SkyDive the Beach Wollongong – Parachuting at its Best
Posted by Meggs | Fishing Holiday Stories | Posted on July 17th, 2010
No turning back - just look at that concentration!
Greetings all,
Yes, I know this post has little to do with fishing but I thought I would give you a rundown of my first ever parachute jump last weekend.
A present from my wife and kids (do they love me that much?) I must admit it’s taken some time for me to use the voucher. In fact, by the time I left the plane I had only four days left on its expiry date.
Now to be fair I wasn’t actually all that nervous over the past six months about jumping. I’ve taken to the air in a glider plane and a hang glider and the most scariest thing I’ve ever done to date was to climb a glacier in New Zealand whilst enormous chunks of ice were hurtling off it’s edges and crevasses appeared that seemed to go on for miles. No I haven’t bungee jumped (yet) but I did do a bunjee experience in New Zealand that allowed me to see everything that a jumper had to go through to prepare for the dive. OK, that can be my next adventure!
I wasn’t really worried about parachuting at all. I even quipped that I was opting for a “tandem spacesuit” rather than the parachute and I intended to do a fly-past the Sea Cliff Bridge before deploying the chute.
That all changed when I woke up on the day I was to jump. Now I don’t know whether or not it had anything to do with the massive hangover I was nursing but all of a sudden I woke up in a bit of a panic. I tossed. I turned. I thought about asking my son to jump for me. It got so bad that I couldn’t handle it anymore and I decided to get up and go for a long walk.
That seemed to do the trick and for the rest of the day I oscillated between a 5 and 6.5 out of 10 on the anxious scale.
Reporting in at the North Beach headquarters of Skydive the Beach I was reminded of the Monte Python scene in the Life of Brian where people were lining up for their crosses. After signing the waiver form I joined the other jumpers outside and spent the next 30 minutes suiting up and sharing nervous laughs and jokes. I remember someone mentioned that the plane above was dropping parachutists and I looked up at the sky and could hardly see the plane let alone the parachutists. Although I did take a peek I had to turn away as the sight of the falling lemmings was all too much. Eventually they landed about 100 yards from where we stood. I can say they did seem to be falling quite fast but the tandem instructors were able to pull them up very quickly for a soft landing.
Soon it was our turn to board the bus but not until after the jovial tandem instructors made an appearance with one quipping that his wife had left him and that his house burnt down the day before and he was through with everything. Thankfully for us he really was joking.
Ok, the equation is this. Albion Park airport is a 15 minute bus ride, the airplane trip is 20 minutes, you climb up to 14,000 feet and free fall for 60 seconds and then float down to earth for 4 minutes. Sweet!
The crew seemed to be all newbies to the parachuting world and only one of us had been parachuting beforehand. You wouldn’t believe it in a team of about 8 jumpers I actually sat in the bus next to one who came from my home town in Sydney – talk about a small world.
Arriving at the airport I had to ask my tandem instructor whether he was pumped and he smiled and assured me that he was ready to go. The operation itself ran like a well oiled machine – the airplane was ready for takeoff as soon as our bus turned up and we squeezed into it facing the back of the plane. The roller shutter door was pulled down and we were off.
The flight to the drop zone was picturesque – Wollongong and its waterways and surrounds are absolutely sensational and there’s probably no better jump site in the world.
With a five minute warning given and our belts tightened to that of our instructors I felt an eerie calm take over the plane. There was no one complaining that they didn’t want to jump. I think we all had resigned ourselves to the fact that it was going to happen no matter what. The roller shutter lifted and a rush of cold air came into the plane and the next thing I knew the first pair had left the plane. Boy – was that bizarre seeing someone leave the confines of a plane. I’ll never forget that.
My instructions were to go to the edge of the door and have my feet curled up under the plane. Well, I’ll tell you there was no time for that because as soon as we were at the door we were on our way out of the plane!
Hmmm… falling was not as I had expected it to be. I don’t know – there wasn’t the feeling like at an amusement ride with your stomach lifting or anything. It was cold, the air (and the ground for that matter) was rushing up at you but I couldn’t help but think with goggles on it looked rather like a movie and the sensation was like it was happening to someone else.
60 seconds of free fall is a long time and because I was at the bottom of the instructor I was wondering whether or not he was still with me and whether or not he was going to bother and pull open the shute – not that I was ever really concerned but it did feel like a long time.
The cord was pulled and again the sensation was not what I expected – there was no terrible wrenching of the body skyward – it was actually quite gentle. I found my ears had “popped” and I was a little hard of hearing but otherwise I was unscathed and quite lucid. We chatted all the way down and I must admit it was a sensational experience. The instructor got me to “stand” on his toes and although we were falling through the air it really felt like I was on solid ground so much so that I could stand up straight with all my weight on his feet. Weird! We practiced our landing technique mid air and we dropped like a pin straight at our target and landed perfectly.
Would I do it again? Probably… and when I did I certainly wouldn’t be as anxious the second time around. I think it’d be best if you share the experience with a friend rather than doing it by yourself. It certainly is one of those rights of passage things that one must cross off their list one day and I’m certainly glad to have done it. I think I’m even a little bit more appreciative of every moment I have above ground because of it.
Sea you later,
Skipper Meggs