Tandem Skydive!!!

Well, because I want to do something insane before I graduate, I decided to attempt skydiving. And, to do it, the easiest way is by doing a tandem skydive, where you are attached to a tandem master, and off you go. Not much training, but almost all the same fun, actually, even better since you dropoff at a higher altitude, at 14,000 ft. So, I pitched the idea to my friend last semester, and then, because of the winter season, the idea got shelved, until a week ago, when I sent out a mass email to them and asked who's interested. And, got a positive reply from Ivy right away! Then, Jason too. But, that's all I got. Instead of like 2 carloads of people, we only got 3. But, as we are really determined to go, we decided not to let the lack of number discourage us.


So, after looking at weather forecast and all, we decided to go on a Saturday. And the weather turned out to be amazing. Great spring weather. A little breezy, but a whole lotta sunshine.
I was freaking out.... neh... just kidding.

We left Ann Arbor for Tecumseh (about 30 miles South West) at about 1.30pm. With my newly purchased GPS, I managed to get to this place without any problem. We were surprised to find that many people were there, and most of the people there are experienced skydivers.

So, after signing a bunch of released forms, waiving virtually all my rights, and paid a hefty price tag of $294 ($195 for tandem, $99 for dvd), and watching a video (what we learned from the video was we can still ask for a full refund if we decided not to jump at that point). After the video, a guy showed us generally, what we should do and all. Because all three of us wanted video, and they only have 2 video guys, we were separated into different flights. After a long wait, Ivy and Jason set off, and did their thing. My flight was 2 flights later.
Ivy in her suit.
Jason in his.
And me in MAIZE and BLUE!

So, after a really long wait, it was about 5ish pm, I met my tandem master, Larry. A really experienced tandem master, he's like a big old teddy bear. So, the camera guy, Marshall popped by while I was waiting to put on my skydive suits and all. Did a short video of that. Coincidentally, both my skydive suit and my canopy were of matching Maize & Blue color. How cool is that?

Then, Larry kinda prepped me up, asked me how I want to jump off, how intense I want the whole thing to be. And how I can steer the toggle, how I should land. Most importantly, I needed to arch my hip forward and tilt my head back.

So, soon after that, we were ready to take off. Before I stepped onto the plane, I got harassed by Marshall with the camera again. And again while I'm on the plane, and then, while ascending, Larry pointed out the direction of Ann Arbor, Saline and other places, and also, reminded me about all the things he wants me to do. After a tic tac and a long ascending, it takes quite awhile for the plane to reach 14,000 ft. Right before I was ready to jump, a small accident happened, my goggles' strap broke off while Larry was adjusting it for me. Fortunately, there's a pair of spare on the plane and after a minute of delay, it was time for me to jump.

We did a flip while jumping off the plane, then, managed to hold onto my Marshall's leg, then, some spinning, then, poof, Larry pulled the parachute, and felt a huge jerk. After the parachute was full launched, we did a sharp turn, and then, steer around, practiced landing motions, and then, we landed nicely, right in front of Marshall for him to continue the video capturing and some photo shooting.
No looking back!

Off I go!!!A flip.
And still completing a flip.
Almost there...
After stabilizing with the pilot chute...
There we go...All smiles!
Here's another look.
Holding on to Marshall's foot.
And Larry pulled the plug...
And the jerk!!!
And Marshall was going down much faster.

So that he can take pictures of Larry and I landing...
Descending...
And more...
And almost there...
Slide...

Touchdown...
And AMAZING!!!

We had to wait for about 40 minutes for the DVD to be ready. As we were hungry, we decided to go grab some food. And, relying on my GPS, we found quite a number of fastfood places nearby. At first, I decided on Burger King, but, while turning into BK, I saw a KFC and really wanted KFC instead. So, I drove to KFC instead. The KFC was really shorthanded, with the guy in front of us waited for more than 30 minutes before he get his food. It took about 15 minutes for us to get ours.

Then, after a good ol' KFC meal, we headed back to the dropzone to collect the DVD, and then, back to Ann Arbor.

Overall, it was a great experience, even though it's not as scary and as thrilling as I hope it would be, still, it's quite something. And I can announce to the world that: I went skydiving! So, I'm better than you! Or, as Nike put it, 'My better is better than your better.'

But no, there's more to that than just paying and skydiving. It's more about doing something you really wanted to do. Even though there's some risk, after considering the risk, you are still willing to take the risk and do it. Because, we can't be afraid of doing something risky by not doing it. You can't avoid risk all the time. Assuming some risk will add more spice to your life. Oh yeah, my parents didn't know about this. Think I'm gonna tell them later when I call home. :P

Hopefully I can get the video up here too.