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Flying Through the Air With the Greatest of Ease
My friend Kimberly (or Berly as she's known since there are a million Kimberly/Kymberlies around) turned forty Thursday and for her birthday milestone, she wanted to go skydiving. Since I loved it so much last time, I totally had to go.
I knew my brother Russell would also love it, so I told him that if he came, I would pay for part of his tandem since his birthday is Thursday. He said no, since he already had plans to go to Austin that weekend, but he called me Thursday morning and said that if I was still going, he'd like to come, which really made me happy; I just love my brother.
About fifteen people ended up going out, including Katie and Chris, though only seven of us jumped.
We were supposed to jump around 11:00, but, as far as I can tell, having a reservation with a large group of tandem jumpers doesn't really make a difference. There's usually a limited number of tandem masters (I think it was three today) and videographers, so there's no way to go through a large group quickly; you simply have to be split into several groups.
We still probably would have been gone by early afternoon except for the crappy weather. Since you obviously can't skydive in the rain or with lightning or anything else like that. They had to keep stopping the plane, so we didn't actually get in the air until around 4:45.
Russell and I rode up in the same plane along with a girl from his firehouse. I never really worry about myself too much when jumping, but Russell was jumping before me and I must admit it was a little scary watching him approach the door and jump out. He's my kid brother, you know?
Finally, it was my turn and I was a little nervous when we got to the door, but much less so than this time. I enjoyed the freefall a little more this time, I think because I didn't have a videographer, could concentrate more on looking around as opposed to at the camera, and also knew a little more what to expect.
As always, though, floating down after the chute pull was my favorite part. The time, Elio, my tandem guy, removed my goggles for me, so I was seeing the ground without the kind of crappy plastic being in the way. He also let me pull on the chute's handles which allowed me to steer us through the air.
I can't believe how much I love doing this. Since Russell enjoyed the hell out of his jump too, I'm hoping we can start working on our certifications together next year. I really don't want to have to go through all the classes and training alone.
Shame it's such a damn expensive hobby. Anyone want to give me about $6,000 for training and gear? lol
.: Posted September 3, 2005 10:33 PM in Fish Tales, ";print substr($entry_cats, 0, -2); ?> :."; echo "Trackbacks on this post: ", $count, ""; $pingarray = "SELECT p.tbping_source_url, p.tbping_blog_name, p.tbping_created_on, p.tbping_excerpt, p.tbping_tb_id, t.trackback_id, t.trackback_entry_id FROM mt_tbping p, mt_trackback t WHERE (p.tbping_blog_id = $blogid) and (t.trackback_entry_id = $entry_id) and (t.trackback_id = p.tbping_tb_id)"; $resultping = mysql_query($pingarray) or die (mysql_error()); while ($row = mysql_fetch_array($resultping)) { //set up the variables being used - the date can be configured below $url = ($row['tbping_source_url']); $blog = ($row['tbping_blog_name']); $date = date("F d, Y g:i A", strtotime($row['tbping_created_on'])); $excerpt = ($row['tbping_excerpt']); echo "
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Comments
Sounds like you had a repeat of what we went through last weekend, what with all the waiting. Gah.
It's a shame you don't live closer -- we could do the certification together! Move to Philly. Come on!
BTW, do things still look good for you coming to visit next month?
.: mac said on September 4, 2005 04:33 PM :: link it :."We were supposed to jump around 11:00, but, as far as I can tell, having a reservation with a large group of tandem jumpers." ... ??? I think something is missing there, but can't figure out what.
Glad you had such a good time!
FYI - Southwest had cheapish flights to Philly from Hobby airport a week or two ago. Not sure if you saw the commercials or not.
.: Christine said on September 5, 2005 11:39 AM :: link it :.You're too early! Come back at September 3, 2005 10:33 PM to see this post.
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