Crossed a major threshold in fear this weekend as I went skydiving for the first time
When I first visited Broome a couple months ago, I saw a brochure for tandem skydiving, the photo of which was absolutely stunning. In the background of 2 skydivers in a freefall is a beautiful vista down to the incredibly green Indian Ocean and the red pindan dirt of the land below. I decided right then, that on my return trip, I'd celebrate the place by seeing the same view for myself while hurtling down to earth in exactly the same way...
Cut to this Saturday morning when myself and 3 brave friends from work met at the local airport for our introduction and instruction. "Broome Skydiving" is run by Ralph and his wife Jo, two fantastically friendly, professional and reassuring people. Ralph is the instructor that jumps with us and I was immediately put at ease by his record of nearly 10,000 jumps and careful attention to detail.
Since this was my idea, I volunteered to jump first. Surprisingly, I wasn't too apprehensive. I think my concentrating on the details and being completely "in the moment" helped immensely with that - not to mention my general sense of blind faith :-)
Soon enough, we were airborne in a tiny lil' plane, with barely enough room for Brett (our pilot), Ralph, myself and the parachute
The ascent to 10,000ft took about 15 minutes and I loved it. From this vantage point I could scan the town and countryside below, spotting our various shooting locations and some interesting landmarks. For much of the flight we were over the ocean and similar to the Caribbean, it was incredibly clear and rich in color. For the life of me I tried to locate large sharks or manta rays, but no luck. As we flew over the mangroves, I searched for giant crocs - no luck with those either.
Little matter though, the impending adventure was far more interesting
At our height, Ralph signaled for me to move in front of him and he attached our harnesses. As he did this, I was amazed how calm I was and how much trust I had placed in him and the equipment
Within what seemed like only a few seconds, he flipped up the tiny side door and in the blast of the cool high-altitude wind, instructed me to place my left leg out on a small rail. Then my right. So now, here I was, sitting in the open door of an airplane at 10,000 ft above the ocean. Then came the physical signals - the first of two leans forward, the second of which is actually the "jump".
No time to think, just be in the moment and hellya, I was. The first millisecond in the air was a rush of sensations and images: "What the fu...??", "This is amaaaaazing", "beautiful", "oh good, my shorts are still dry", etc. I immediately felt the altitude change one feels when jumping from a small cliff, but as I continued to fall, that feeling disappeared.
It came back again for a brief bit once the chute opened 30 seconds later and then disappeared again, only to resurface whenever we'd do any sharp banking curves.
The adrenaline rush and resulting euphoria was incredible. Combined with the beauty of my vistas, this has truly become one of my more memorable experiences.
For all of us that jumped that day; Holly, Philippe and Simon, we experienced similar sensations and resulting joy. Being that Ralph took us up one at a time on an approx 40 minute round trip, the rest of us that remained on the ground (including Tony, our stalwart supporter) had an opportunity to wind down and really enjoy each others company, something that work doesn't give us the ability to do.
Many thanks to Ralph and Jo for keeping me alive and filling me with a great sense of accomplishment, excitement and pure giddy joy. Many thanks also to the gang for the fantastic day and the great sunset dinner on Cable Beach afterwards.
A wonderful, wonderful day...
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