backside of the jumping
platform (so as to not
get your feet caught on
the wheel), don't grab
the instructor's hands (he
needs them to pull the
shoot) and keep your
feet up at the landing (if
your feet caught on the
ground it would send
both instructor and
pupil face first into the
mud, bad idea), And, arch your back
while you free-fall so you don't spin
around like a football.

At about 8000 feet I could see my
own breath and my goggles were fog-
ging up. By 10,000 feet it was minus
15 degrees Celsius in the plane and we
were higher than any snow-capped
mountain I could see. The door opened
at 11,000 feet and everything got really
loud, and for some reason the plane
didn't seem like the safe place to be
anymore. It shook and teetered with
the howling wind. The camera flyer I
had requested to record my death defy-
ing feat, Kei Niizuma, swung out on
the wing of the plane. It was my turn. I
crossed my arms; Don yelled ready, set,
jump! And we were off, upside-down at

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first, so I could see the
plane turn into a tiny
speck in the sky. No
going back now. I

f arched and we flipped

| back towards the earth.
That first ten seconds
was the most incredible
sporting experience |
have ever had. Every
thought I had was
focused on trying to
make sense of how weightless I felt and
with trying to feel in control an out-of-
control situation. Then, realizing it was
too late for that kind of thinking, my
heart pounding, I opened my eyes wide
and went with the ride.

As we streamed toward the ground,
Kei the cameraman followed us down
and entertained us with his aerial spins
and flips—the whole time keeping the
camera on us. I didn’t even notice the
ground getting closer
until about 4000 feer—
that’s how high 11,000
feet is. A short 45 sec-
onds later the howling
stopped and the chute
was deployed. That was a
nice feeling. My biggest

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fear was the chute not opening; but it
did and I felt at peace. We flew the
square canopy to the ground, spinning
and looping our way back to the Pitt
Meadows hanger. Don even let me fly
the chute alone for a while; I got the
feeling that if I really knew what I was
doing, I could keep us in the air for an
hour. We were down in about five min-
utes.

That's right, thirty minutes to get up
there and five to come down. I’m
hooked. I was yelling at Don before we
even landed that I would be back, and I
will. Skydiving is something that
grabbed me, thrilled me, threw me into
an uncontrollable awakening of the
senses and adrenaline. It won't change
your life and it’s not better than sex,
but I don't think you could ever lose
that feeling of anxiety, adrenaline and
wonderment no matter how many
times you jumped. See you in the sky.

 

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