Skydiving:

Approximately five months ago I found a new love of mine... skydiving!


It was something that I had always wanted to do, I just never actually took the time to organise to go out and do it... until my friend at the time (who is now my boyfriend) asked me if I wanted to go out and do it with him.


I was extremely excited and a little nervous, as I am afraid of heights! Yeah, I know what you're thinking... if I'm so afraid of heights, why the hell would I want to go skydiving? I was thinking the same thing myself!


When a couple of our other friends found out that we had plans to go, they asked if they could come with us. The more, the merrier I always say!


For the whole week before our booking, I was so excited and I was really looking forward to it... until the actual day arrived!


I woke up that morning feeling sick to my stomach. My mouth was dry, my palms were sweaty and I felt like I wanted to be sick. I was really scared. I spent the whole morning apologising to my friends. I had convinced myself already that I wasn't going to go through with it.


Needless to say, my friends were a little disappointed. No one could believe that I was backing out. They told me the whole way to Picton that I was the last person that they had expected to back out, as I am usually the most adventurous, and I am usually up for anything.


When we got there, I was still convinced that I was only going to watch. My friends kept trying to talk me into it, but I was having no part of it... even though I was filling out all of the paperwork and waiver forms anyway!


That's right, I was literally filling out my paperwork apologising to my friends and telling everyone that I wasn't going to do it!


The woman at the front desk overheard me talking about how I was only there to watch and that I couldn't go through with it. She came over and told me that she had seen so many people in the same situation and that I would regret it if I didn't do it. She assured me that she would give me an extremely reliable instructor that would take very good care of me. I still wasn't convinced.


One by one my friends were greeted by their instructors, and taken to change into their suits, and to do a quick tutorial on the procedure. Then my instructor came out.


By now, I had agreed to go up for the plane ride, but that was it! I was still convinced that I just couldn't jump. I thought it was brave enough of me to even get into that tiny little plane!


My instructor's name was Mick Hill, and he was so nice. He made me feel completely at ease. Maybe even like I might go through with the skydive after all.


He started off by asking me what I was most afraid of. I looked at him puzzled, and replied "Um.. jumping out of a plane!" He started to explain to me that the plane that they had was brand new and that there was nothing at all wrong with it, which was when I wondered why anyone would want to jump out of a perfectly good plane!


Before I could say anything else, he told me that if I was worried that the parachute wasn't going to open, that I shouldn't worry as we had two parachutes.


If I didn't like that feeling that you get on a rollercoaster where your stomach drops, I shouldn't worry as you don't get that feeling from skydiving.


If I was afraid of heights, I shouldn't worry about it, as you are too high up for your brain to comprehend.


By now, I really had no arguments left as to why I shouldn't do it, even though I was still terrified!


He took me through to the next room where there was a rack of blue and red jumpsuits. He handed me one that he thought would be my size, and told me to put it on over my clothes. He told me that I should leave my jacket on as skydiving can get very cold.


Once I was in my jumpsuit, he took me over to a poster that shows all of the skydiving procedures.


He showed me the pictures and explained what each one meant. He then got me to copy his movements to make sure that I was clear on what I had to do.


After our tutorial, it was time to head out to the plane. Even though I had changed into the jumpsuit and harness and had received all of my instructions on jumping out of the plane, I still wasn't sure that I was going to do it.


Our instructors started filming us, and we headed over to the plane. As we were walking over to the plane, Mick asked me if there was anything that I wanted to say to my family and friends. I looked into the camera and told my family and friends that I loved them. I was convinced that I was going to die.


We all piled into the plane and got ready to take off. The plane was so loud, very small, and had no seats. We sat on the floor and one of the instructors closed the door. The door was nothing but this dodgy-looking, flimsy, little roller door. I thought for sure that someone was going to get thrown against it, and was going to break through it and fall to their death. I'm so optimistic aren't I?


