I got a great opportunity to go skydiving this past weekend with my friend Shannon in Mission Beach (about a 3 hour bus ride north of Townsville), and it was amazing! I am definitely looking forward to doing another jump in the future. The steps it took to actually get to the point of jumping out of the airplane were pretty simple:
Step 1: Sign your life away (AKA: who do we notify if you die).
Step 2: Get weighed so the plane won't be overloaded (they write your weight in marker on the inside of your wrist)
Step 3: Finish up making any payments, order pics/video.
Step 4: Meet your tandem master and get suited up (My tandem master was a pretty cool guy named Strop).
Step 5: Run through a brief talk about what to do with your body when you jump out and when you land (the jump out position is called the banana).
Step 6: Load up on the plane with your tandem master.
Step 7: Get shoved out of the plane at 11,000 feet.
Both me and Shannon were a bit nervous but really excited at the same time. The view during ascent was fantastic, we had a great weather that day; I remember it being really chilly at 4,000 feet when we opened the exit door for the 2 camera men to jump. I was the second girl to go (all girls-me, Shannon, and 3 Brits), and I was almost laughing out loud watching the terrified facial expression on the first girl's face; When I got to the door's edge and swung my feet out, I just started smiling and don't remember being scared at all at that point, I was stoked! During free fall, I spun around on all axis for a bit before we stabilized, I kept reminding myself to breathe because there was so much air being shoved into my mouth at once, and I loved keeping my hands in the fist position because I was afraid if I opened them, they would fly back and hit my tandem master in the face! Once we stopped free-falling and opened the main chute, it got completely silent, and I just enjoyed the amazing view of the rainforest, mountains, ocean, and beach; Strop thought it was funny to spin us around in circles a few times, however, being an individual with motion sickness, I wasn't too keen. Our landing was a sit-down in the sand because there was something going on with the wind, so no one's landing was the smoothest; I thought ours was pretty soft and no worries there. All the pictures that I got were taken by my tandem master with a camera attached to his wrist, and we all got certificates with the first picture below scanned on it and membership in the Australian Parachute Federation (till July).
So, if you get the chance to jump out of a plane (with a parachute), do it!
Mission Beach itself was really pretty, and the hostel we stayed at was a good one, clean facilities, nice people, right across the street from the beach, with a good restaurant on the corner. Shannon and I just chilled on the beach after our jump Sunday morning; we even found a few coconuts and were able to get one completely open to eat some of it-very tasty. It was a quick trip but really fun and relaxing. I'm actually headed back out this weekend to go camping in the tablelands west of Townsville for a field trip, so hopefully that won't be too bad.
Only one more week of classes! Then a one week break before 2 weeks of exams, and then I'm USA bound :)
