Striking off another "things-to-do-before-I-die" list: Tandem skydiving on 9/21/08

I guess I am not the only one interested to skydive at least once in life. In fact, I think it is a cliche but who cares. For example, in the movie "The Bucket List" starring Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman, one of their wish lists included skydiving.

I had to skydive before I have no guts left and major life commitments prevent me from doing such a risky sports.

The drop zone I went to was Freefall Adventures, located in New Jersey. I was surprised to see a crowd already filling up waiver forms before the official opening hour at 9 am.

There were at least eight pages of waiver form I had to sign and initial, agreeing not to sue if some mishap were to occur to me. I found one item amusing but realistic where I had to fill in any distinguish marks since it meant that my corpse had to be identified by someone.

Participants also need to view a short video clip, emphasizing on the risks involved in skydiving and a longer section on the thrills of skydiving.

I decided to include a video package to capture my first tandem skydiving for memory sake. My senses would be overstimulated from an adrenaline rush.

Rob was my tandem instructor who had 17,000 jumps under his belt and started skydiving since 16. My video cameraman was also called Rob.

After gearing up, we were taught how to exit from the plane, adopt the free fall position by arching the hip, landing with bended knees juxtaposed, and most importantly, pulling the cord to release the parachute at about 5000 feet or the instructor would pull the cord.

The aircraft we boarded had a rectangular, transparent door where I had a good view of things getting tiny since I sat closed to it. I got more nervous as the plane ascended higher. I was having second thought on why I had committed myself to jumping out of a plane at 13,000 feet. I had to psych myself that my life was in good hands.

When we reached an altitude of about 13,000 feet, the door was opened. Rob, the cameraman was the first to jump. I did not have the chance to hesitate since Rob, my instructor, was pushing me towards the door. My heart was in my mouth when we leaped from the plane. I felt I was committing suicide. You could see I opened my mouth during the exit (second photo).

I remembered seeing the clear, blue sky before flipping back to see Earth. As I wanted to feel the full effect of free falling, I was dressed in shorts and a long sleeve with a t-shirt over it. The temperature was cold. We were falling at a rate of approximately 100 feet/second for about 60 s. During this time, Rob was filming and taking pictures of me where I did the Superman's pose and breast stroke or mahjong pose. I was also supposed to hold on to him where we spun around for video taking. I felt a tremendous force pulling us apart when we locked our hands. Rob, my instructor, was spontaneous and posed with me.

I was enjoying the rush of free falling and was shouting away. My mouth dried up quickly when I opened it. The force of the wind was so great that it created folds on my thighs and cheeks.

Oblivious of time and height, Rob pushed my left hand towards my face and I saw the altimeter's needle at 5,000 feet graduation. Conditioned from the safety training, I pulled the cord at my right hip.

The sudden slowing down by the opened parachute caused me to swing up and I could feel the strain around my thighs where I was strapped.

Thereafter, Rob, the cameraman proceeded towards the landing zone to get ready to take my landing shots while I admired the scenery from above.

I had to blow my ears because of the pressure built up from free falling and my voice was coarse from shouting with excitement.

Rob did some maneuvering of the chute where we spun around and I felt the strain again.

Instead of landing on both feet, my left foot got the impact. It was painful but I was uninjured.

The one-minute of free falling was awesome, thrilling, and exhilarating. I would consider jumping again if I have spare cash.