Sunday 19 February 2012

Skydiving - Part 1

Adventure sports one of my passions. Somewhere in back of mind I wanted to do Skydiving but never took it seriously. It all suddenly happened because of my other adventure enthusiast friend. I was in UK and I called my friend to plan for upcoming long weekend and she shared her thought with me about skydiving and I told I am IN. I did not think for a second to reply her.
It was in Netheravon, Army parachute association near Salisbury, wiltshire in UK, My friend did all enquiry about it and yes it was not solo jump, It was Tandem Jump where instructor will be tied up to you. For solo jump you should be certified and to get that you have to undergo almost 14 weeks training course. We booked date 17 April 2011 for our tandem skydiving .I and my friend reached to the camp and surprised to see crowd of skydivers. One guy gave us lift from camp gate to the skydiving registration office in his car, while chatting with him we came to know that this guy has done more than 500 jumps. He also told us that most of the guys come here for jump in weekends.
We registered ourselves in the office for the jump; all guys present were so supportive and helpful. Nothing to hide but we both were little nervous and office guys finds out easily, they were making both of us relax and sharing their experiences with us. We paid for our jump and yes few extra pounds to capture our jump in camera. One Cameraman will dive with us to capture our jump. Hell, people are earning from there jumps too, gr8!!!!
Two more girls came for tandem skydiving. In whole campus only 4 of us were for tandem, rest all 60-70 guys were either came for their weekend jump or for solo jump training. We met our instructor and he took all of us for some basic introductory/training session. He explained all about our jump, how it going to work then he briefed us about parachute bag and he told us that even if jumper falls unconscious during jump, this bag has provision of automatic parachute which opens at 5000ft height if main parachute is not opened by then. Then body positions during free fall, landing etc.
It was me and my friend’s first turn to go for jump, we have been given the diving suite, and one helmet which instructor call it as silly hat and actually it was and one plastic glares. Our instructors checked the suit and made sure that it has been worn perfectly. Our cameraman shooting all these stuff and making this moment historic for us. After waiting for some time, plane which takes jumpers in the sky to 13000ft and drops them off the board, landed and now it’s our turn to board this plane. This was the first time where I will be taking off from the plane but landing by myself. It was small plane without seats. In such small place 14-15 jumpers boarded including us. After settling down in plane I looked at my friend and she also looked at same time. We both can understand what’s going in each other’s mind. We both took Lord Ganesha’s name; No one else understood it and wished luck to each other.

Mayuresh

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