I don’t know how many times my brother and I have tried to go skydiving. We thought about it when Chrysa and I lived in North Carolina, I pushed for it when we lived in California, and I suspected it would happen while we lived in Florida. Why all the delays you ask? Given all of the opportunities why not just take the leap? Didn’t you live next to an airstrip in Lompoc? Time…Time was the reason for the holding pattern. First off, Pat and I had to be in the same place at the same time, a rare thing. Second, (and the biggest obstacle) was getting clearance from Chrysa. My wife has hatted this idea since I proposed it years ago. To this day I’m not sure how I convinced her to let me do it. I can only suspect that I wore her down over time.
Pat drove down to Florida a few weeks ago specifically to make the leap. He met me at the café and was brave, gung ho, and ready to go. We were both so amped to do this that my co-workers decided to meet us at the airport to watch…Chrysa decided to go and run off her nerves at Ravine Gardens. After hanging at the café for a while we left and headed over to the house. We would have time to change, confirm our timeslot, and chill for a bit. That’s when the nerves set in. Pat was a wreck (I ate a deli sandwich and some chips and salsa). He was pacing around and swearing up and down that he wasn’t going through with it. When it was time to go I literally ordered him to get in the car. I figured, if I could get him to the airport under the pretense that he was going to watch me, he would end up jumping himself.
We arrived at Skydive Palatka on a very busy day. There was a university skydiving club there and it was a mob scene. Pat and I were clearly going to be the only tandem jumpers. We fought our way through the party, and over to the desk to check in, and Pat’s nerves kicked in at full force. He tried bargaining with the lady. He wanted to just ride up and act as moral support for me. She was having none of it. She simply told him he was going to jump. He wasn’t given any real choice so we headed over to the informational video area.
Once we were assured of our safety, and briefed on the legal ramifications of our potential demise, it was time to meet our partners and suit up. Pat was partnered with someone new to tandem jumping (he was thrilled) and I was jumping with the owner of the company (or Mr. Sleepy as I would call him). After a bit of milling around while they fueled the plane it was time to board.
Once you are on the plane it’s pretty procedural. You are going to jump! I didn’t really see any opportunity to back out. About half way up we unbuckled our seatbelts (in the event of an engine failure the only way out is to jump), we woke up my instructor (yikes) and got an additional briefing on how we would exit the plane. Mr. Sleepy likes to crouch and sort of fall out sideways. Pat’s guy did a sort of sit and skooch move. After a few more minutes it was time to go. No bargaining, no negotiating, just unrelenting forward process. They open the door, you walk to the back of the plane, and the next thing you know you hit a wall of air and you are in free fall.
The fall itself is a blur. I remember unrelenting wind and a sense of amazement. Not so much of the sensation of free fall, but the amazement that I did it. After the chute was deployed I got a wonderful tour of the area from the sky. You could see the ocean, the St. Johns River, and the town of Palatka below us. It was surreal!
My guy and I performed a text book butt skid landing and it was done. I waited for Pat to land and congratulated him on going through with it. I knew all along that he would. Pat is incredibly brave. He just had to work his nerves out in his own way. I was so proud of us for knocking this off our bucket list.
This was playing on the radio on the way home!
We filled the rest of Pat’s visit with relaxing pursuits. We ate, drank, and decompressed for the remainder of the weekend. One night we took him into St. Augustine and took the distillery tour and ate at the Ice Plant. The other afternoon we went to Silver Glen Springs to cool off and enjoy the crystal clear waters. Hopefully Pat was rejuvenated prior to heading home.
The question now is what we do next? I have already bungee jumped and white water rafted. I guess we are taking suggestions. Anyone have any?
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You two are nuts!! Thanks for sharing the trip.