As the plane took off, and we got further away from the ground, I made sure not to look out the window. I literally stared at the ground the whole time, while still trying to look happy, relaxed, and positive in front of the camera. I'm not sure if it really worked.


After flying for five minutes, the pilot called out that we had ten minutes to go. Then five minutes to go, then three minutes to go. My mouth was so dry that I could hardly breathe.


At three minutes to go, I had to sit pretty much on the instructor's lap while he connected my harness to his. He then handed me a pair of goggles, and asked me to put them on.


Once the three minutes was up, and we were fourteen thousand feet up in the air, the pilot called out that it was time to jump. The flimsy roller door was opened, and my friend (now boyfriend) Mat was first out of the plane. I watched him fall and took a deep breath... I knew my turn was coming!


I watched a pair of solo skydivers jump, before getting shuffled to the edge. I looked over at my friend Sarah, as if almost pleading with her to save my life and stop me from falling.


The only thought that I had in my head at the time was that at least if I was going to die, it would hopefully be nice and quick.


I sat on the edge of the plane and remembered my instructions. I tucked my legs underneath the plane, and crossed my arms over my chest, with both hands on my shoulders.


After falling for a couple of seconds, I felt my instructor tap me on the shoulder. I took my hands off my shoulders, spread my arms and bent my legs back.


It was about now that I was having the time of my life! The view from that height is absolutely incredible, and the instructors were right, you are falling so fast that it doesn't even feel like you are falling. It almost felt like we were floating, and the instructor was doing this thing where he pushes one of his shoulders down, and you spin around in a circle. He then pushes his opposite shoulder down, and you spin the opposite way.


The wind is so cold, and the air is rushing past you so fast that you almost feel like you can't breathe.


After a full minute of freefall, Mick opened the parachute and told me that I could take off my goggles. When the parachute opened, I felt a huge jolt. It almost felt like we had come to a complete stop.


By this point, I couldn't stop laughing. I was having so much fun! Then Mick started to point out the city. We could see the Harbour Bridge, Centrepoint Tower and even the city of Wollongong. It was just funny to think that we were so far away from everything, yet we could see it all so clearly.


After a couple of minutes, Mick handed me some straps, and told me that I was now controlling and steering the parachute. He showed me how to turn left and right by pulling down on either the left or right strap, and how to slow down by pulling on both straps at the same time. He also showed me that if you pull down left or right hard enough, you start to go into a tight spin, which feels like you are falling again. A little scary now that we were a lot closer to the ground.


Everything underneath us looked so small. It almost didn't look real. Even the plane that we had just jumped out of (that was now sitting back on the runway) looked tiny! I asked Mick how high we were, and he told me that we were only at about four hundred feet (about the height of Centrepoint Tower).


As we got closer to the ground, I felt my straps getting looser. I started freaking out a little and asked Mick what he was doing. He laughed and told me that he needed to loosen my straps a little, so that we could land.


A couple of minutes later, Mick told me to lift my legs, almost like I was sitting on an imaginary chair.


We were approaching the ground so quickly, that I was actually surprised at how smooth the landing was. Mick pulled down on the parachute straps, and we came sliding across the ground.


I couldn't believe it, I was still alive, still in one piece, and I had the time of my life! Mick gave me a high-five, and my friends came running over to give me a hug. Everyone kept telling me how proud they were of me for facing my fears, and conquering them. Even the lady in the office came out and shook my hand!


I was so proud of myself and so glad that I went through with it. I definitely would have regret it if I didn't do it, and I definitely wouldn't have realised what I was missing out on!


We waited around for about ten minutes so that we could collect our footage, and our certificates. I couldn't help but smile when I got my certificate, as the lady at the front desk had written a huge 'Well done' on my certificate.


We all enjoyed it so much that about an hour after we left, we called Sydney skydivers and were going to go again that day. The only reason that we didn't, was the fact that it was about 11.45 and their last jump was at 12pm. Little did we know that we would be going again in two weeks time...

Lela xx