps hurt. He was NOT kidding! On the way down he had me hold the straps and steer us down. Pull hard left and amazingly, you turn left. We spiraled a couple of times and then, before you know it, the ground is coming up quick.

The instructions given for the landing are a little vague. Pull your legs up and let your heels skid across the rocks. I thought to myself, “Fair enough. I can do that…” Being first to jump and not getting to see what anybody else has done is a bit of a bitch. I had no idea what I should expect. So, here comes the ground.. closer, closer, closer. I lift my feet as high as I can, which isn’t very high since the straps are digging in to the back of my legs and the angle that you are at is not very conducive to doing much of anything other than just hanging there… I lift, the ground comes up, my heels touch the rocks and I’m all ready to let them skid… No dice. I may as well have had them cemented to the ground. They stuck in place and my knees buckled and we went sliding on my belly like Pete Rose in to second base.

Seconds later, Rob came in for his landing. Like me, he also went for the belly flop action. He had the added bonus of having his instructor flip over the top of him for some extra bonus points. Shortly after that, my wife came in for her landing. She, too, planted her heels and had her knees buckle. Then, she’s sliding on her stomach, too. Unfortunately, her landing ended up with me taking her to the ER. She put a hell of a sprain on her right ankle. I can’t say enough nice things about our trip to the ER, though. The place looks brand new and we were in and out of there in less than 45 minutes.

We all had an excellent time! I would definitely be up for doing it again some time! I think I’d like to try it again in a little warmer weather.

Matt was kind enough to take a bunch of photos that you can check out here. He also shot video for some of the landings. You can check those out here:

Me landing | Chris landing | Mike Landing | Rob Landing

If you are in Nevada and decide you want to go skydiving, I strongly suggest you head out to Skydive Mesquite. They are a great group of people who know what they are doing and have the whole process down to a science. But, they go out of their way to make sure you have a good time. Thanks a million, guys! We’ll see you again.