Saturday, February 20, 2010

Going skydiving

Well, the season is coming! Tomorrow I'm heading up to Snohomish to enjoy my first skydive of the decade, unless it's too cold and I chicken out. It should be in the low to middle 50s on the ground, which means it will be (brrrr!) cold at altitude and in the airplane.
This is a picture of Smart Guy and me coming in to land at Harvey Field in Snohomish after a skydive last summer. It was much warmer that day than it will be tomorrow, but I thought I'd like to show you our pretty canopies, both a brand called Stiletto. They used to be state of the art, and nowadays they are considered to be older technology, but they're still hot!

My need and desire to skydive has diminished considerably over the years, but I still get a great deal of enjoyment from the activity, especially when I have friends who smile at me in freefall and, after we land, come over to enjoy the grins and smiles from our activity in the air. There's nothing like it. Now I'm not trying to convince anybody to do this, but if you do get a chance to make a tandem jump, you might get hooked, like I did. After all, I was 47 when I made my first jump, and I'm still at it twenty years later. Not making very many, but after more than 4,000 of them, and 64 hours of accumulated freefall time, I'm definitely not on the first (or second, or third) rush of excitement.

That's not to say I'm not excited and feeling butterflies, thinking of making a jump after five months on the ground. I made my last one at the end of September, and then I crashed and hurt my shin while hiking! I'll let you know how it goes, and how it felt after a layoff. Have a great weekend!
:-)

13 comments:

  1. OMG. I read about your hard landing of a few years ago, and am in awe of you. You go girl!
    Kathryn (BC, Canada)

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  2. I really admire you and wish you the best of luck.
    Sunny :)

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  3. Gracious, is there anything you haven't tried? In my wildest dreams I can't imagine doing that. Will be anxious to hear how it goes.

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  4. I think it is so amazing that you still want to keep jumping! Good luck to you!!

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  5. I'm hyperventilating just reading about your jumps. I think it is neat that you do it and enjoy it so, however. I'm nervous on an 8 foot ladder.

    When at the Empire State Building, I had to extend my hand to the fencing then slowly walk towards the wall before looking over. Can you imagine my even considering a jump? hahaha

    Enjoy yourself tomorrow.

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  6. DJan, we are NOT related! I would never in a million years consider skydiving! lol You are a gutsy lady!

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  7. you are so brave, I'm even afraid of ladders, can't wait to hear how you do.

    blessings and be safe..

    Dorothy from grammology
    grammology.com

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  8. I have a height phobia. Watching skydiving on TV causes me to panic. I can't imagine ever jumping out of a plane - a ladder is too high for me. I am glad there are free spirits like you that can tell us all about it though. Enjoy your jump tomorrow.

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  9. I will sky drive through your blog..that is plenty close enough for me..remember to pull the thingy!! Those are some beautiful canopies:)

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  10. I remember when only radical young hot-shots jumped Stilettos! OMG, I can't believe they are now almost passe. I remember when Bob's "Evolution" was the experimental race car of canopies. And my PD, a veritable sedan of canopies... Jump on, my friend. I'm off to the wind tunnel next week with Bob and two of our grandsons...

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  11. I do admire anybody who can do these kinds of things. I just couldn't jump out of anything higher than the bed and then I'd be crippled up for a while. Maybe, when I was younger I could do it. I did jump out of a haymow once or twice onto an old wagon with about half of a load of hay on it. And then the last time I jumped my feet hit OK and my face came down on my knees and bloodied my nose pretty good. I almost knocked myself out.

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  12. Oh crikey, you have such guts to do this. Respect! God speed and a safe landing.

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