skydiving

My friend Erin decided last year on her birthday that she wanted to go skydiving before she turned 30. So this week was her 30th birthday we drove to Eloy on Monday only to find out that it was too windy to jump. We were all really bummed, but rescheduled for Sunday. So Sunday we again made the trek to Eloy, and this time we were successful. Erin and I requested the cutest instructors and camera men and Linnette asked for the craziest ones. My instructor or guy holding my life in his hand was Adam. And I have no clue as to the name of my camera guy cause I was too nervous when he told me and couldn't quite understand him with his accent. We signed our life away and watched a video on Monday so Sunday we were able to just roam around before it was time to get strapped up and ready to go. This was a bit scary as every couple minutes, more jumpers where coming out of the sky...the anticipation growing in the pit of my stomach. OMG am I really doing this? Or is this just a crazy dream? I felt like I was having an out of body experience. Adam introduced himself and started getting me set up for the jump. He gave me some instructions and said not to worry cause he would tell me it all over again before we jumped. Then we were all geared up and ready to go jump out of a perfectly good airplane. We climbed into a trailer and then transported to the runway. Adam and I were first on the plane and thus also the last ones to jump out of the packed plane. I watched as we gained altitude and didn't really get nervous until it was time to start scooting to the edge of the plane. Erin was the first to jump, then Linnette and finally my turn. I didn't really have a chance to even breathe before we were at the edge and out the plane. Then we were falling faster and faster, I was so excited that I screamed and screamed and screamed. One of our friends said he could hear me screaming all the way on the ground. We jumped out at 13,000 ft and he could hear me screaming from the ground. I'm glad that the camera man didn't record sound on my video because all it would be is me screaming and yelling OMG! Almost every picture my mouth is wide open cause I'm screaming. Surprisingly I wasn't screaming because I was scared but out of excitement. It felt like forever before he pulled the shoot, but I think it was only a minute or so. It was so exhilarating and time seemed to go in slow motion. Once Adam pulled the parachute, it was so quiet and peaceful. Adam asked if I wanted to have some fun and so we did tricks all the way down. Landing was pretty easy and left me wanting to jump back in the plane and do it all over again. Shortly after landing, our photo's and video were ready. The whole experience was over so quickly and left me wanting more. I'd love to jump again, but I'm not ready to go solo anytime soon(if ever). Here are some of the pictures from my jump.