rasiel
IMG_0167
Ahh, but however much fun quadbiking was when it came to all-out thrills what can top jumping out of a plane? I had been thinking about skydiving for years but nothing ever came of it. The signup sheet for extracurricular activities had skydiving as an option here in Namibia and even though it cost a cool $200 when was I going to have this chance again?
The day after the quadbike I was picked up (none of the other group members could be convinced to join along) and I was taken to the airport here in Swakopmund. After dressing up in the chute gear and waiting around for about an hour we were taken into an airplane with a huge hole where a door ought to be. There were no seats inside. I climbed in along with three other victims, err clients, and about five guides all in all and we sat back to back.
Then without much fanfare the plane takes off right away (no pilot announcement, no food cart service) all the meanwhile me thinking "shit, that door a few inches away is WIDE OPEN". I wouldn't be tossing myself out of this plane, that was the job of the jumpmaster. Solo parachuting you need classes but for tandem you rely on the guy strapped behind you to take care of all the details.
After a few minutes the plane levels off at exactly 12,000 feet and within a fraction of a second my jumpmaster gets up and since I am attached by several strong ropes I involuntarily stand up along with him. He then walks over to the edge and christ, I have just a few millisecods to ask myself "What in the holy hell am I doing here?!" but before I can answer with something like "because you're a frikkin idiot" he just *walks* out the door onto a creamy endless sea of sand below matched by a like of blue above.
Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!
Now that he stuck the knife in my back so to speak he turns it around by spinning me mid-air so that all I see for the next few seconds is nothing but sky and a plane flying away from me.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
I scream like a little girl. Make that a little girl that was being simultaneously scared by a rabid rottweiler while having her Barbies rolled in mud.
I'm screaming so hard I go hoarse. But I'm loving it. I want him to keep spinning me around and tossing me. It's nearly a minute before he pulls the cord and I'm violently yanked up so that I feel like I'm hung on a coat hanger. But even though all is suddenly tranquil, and the view Oh The View, he still manages some extra thrills by yanking hard on one of the drawstrings so that we begin to do corkscrew loop-de-loops.
When it's all over he pulls in for a gentle touch down from which I barely so much as bend my knees and I'm off and walking grinning like a maniac. I feel twenty years younger!!
I want to go again :-)
IMG_0167
Ahh, but however much fun quadbiking was when it came to all-out thrills what can top jumping out of a plane? I had been thinking about skydiving for years but nothing ever came of it. The signup sheet for extracurricular activities had skydiving as an option here in Namibia and even though it cost a cool $200 when was I going to have this chance again?
The day after the quadbike I was picked up (none of the other group members could be convinced to join along) and I was taken to the airport here in Swakopmund. After dressing up in the chute gear and waiting around for about an hour we were taken into an airplane with a huge hole where a door ought to be. There were no seats inside. I climbed in along with three other victims, err clients, and about five guides all in all and we sat back to back.
Then without much fanfare the plane takes off right away (no pilot announcement, no food cart service) all the meanwhile me thinking "shit, that door a few inches away is WIDE OPEN". I wouldn't be tossing myself out of this plane, that was the job of the jumpmaster. Solo parachuting you need classes but for tandem you rely on the guy strapped behind you to take care of all the details.
After a few minutes the plane levels off at exactly 12,000 feet and within a fraction of a second my jumpmaster gets up and since I am attached by several strong ropes I involuntarily stand up along with him. He then walks over to the edge and christ, I have just a few millisecods to ask myself "What in the holy hell am I doing here?!" but before I can answer with something like "because you're a frikkin idiot" he just *walks* out the door onto a creamy endless sea of sand below matched by a like of blue above.
Aaaaaaaaaargh!!!
Now that he stuck the knife in my back so to speak he turns it around by spinning me mid-air so that all I see for the next few seconds is nothing but sky and a plane flying away from me.
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!
I scream like a little girl. Make that a little girl that was being simultaneously scared by a rabid rottweiler while having her Barbies rolled in mud.
I'm screaming so hard I go hoarse. But I'm loving it. I want him to keep spinning me around and tossing me. It's nearly a minute before he pulls the cord and I'm violently yanked up so that I feel like I'm hung on a coat hanger. But even though all is suddenly tranquil, and the view Oh The View, he still manages some extra thrills by yanking hard on one of the drawstrings so that we begin to do corkscrew loop-de-loops.
When it's all over he pulls in for a gentle touch down from which I barely so much as bend my knees and I'm off and walking grinning like a maniac. I feel twenty years younger!!
I want to go again :-)