I'm Free...Free Fallin'!

The spirit of this blog is to document my new adventures...my attempts at living in the moment and enjoying the life and energy around me. And in that spirit, I joined my dear friend Windy Dawn in a new experience...tandem skydiving!

That's right, I willingly jumped out of a plane! Of course, it was a tandem dive, which means I jumped strapped to a professional skydiver.

This all started when I got an email last week from Windy inviting me to go skydiving with her...hmmm, I wondered, do I really have the guts to do that? My thoughts on skydiving in the past were fairly nebulous. But now, the invitation was laid before me...the gauntlet was metaphorically thrown...

After checking that the weather was clear, we ventured to the town of Shelton. We paid our money and they outfitted us with diving suits (you wish you had one!). Then, the diving team proceeded to explain to us proper techniques to prevent us from knocking out our tandem diver (useful information!).

We climbed into the small prop plane (the smallest plane I've ever been in) and off we go! The apprehension began to build...

Waiting for the plane to take off, my tandem diver ran through a checklist with me...
Hat? Check.
Gloves? Check.
Nerves? Uh, I think I left that in the car.

As the plane ascends in the air, my diver asked me, "Well, what kind of dive do you want?"

"What kind can I have?" I ask.

"Well, we can just go straight down...or we can flip and spin," he stated.

"Hey, as long as we land safely, anything else is a bonus!" I exclaimed, while I thought, I wonder if now is a good time to tell him I'm afraid of heights?

We reached 13,000 feet, which meant it was time to jump! Inching closer to that door, I started to wonder why I agreed to do this...and looking out the door didn't easy my mind (why did I think it would?!). Wait! I'm not ready to jump!

But no time was given to ease my trouble mind as I'm pushed right out the door! Immediately, we began with a flip...oh flip! I screamed as I realized there's no way to go but down...literally!

The force was so intense, it really doesn't feel like you're falling. All I could think was I can't believe I'm doing this! I can't believe I'm doing this! It was so surreal! My tandem diver then proceeded to grab my legs with his, and we began to spin...

I wanted to scream at the crazy feeling of a free fall spin...Yet, I couldn't make my voice work...perhaps the air forcing itself into my open lungs had something to do with that! At this point, my mouth and cheeks began to flap with the power of it all...I swear, my mouth expanded 2 inches at this point!

Finally, the parachute opened...a whole 50 seconds after we first jumped. My tandem diver taught me how to turn the parachute and we floated peacefully to the ground level. This was my point to look at the beauty around me...truly, I live in an incredible place!

The time came for us to land...and I did so with a grace only I possess (READ: I landed flat on my butt, when I was supposed to land standing...oh well!).

And it was over.

We all piled onto a truck bed and headed back to the hangar. "How did the dive go?" the owner of the company asked.

"Wait...we already went diving?" I joked. And yet, it wasn't a joke. While in the dive, I was so "in the moment" that when it was over, it felt like a dream. Did I actually do it? Thank goodness I had the video and pictures to prove it!

The following pictures are brought to you by Skydive Kapowsin, me, and the letter K.

On my way to the plane with my tandem diver. Clearly, I have no idea what I'm about to do...

Walking up to the open door...What on earth did I just get myself into???

Out the door...

So so so cool!

A common theme of my pictures...mouth open and a dazed expression on my face...
I hope I didn't eat any bugs... :)


Look how close we are to the clouds!!!

I swear, at this point it was difficult to close my mouth...my cheeks were just flapping with the power of the fall! (Honestly, I think my mouth expanded 2 inches...)

And the parachute opens! Whoo!

From jump to 'chute...a whole 50 seconds!

I survived!