**DANGER** #11
I was in Vegas for March Madness like every year but, this year my brother in law came along. He is looking for some change and needed to try something different. He asked me if I would jump off the Stratosphere with him. Now I wouldn’t say I am afraid of heights but, I do have concern on who I trust with my life. Sorry, to the guys and gals operating the Stratosphere jump you’re not on that list.
I told Devin (bro in law) I would be willing to skydive if he was. He did a little research and found a place we could skydive in Vegas (well it was 20-30 miles off the strip). So before I knew it we had a skydive jump scheduled. I didn’t tell anyone, I still was not sure he was really ready to do this.
Tandem skydive didn’t scare me because I figured the guy I’d be strapped to didn’t want to die either. So trusting him with my life was easy. My only concern was that there is a chance (like in everything I do) to have an accident. This was a nagging feeling that if I died I’d leave Presley without a Mommy by my own selfishness or recklessness. This thought came to mind but the next thought of wanting her to live her life being fearless and to not be afraid was stronger much more intense feeling. I decided to listen to that one...
We arrived as the sun was coming up, the sky was a beautiful shade of blue and purple, there was barely a breeze. I had a bit of nerves that morning but I felt it was a good nervous. We arrived signed our life away and with very little instruction we were suited up and matched with our dive partner...
Reminded me of Taliban videos. Not very comforting.
During our short and concise training one of the instructors said, “and if you’re feeling like getting crazy let your instructor know”. After I heard that I told my instructor, “I’d like to get crazy. Hey who knows when I’ll do this again”.
He said, “ok lets do a back flip out of the plane”. I asked if we could do a bunch of back flips, he let me know I’d miss most of the jump by doing that (we’d drop pretty fast) so one would be good.
Saturday morning on March 22nd at 8:45AM Devin and I along with 5 other first time jumpers hopped in a plane. We then started our climb of 15,000 feet in the air to voluntarily jumped out of a perfectly good plane. By 9:04 we were back on the ground with big smiles on our face feeling more alive than ever!
I was the last one on the plane which at first I was bummed out about but, then my instructor said we were going to be the first to jump. This made me happy, I was the only girl and more than willing to jump first. But not before telling all the guys (before we take off) this was their last chance to change their minds!
While in the air my instructor was chatting with me and videoing the take off etc. We were sitting right in front of a roller door. He asked me if I was nervous, I let him know I was a little nervous, healthy nervous. He turned to me and said are you ready for “this”, we are half way there? I said, “yeah!” What I wasn’t ready for was him to open the door next to me! The only thing stopping me from falling out was his leg. The view was amazing and the feeling of the wind on my face was breathe taking...
One bit of advise I was given was to try to calm the adrenaline rush while on the plane, otherwise I’d forget most of the jump. Once I knew we were close I took a minute closed my eyes placed my hand on my stomach (grounding myself) and tried to slow my pounding heart and shallow breathing. The plane was loud and it was not hard to zone everything around me out.
The first minute of the jump was the most thrilling, invigorating feeling I have ever had. My ears pounded from the pressure, I imagine my face looked similar to a dogs face hanging out a car window (yup, photos proofed that)!
We did a backflip, I thought maybe I had closed my eyes because I didn’t remember. But when I saw the video, my eyes were open, it’s just hard to make sense of everything going on. The loud humming of the plane, the wind, my heart and all my senses on full alert.
I got to drive and spin us in circles!!
Safe and happy on the ground, Thank you John!
www.skydivelasvegas.com