Adventioneering

Photos

Alex and I recently found ourselves in the great state of Texas to attend a wedding and see our good friend Bryan. Before we packed up redcar and hit the pavement I did a little planning and made a list of ‘things I’d sure like to do while I’m in Austin’. Hitting the outlet mall was of course way up there on the list, I mean come on, what girl can pass up like the biggest outlet mall ever and with a Coach store. Also up there on my list was to go skydiving.

After looking into it I’d decided to give it a whirl at Skydive San Marcos, in you guessed it, San Marcos, Texas. I had chosen them because I have specific criteria about what perfectly good airplane I’d even jump out of at all. Anything that would require me to climb out on to a wing strapped to another person was completely out of the question, I have limits you know. I required that the plane I chose to leave and hurl myself at the Earth have a door with which to jump out of, since I’m a civilized kind of woman. I’d chosen this place since they had a Grand Caravan. I’d planned to do a tandem jump, so we headed out to San Marcos to see about it all.

The day had been overcast with a few sunny breakthroughs, but things weren’t looking up on the weather side of things. We were still optimistic. I completed all my YOU KNOW YOU REALLY COULD DIE DOING THIS SO DON’T SUE US OKAY? paperwork and waited. The sky got a little cloudier and blue with rain. It didn’t look like it was going to happen today, so we departed and I consoled myself with Coach products.

The next day we awoke to blue skies with patchy clouds. Looked like the perfect day for a jump, so we returned. I got on a manifest pretty quickly, got my instruction on how it all was supposed to go down and I was on a plane with Dentist/Skydiver Dave. Of course I had to document my first jump and as we taxied out for take off my video/photographer pointed to the field next to us. “See those birds?”… “Sure”… “They’re just picking over the guy who didn’t open his chute yesterday” Laughter ensued. You kind of have to have a sense of humor about these things I guess.

I was the last one on the plane, first out the door. Alex and Bryan waited on the ground with their cameras to capture the moments of touchdown. (Many thanks to them both for the pictures associated with this post). I remember getting up and basically waddling to the door, man it was way up there and it was cold. I crossed my arms over my chest and we rocked, out, in and out we went. All I could do was scream, it was overwhelming!

Apparently I was so overcome that my scream was heard some 10,000 feet below by Alex, Bryan and pretty much everyone on the ground. Yes, I was THAT girl. The free-fall went racing by and then the ripcord pull me back, it was more abrupt than I had been prepared for, but then it all slowed back down and we were floating, it was quiet except for the sound of the wind and the chute. I remember looking around at the ground below and taking it all in. We came in for out landing swiftly but smoothly. A little disoriented Dave asked me if I wanted to go back up. “Yes!” I said pretty much immediately. I signed myself up for a second manifest.

This time I was going to pull the cord, or at least try. I would wear the altimeter, call out the altitudes and pull the cord at the correct time. Dave warned me that the chute in his rig was designed for tandem and was probably too heavy for me to pull, but said that I would try anyways and if I couldn’t pull it signal and he would pull the other rip cord on the other side.

Out-in-out again. I called out the altitude, free-fall, called it out again, more free-fall, called it out again and pulled. Dave was right, it was just too much for this little girl, so I signaled and he pulled and abrupt motion and there we were floating again. Dave taught me how to steer the chute which provided a lot more resistance and required a lot more muscle than I would’ve expected, but we did some spins and came in for another swift, smooth landing.

It was a truly awesome experience. People I encounter often say that they couldn’t skydive since they are afraid of heights. I too am afraid of heights, but at 10,000 feet it just doesn’t feel the same, I wasn’t scared at all. It was a complete thrill. If you ever find yourself in San Marcos, Texas, and want something to do I highly recommend this place. They have a few perfectly good airplanes to jump out of.