Jumping Out of Planes
Two days ago Stacey and I drove North on the 101 to Lompoc for a bit of a birthday present adventure. We arrived to the small valley town and headed for the airport, we were about to climb to 13,000 feet and leap out of an airplane attached to another man, who had a parachute that I hoped would open. We got to Skydive Santa Barbara a little bit late, so we had to wait for another spot to open up on the tiny two-door Cessna. The waiting wasn't long enough for us to think about everything that could go wrong, so when the time came, we suited up and walked to the plane. Stacey's instructor climbed through the tiny opening that they called a door first, followed by her, then my instructor, and finally myself. One final 'jumper' got in, closed the sliding plexiglass door and immediately, the engines began roaring to life. We did our 30 second taxi to the runway and accelerated towards the surrounding mountains. The plane was shaking more and more until we soared off the ground into the cool blue skies and it finally hit me: "We are about to jump out of a freaking airplane!"
The butterflies in my stomach multiplied as we gained altitude while making circles around Lompoc. The views were incredible with the Pacific Ocean to our West, the mountains to the East, and the checkered fields in the valley beneath us. My instructor began distracting from the inevitable with conversation, and it turned out he was an avid surfer too. He was telling me about the iconic, and exclusive, breaks of Hollister Ranch as we passed by the gated community that occupies many miles of pristine coastline. We could see the waves reeling down Coho's Point, making me wish I was back on the ground and reminding me once again: "We are about to jump out of a freaking airplane!"
As we headed back towards the coastline, we reached our 13000 foot mark and prepared ourselves for the jump. My instructor told me to put on my goggles and then he raised the door. The single jumper leaped out head first and my heart began pounding in my chest. He tightened up my harness and scooted me out to the door. I was literally dangling out of the airplane, with only the harness and a tiny part of my butt keeping me in it and he began the count: "One! Two! Three!!." We somersaulted out of the plane and in the first moment I felt as though I could not breath. Then as my body adjusted to the feeling my mind just said to scream. We began doing some spins, as mountains passed, then the beach, mountains, beach, mountains.....it felt like minutes were passing when in reality it was merely seconds, the adrenaline rush just slowed time down. I was hooting and hollering the entire way down, but then I felt a tug as the instructor pulled the parachute and we swung beneath it, slowing down instantly. He handed over the controls and told me to yank my left arm down to my hip. As I did so, we began some more spinning and the horizon disappeared as we became horizontal with the ground. He took back over and aimed for our landing target. As soon as we touched down I wanted more, but it was a bit expensive and we had to get back to town because our friends Joe and Elisa were in town from New York.
Today, we are heading to a local swimming hole called Red Rock with all of our new friends to celebrate my 23rd birthday.