Skyyyddiiiivvviiinnggg!!

Last Thursday morning, a bunch of friends and I went Skydiving... for no particular reason.

 

We showed up and suited up (I think we kind of look like astronauts).

 We got a 5-second instructional brief and loaded into the plane... 

which we soon realized would be the first plane we would take off in but not land in.

 

 I was second to go... this is me just out of the airplane with a view of Guam below me! 

Let the screaming begin!!

The dot to the right is Christina... the one just out of the plane is moi. At this point I am 2 seconds into the biggest adrenaline rush of my life looking out over all of Guam realizing I was flying through the air uninhibited. Completely intense!

Nick was waiting at the bottom to take pictures... and scoop up any remains in case I did not make it.

But I lived. Thanks to this here parachute and a guy named Justin.

Justin has over 10,000 jumps. Which is slightly more than my 1. 

Going tandem is comforting because you know the other guy probably wouldn't go 

if he thought we were going to die.

Our group safely on the ground... smiles surging with adrenaline... we were all giddy for about an hour after the jump (and then we all crashed).

Receiving our certificates for "achieving adventure." A cheesy touch likely instituted so the Japanese tourists (the primary clients) have something to take back to brag to their friends with. 

Christina and I are cracking up because her certificate says Christina Saucer instead of Christina Sauer. That is extra funny when you have just jumped out of a plane!

Okay so the real reason I did it is because I have listened to Nick tell his skydiving stories about 40 times now (I have lost track of how many jumps he has done). I have seen the pictures, watched the videos, seen the guys drool on themselves retelling the stories at parties. After all that, I felt like I had to go to finally experience the rush for myself. Think I'll go again? Absolutely! Think I will get my cert to go on my own? Uhhh, yeah, no. Personally I'm a fan of knowing someone way more experienced than me packed my chute. So we'll just keep it fun and up the chances of success. 

Would I recommend everyone reading this take the plunge? Absolutely! And if you think you're too old, check this out... my friend Valerie's mom (who is 61) was part of our group... she'd never gone before and she had a blast. You will too!