This past weekend I did one of the most amazing things I've ever done: I skydove!
Honestly, it was the most mind-blowing experience. I can't compare it to anything I've ever felt.
A couple of weeks ago Jordan mentioned skydiving and I kind of blew the idea off. It's really expensive and I really didn't see the idea coming to fruition. When he actually started looking into booking his dive I realized it was now or never.
So Saturday August 9th it was. We drove an hour and 45 minutes to end up at the Niagara Skydive Centre at 1pm. I don't think we've ever been so excited for anything in our lives. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face as we watched the informational videos. We then did some quick training and suited up in some very tight onesies. I felt like a race car driver in mine, it was pretty damn badass.
We chose to do tandem skydiving because 1) it takes less training 2) it's cheaper and 3) because I prefer to have someone more competent than I doing all the work while I just enjoy the ride.
We got in a place and went three kilometres up into the air. We passed over the Falls and looped back to the centre before jumping out. Weirdest part about skydiving: you need to get reallllyyy close with a complete stranger, and fast. My instructor/personal human parachute was named Fredrick and he had the best french accent and said my name like this: "Taylerrrr." For the ride in the plane we were basically riding a rattling old tin can up into the clouds. There were no seats so we sat in between our instructors legs. We were at the back and there were two other tandem divers going as well so I also had another instructor in between my legs. I've never had each of my limbs touching so many strangers. Even more, when you get to the right height it's time for your instructor to attach themselves to you. To do this you sit in their laps…for the remaining 5 minutes of the ride. Hellooo Frederick, nice to meet you!
When it was finally time to jump the door opened, the light was green and a pair of jumpers fell out of the plane and disappeared. WHOOSH and they were gone. Oh and the plane was so light that losing two people caused the plane to jolt up and then find it's stability again. I watched this happen three times before it was my turn.
We scooted up to the door, legs dangling and I screamed "I"M SO SCARED." Fredrick took that as his cue and out we went. I've never experienced such a weird feeling in my life. I was rushing towards the ground, there were fields below me and I couldn't do anything but scream, laugh, and take it in. After about 30 seconds to a minute of free fall time the parachute deployed and I laughed in relief that the most dangerous part of our trip was over. The rest of our fall was spent putting our parachute into corkscrews while Fredrick instructed me on pulling the cord to make us spin.
When we started approaching the ground Frederick reminded me to stick my legs out in front of me and to let him do the work. He asked me to try to stick my legs out and they wouldn't go very high. My suit and the harness around my thighs was SO TIGHT. "Highherr Tayllerrr. You can dewwww it." And I used all I had to pull them up…for the practice round…not even the real thing.
We finally got to the ground and as it got closer, and closer, I just dangled and waited until he told me when and the finally I heard "Now Taylerrr." I took the rest of my strength and pulled my legs out straight and we magically slid to the ground. It felt pretty dang graceful. Frederick unhooked me and I just sat there and said "THANK YOU! THAT WAS AMAZING!"
My legs felt like jelly and I watched as the other divers landed around me. When Jordan finally landed we walked towards each other, hugged and talked about how our minds were literally just blown.
If you ever get the chance to skydive I highly recommend it. It was the most amazing thing I've ever experienced.
From the desk of:
Taylor Brown
Certified Badass
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