Saturday, April 18, 2009

Terjun

! Hola,

So last Tuesday, me, Saf, Ezim, Haizat and Harris drove up to Lake Taupo for a road trip. We left Palmy at around 11 AM, yes, quite late for a road/day trip, but hey...kata bujang-bujang semua, kind of..hehe. Anyways, most of you, by you I mean my friends who read this blog, would already know the main reason for the trip was that me and Saffy could go skydiving. Yes, skydiving. 15000 Ft, of pure expensive fun..haha.

When we arrived, me and Saf went to the counter to register, and opted for the silver package, which included the DVD, pictures, a t-shirt and a jump from 15000 Ft. One of the variables that you had to fill in was your weight, which I confidently thought was 85, so I put down 85. Hahaha. Didn't know that we had to really weigh ourselves....and it turned out to be more than 85. Mader Ef tul..

We waited for another 20 minutes before they called us to suit up in those skydiving suits that you usually see people who skydive wear. I honestly at this point was really calm, and really didn't know what to expect. When I did the bungee jump in my first year, this moment, the calm before the storm, was the time I got really nervous. But honestly, I did not feel that buzz.

After suiting up, I met the instructor who was going to jump with me. Owh, we're doing a tandem skydive, not solo ok. If I was doing a solo dive, I would literally pull that parachute string immediately after jumping out the plane. haha. Anyways, I felt confident of the instuctor, whose name is Brad Rock by the way, because he looked large and strong enough to cope with my more than 85 Kgs of weight.

Another 10 minutes passed, and we were asked to line up at the loading area. We waited for the plane to park, and one by one, we enter the plane. I was the first to enter, which means that I was the last to jump. Shit..I'd rather be the first. After all 18 of us were on board, (6 jumpers, 6 instructors and 6 cameramen), the plane took off and gradually went up and up towards the sky.

At this point, I was pretty quiet, and Brad, who was attached to me using harnesses and ropes and other safety gear, kept asking me if I was ok. I was ok, really I was, It was just the thought of me jumping out of a plane finally caught up to me. It was the thought of accomplishing another one of my all-time to do list. The fear factor has not kicked in yet. Only when they opened the door, and the cold air came in and went up my suit, did the fear really kick in. One by one I saw them jump, and finally Brad eased me up the seats, and positioned us at the exit door. A quick exit photo, and 3, 2, 1...and I was falling from the sky.

I felt like grabbing something, that reflex when a person is falling down, our body automatically reaches for something. So I grabbed my safety harness. 2 seconds after, Brad grabbed my hands and I let go, and we were free falling. I couldn't really think, I know I'm falling from the sky, and I see the cameraman in front of me. I wanted to scream, but no chance of that, the wind was blowing up at my face, and the goggles were kind of loose that made it a bit uncomfartable. But being a true poser, when the camera was in front of me, I tried my best to give a thumbs up, trying to give a smile. hahah. It was the greatest rush i've ever experienced so far in my life. Several seconds passed, then I felt a jolt upwards, and suddenly the air was calm, and I could hear myself again. He had pulled the cord and we were now parachuting down.

While we were parachuting,

Brad: "Welcome to my office"
Me: "Not a bad office to go to everyday, if I say so myself"
Brad: "Beats wearing a shirt and tie everyday"

After 2 minutes of parachuting, we landed in the landing zone. Awesome! Awesome!

Skydiving was not as scary as bungee jumping in my opinion, but skydiving is waayy more exciting. I recommend everyone to try it once in your life. Hehe.

I leave you with a video I put together to further let you enjoy my joy.

Hasta Luego Amigos



4 comments:

Anonymous said...

i is jealous. nuff said.

FlyingDragon said...

wowee!!!! I'm so gonna do it sometime! too bad i didnt go with u guys...

FM said...

when i read this, suddenly i pulak yang rasa as if i was the one who's gonna do the jump.

SyArENa said...

haha same like farah, I rase kecut perut bace this post, as if i was the one who was about to jump off the plane hahahaha. congrats, this post is well written shah.

i really regret x buat skydiving when i was in NZ. The video was really cool and ur instructor was wacky too. All the best for the rest of ur Uni year and Bersatu too. Enjoy while u still can=)