Skydiving

Steve went skydiving yesterday, which was a gift from me for his 30th birthday. He thought it was pointless to do the tandem dive, which is where an inexperienced jumper is strapped to a certified jumper. Static line jumping, which is where your chute is deployed the whole time from a lower altitude, wasn't his thing either. So, I signed him up for accelerated free-fall, which is a jump from 13,500 feet and includes free-falling for approximately 60 seconds. He took an all day course before he finally jumped with two instructors to make sure he deployed his chute properly.

Mary Anne stayed home with Maddie, and Jim and I went over to watch the big event. I was glad we didn't take Maddie, because we thought he would jump around 3:00, but it ended up being closer to 5:00. We got to watch other people making their jumps, including Mandy's stepdad, who is going through the process to get certified. I was anxious at first, but the longer we waited the more I just wanted him to jump and be done. Then the plane took off. The first time they circled around to gain altitude, I was fine. He flies all the time...no biggie. The second circle around did make me get teary eyed...was he really about to throw himself out of a plane??? Well, little did I know, but by the time the plane circled the second time, he was plummeting to the ground. They are so high up, that spectators on the ground can't see the free-fall, but we did spot him once the chute opened up. He looked like a pro. Apparently, I need to feed him more, because the experienced jumpers who were spectating thought he was taking a long time to reach the ground. I told them how much he weighed, and they said we should have put rocks in his pockets! He finally made it down and landed right where he was supposed to.

One of the instructors who jumped with him told me while we were waiting for him to be debriefed that Steve really had a lot of fun up there. Judging by how much he has been talking about it the last 18 hours and the fact that he wants to go back next weekend, I think she was right.

Jim was clicking away, so I am sure we will get some great shots of the event. He was disappointed he didn't have his telephoto lens, but I hadn't thought to mention the event to him. I didn't take too many, because it is hard for me to watch an event through a camera, but here are a few to show off his studliness.

Last minute instructions...

Plane is just starting to ascend. It is a tiny, little Cesna.

My camera was on full zoom, and this was just when we really started to see Steve on his way down.

Much closer to the ground...

After the landing, his instructor, Joe, met him to start critiquing his jump. Look at that smile!