The Jump Off...

The main goal of this whole journey is to try and do as many things as possible that I have never done before and may never get the chance to do in the future.  There are several things on already on the list and then a few bits and pieces that I'm finding on the way and through speaking to other travellers in the same boat.

Out of them all - which I'll hopefully b able to write about along the journey - the main one that I wanted to do in Australia was a Sky Dive.  It was the first item that made it onto the list; but I hadn't really given it much though as to when and where to complete it.  It was thought about once or twice whilst in Sydney; however the views were not going to be of the city, so I thought it may have been a bit of a waste...

Having arrived in Byron Bay and seen how amazing the beach and surrounding area was; and having spent two days with the most amazing weather, it was decided whilst lying on the beach that it was the perfect timing.  So I jumped up, went straight to the travel agency and booked one for the following morning to be picked up at 7am.

That night I met a few English guys at the hostel and we sat around playing cards with a box of Goon and listening to Led Zeppelin; and also listening to them try to convince me how nervous I should be feeling and telling me stories of people they know who have experience 'bad jumps'; even though none of them had completed one themselves...

Nice early night with a fews drinks in the belly in the attempt of getting decent sleep; fast forward a few hours and pretty much the most of Byron Bay jumped out of bed from the loudest explosion I think I've ever heard and what I could only describe at the time as being under attack... which in fact turned out to be one of the biggest Tropical storms to hit the coast in about 6 months.  Every flash of lightening was followed by the most incredible crack of thunder I've experienced and meant two things.  Firstly, sleep was well out of the question as the rain hammered down against the windows and the corrugated roof and secondly, the jump looked in doubt.

So, 6am alarm call with only a couple of decent hours sleep under the belt.  Showered, dressed and ready to jump!  Adrenaline a little high, but nevertheless, ready.  So it was a little annoying when the company called and said that due to the rain air traffic control have put them on a temporary hold until 9am.  Just as 9am rolled into view, the phone rang again and there was a further hour delay; but the pick-up will definitely be at 10... so went off out for a bit to get a good chunk of food in me to line the stomach and numb the nervousness which would soon be inevitable.

10am rocked up, the mini-bus rolled in and the first thing said to me: "ha, bet you're well nervous" (in one of those typically annoying, standard north London accents).  Actually, not nervous at all; not one bit.  We arrived at the 'drop-zone' which was only about 15 minutes outside of the town and got prepped; which was a lot less than I thought it would be.

The first thing was to get into the red parachute pants and then get harnessed up; which turned out to be pretty damn uncomfortable... very tight around the groin and pulled down tight on the shoulders giving the slightly hunch-back look, whilst also not being able to fully extended the legs to stand up straight.  The preparation for the flight was pretty much; hold onto the harness until I tap you on the shoulder, then you can let go.  Followed by (and as casually as you like): Oh, and you'll be hanging out of the plane, supported just by me, then I'll let go. Cool? Cool.  I was unlucky enough to be in the 3rd plane, so had 45 minutes to wait ahead of me.

The company that I went for was the only one to fly and dive directly over Byron Bay.  The small plane too off with only two of us that were completing a tandem jump.  The others were doing some form of extreme dive and were fully kitted out with helmets and elbow and knee pads.  I was the first one into the plane, which meant that I was to be the last one out; sat right back next to the pilot.  The take off was bumpy to say the least with the run-up on a grass field rather than the usual tarmac and the we began to ascend very steeply and I could see past the pilot the Altimeter spinning very quickly.  The height I'd chosen to jump from was the maximum at 14,000ft which gave me over 60seconds of free-falling.  As we rose, the views across the bay were amazing.  The clouds had completely opened up and the sun was blasting down.  There was one large cloud remaining in the sky; which the pilot told us that we'd be jumping out into.

The nerves still hadn't kicked in yet and instead of being anxious I was massively excited!! The thing that calmed me down a lot was that no matter how nervous I would be, it would be nothing compared to the Danish girl sitting next to me, who - and seems like the only way to truly sum up how she was feeling - was bricking it!!

Cool, so... 14,000ft up and the door opened with a blast of air shooting through the cabin.  Goggles on and I can feel the instructor clipping his harness to mine.  At this stage in the game I didn’t want to look, so I just asked him: sorted? ‘Yeh, I think so’ was the answer.  Confidence booming.  As the other guys all started throwing themselves out we moved closer to the door.  Last ones in the plane, moved over to the door and I felt the entire weight drop as I’m hanging out of the plane with him hanging on with 1 arm and secured to me by a few clasps.  He taps me on the shoulder and shouts: Cool? ‘Cool’.  Then he let go...

The next 60seconds where both the longest and shortest of my life.  We jumped whilst still within the cloud and all that could be seen for the first 5seconds was the brightest white light.  As we descended rapidly through the cloud the ground just opened up and I really felt the sense of how high up we were and also how fast we were falling.  Every piece of skin on my body was being pulled back to the bone and I it took a while to concentrate and be able to breathe properly as the air is being forced into the lungs.  It was quite possibly the most amazing feeling in the world; just free-falling and having no control whatsoever over it.  The views across the bay were very difficult to take it and it’s hard to look up as the eyes focus on the ground directly below as it’s getting closer and closer.  After what felt a lifetime, the instructor open the parachute; which wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be.  I was waiting for the sharp upwards pull as the wind took the parachute; however it was a look more gentle and controlled.  After about a minute of gliding through the air, I took control of the ropes and started directing us with slow left and right hand turns, followed by full 360degree spirals.  The view was a look better to take in whilst just drifting along and the whole bay opened out in front of us.

The landing was also pretty standard.  The only thing that I was told to do was to raise my legs when he said: easy!  The decent was probably the scariest part of the whole jump.  The turns to enable as to decent quickly were very steep and all I could hear was the parachute flapping above me; hoping that it wasn’t about to collapse.  As we neared the ground I was told to raise my legs and we with the speed that we were coming in and the fact of the grass still being soaking wet, we just skidded for about 20 metres and luckily came just short of a huge puddle in the middle of the field.

The first thing he asked me when we landed was would I do it again...  If I had the money on me, I would have gone straight back up!! Best. Thing. Ever.

x