My First Time Skydiving

SKYDIVING. An activity that not many people dream of doing. For me, this has been the number one thing on my bucket list for years. For my friend’s 22nd birthday this year I finally had the opportunity to do it. At first I declined the offer out of sheer terror and then when I finally worked up the courage to go with the group, there was no space left on the plane. I was devastated. But luckily, a miracle (or a death wish) came along and I was able to go after all to experience the thrill. A group of ten of us showed up at the DC Skydiving Center at 9:00 am, which unfortunately meant we would have to be divided into three planes – and unfortunately again I was in the last one that was taking off, giving me way too much time to freak myself out.

To start off, the building looks about as sketch as you can get. Run down sheds, tall grass, spray-painted signs. But this place had awesome reviews so I had no fears about that and decided to put all my trust into them.

Anyways, right when we got there we had to fill out this ridiculously long and moderately terrifying waiver that was basically signing our life away… as you do. There was a short training session and before I knew it, I was strapped to my instructor in the tiniest plane I had ever seen in my life. Side note: all the pictures are not-great quality because they were screen captured out of the $100 video I bought. Once in a lifetime, right?

The plane. Small. For some reason I didn’t feel that nervous to hurdle rapidly towards the earth with a stranger. It all happened so quick I guess. I sat on the edge of the plane with my legs dangling out the door, tucked my head back, and off we went. I found it kind of difficult to catch my breath with all the wind and pressure but the free fall was my favorite part. That and landing on the sweet sweet ground, of course. Everything I had read said that you don’t get that roller coaster drop feeling and you do get a floaty/flying feeling. In my case, those were both lies. The second I dropped out of the airplane I felt my stomach drop. Even though we apparently went without a parachute for about 40 seconds, it felt way quicker than that. I honestly can’t remember feeling like I was floating at any time. I only remember the parachute being deployed, yanking me up, and feeling so relieved that the parachute actually worked. BEWARE TO THOSE WITH BANGS. THEY LOOK TERRIBLE IN SITUATIONS LIKE THESE.

Can we also briefly mention and discuss HOW on EARTH people have normal faces in their freefall videos? I just don’t understand. Hence why I’m’ not sharing the whole video on the Internet.

I didn’t enjoy the parachute ride down as much as I thought I would. It was beautiful, don’t get me wrong. But one thing that I never read online was how much it HURTS. Is that normal? The whole time I was focused on trying to keep my mind off the pain from the tight straps around my legs. I guess it’s good that you’re tightly strapped in but a little cushioning would be nice.

And that’s basically it! We got our free shirts (holla) and left. To be honest, I’m not sure if I would do it again. I’m so happy to say that I did it, but the price is so high. But right now all my mind and my headache are telling me is to go to sleep and never leave the house again.