Ever since I first heard about sky diving I’ve wanted to do it.
As some of you will know I am a bit of an adrenaline junkie, and the thought of falling towards Earth always seemed like the ultimate thrill. After watching the 90s films Drop Zone, Terminal Velocity and Point Break; I also liked the idea of the community surrounding the sport (obviously without the crime part). But it was so expensive to learn in the UK, and I just never trusted the weather.
So this morning, I got up at 6am and drove the 100 miles to Hollister, for the fifth time. I had done the ground training a few weeks ago, and every trip up until today has ended with California’s changeable weather messing things up: rain, too much cloud, or strong winds. But as I drove down, I knew today was the day; blue skies baby!
And yes, today I finally got to jump! Twice!!
For my first jump I went up in a small Cessna that looked like it was held together with duct tape. As we climbed I repeatedly ran through the jump in my head; the instructors drilling me on various aspects of the jump. We reached 12,000 feet and one of my instructors opened the door, the cold air rushed in and took my breath away. The first instructor climbed out, I followed him and hung on under the wing; one foot on the wheel; check-in to the left; check-out to the right; look at the prop; out, in, out, and I was free-falling. After an unknown amount of time I leveled out and could see the snowy mountains on the horizon. Check the altitude, eye contact with first instructor — Friday — and wait for thumbs up, same with second instructor — Adam — thumbs up. Three practice pulls. Then wait.
I spaced out here for a few seconds and just stared at the ground rushing up, feeling the wind against my body. It felt so good. Then: oh yeah, check altitude. 8000ft; 7000ft; lock on; 6.5; 6.2; 6.1; 6000ft. Check with instructors; wave off; and pull.
Friday and Adam then disappeared off towards the Earth and I looked up to see my parachute un-folding. No problems. Wicked. I then played around with the parachute for a while as I approached the holding area. Turns and stalls. So much fun. Then at 1000ft I started my final approach being guided in via radio. The wind was low so I came in quite fast. I flared a little too early and dropped the last few feet pretty quickly. But I did a PLF and rolled out on to my feet. Hell yeah!
My second jump was just as cool. It was in the bigger plane and I messed up the exit. The three of us tumbled for a while and when I leveled off Friday was quite a way off to my left. But as I was trained to do, I carried on with just Adam; did my practice pulls; then Friday was back. I then tried the flying forward thing, pretty cool. Rotate left and rotate right. Nice. I then had a couple of thousand feet to chill and checkout the scenery. Everything was so beautiful up there and time was slower the second time round so I could appreciate it more. Snowy mountains, green hills, forests, and sea. I love California.
Again, lock on to the altimeter at 7000 ft, pull at 6000. Watched Adam and Friday plummeting 4000 more feet. Canopy all ok and proceed to land as before. I was a bit more sheepish on the ground this time, after my dodgy exit, but the guys were cool about it and said it was all fine.
I’m going to be heading back in a couple of weeks for my next fix. If you’re wanting to learn to sky dive Hollister seems to be a cool place to do it, every one is super nice and friendly.
Blue skies! :)
