This post is also a bit overdue. So last month I made a really out-of-character decision...probably the most spontaneos in my life so far - I decided at midnight that I'd be going skydiving the next day...in about 15 hours! Ahhh!
Wilson (China) contacted the company SkyTime.info about a week prior, and after seeing the price I discarded the idea, but my mind flipped when I heard the guys talking about at our Sushi dinner the night before. We went to a Sushi restaurant for the third despedida of Timmy (Yea, he already had two the previous nights, but he deserves it!)
Myself, Scott, Will (Americanos), and Fez
Sushi galor! Some of it tasted okay, but I wouldn't
choose to have it again! Also tasted octopus, Mmm!
'Our Erasmus Family'
(as the name states on a Facebook group
(as the name states on a Facebook group
that one of our friends made).
I'm liking Tapio's pose here (right).
I'm liking Tapio's pose here (right).
Skydive prices with SkyTime.info in Castellon, Espana:
170 euros tamden jump
260 euros tamden jump with video/pictures
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I thought doing a skydive would be a perfect near-end to the semester, and I hate missing opportunities to do things, so the five of us, Wilson, Fez, Daniel, Mylissa and myself met at the Xativa Estacion del norte at 11am the next day (We've become very familiar with this station over the last few months through travelling!).
We took the one-hour train to Castellon, a city just north of Valencia and in the Catalyuna region (with a 60% gipsy population), so I assumed the main form of transport in the city would be shopping carts (trolleys for the small majority of Europeans that aren't taught American English!). If you still don't know what I'm talking about, it's because all the gitanas (gipseys) in Valencia go around with carts collecting useless crap from trash bins. Talking of gipseys, we always joke about Larisa and Teodora being gispeys, because they are both romainian, Hah :D.
The whole train journey consisted of sharing 'What could happen to us' jokes, and talking about how nervous we were. Even if we weren't talking to each other, we all knew everyone was thinking the same - about how we'd all deal with the expreince individually! It was comforting knowing the other guys were nervous. One of the guys, perhaps Daniel, also reminded us that the most dangerous part of being in a plane is the landing - Haha, I guess we won't be having that problem today! Another suggestion was to piss, shit and puke to get rid of any inner-body substances that could be brought up mid-flight. Not nice but sounded amusing.
Taking chupitos was one of our ideas to chill us out (after strongly considering doing it for our Spanish presentations in May, but this plan unfortunately fell through because I was ill that week, and would have had even less of a voice...perhaps a good thing so that it'd be an excuse for my poor Spanish?? Anyway, Fez (who has drunken something nearly every night since our arrival in Espana on January 16th), quickly turned at the suggestion saying he wanted to be sober for the jump...definitely agreed - I valued my senses for this...! (or infact just the one sense...sight!).
Fez was looking at skydiving videos on his iPhone, but I was quite content with my relaxed state of mind, and I didn't understand why I wasn't that phased by the idea of skydiving! I wasn't sure if I was being nieve and underestimating it. I think it helped by the fact that I only had one-sleep mental preparation, while the others had been thinking about it for a week.
From Castellon we took two buses and we arrived at the skydiving place, seeing a large field full of the little bastard skydiving plane - Eek! Situated right on the coast with perfect views and perfect weather - two more reasons to skydive in Spain!
Outside the skydiving place
Almost instantly after walking into the place, the organiser jumped straight to the job and said something along the lines of "Okay, One for video, One for normal - You're boarding now" - Erm hang on guys...give me a chance to breath first, jesus. (Two of us chose to have our skydive recorded, so myself and Fez were to go seperately).
I definitely wasn't up for being one of the first - Familiarising myself with the place and watching the previous skydiving group suited me better...!! So the first two were Daniel and Melyissa (both American). Within about five minutes they were on the plane, without having any instructions (definitely better this way - I didn't want to be shown how to do anything, it'd just build up the nerves!), nor completing the paper form beforehand, of which consisted basically of just our name and address - there wasn't any information about health or....Haha, Spain! It seemed a pretty tranquilo place.
We expected to have a 15 minute safety talk (Ohh saying these two words together reminds me of my workplace in England, which actually brings up a funny comparison - At work it's complusory that we give everyone a saftey talk before each session - (each session involves sitting in an inflated ring and sliding down a mere slope, hardly comparing to jumping out of a plane from 13k feet, at 200km/hour, with a 50 second freefall!!...somethings not quite right there!!).
Watching the two guys go first made the remaining three of us excited...and it was a long 20 minutes until dan and Mel parachuted down. Next plane please!
Myself and Wilson took the next plane, leaving Fez solo on the last one, which I felt bad for considering he was the reason I was there, but he was okay with it, and the whole experience made this unimportant. It would have been nice to all go up in the same plane and get excited together (mainly so we could tease each other about not surviving (of which every statement made before the skydive added the words 'If I survive'!)
Ok now some pictures, sorry for the spamming!
Ready to go...Myself and Wilson waiting!
The bastard plane we'd be jumping out of...
Similarity to the desert in Morocco, we thought of a few possible ways to die. But I was particually reasurred by the thought of having a reserve parachute, and even if this failed, there would always be Fez' parachute to steal in mid-air if anything went wrong :D
And we're up in the air, we're going skydiving, What the fuc* are we doing??! I thought being on the plane would be the best scariest part, but I still wasn't worrying as much as I thought I would. After about 5-10 minutes (I can't say at this moment that I have an accurate scale of time but...!), we reached 13,000 feet. I was disappointed to hear afterwards that my bastard brother did it at 15k! (Yea, but I'm 4 years younger! :P).
What the world looks like from 13k feet...!
On your marks...!
So I was nearest the door so it didn't take a genius to work out who'd be jumping first...- I kinda planned to be in the middle...neither first nor last, but didn't have control over this. The instructors behind attached ourselves to them (I bloody hope so), and they explained for a few seconds what to do when in the air, like the correct descending position being a 'banana' shape (legs behind arse, arched body and head back), although realistically, do they really think I'm going to pay full attention?? He also mentioned tapping my shoulder being the signal for me to either cross or out-stretch my arms.
I was chatting with Wilsons instructor who was sitting next to me, but it seemed my Spanish was either completely non-exsistant, or the plane was too loud for him to hear. It was for one of these reasons why he couldn't understand me...almost all the time :D.
Looking out the window was getting me excited - So high up and an amazing view! I still didn't really know what to think, because I knew I was fucked either way - jumping out. Ha.
The roll-up window curtain opened, and perhaps it was a bit discomforting seeing the instructors shake each others hands (my initial thoughts consisting of 'What the hell are you doing that for, Are you telling me that you need to wish each other good luck too? - I'm the one doing it here!!
Myself and the instructor edged forwards, and 3...2...1...Aaahhhhhh!! Yea, Now what? - I don't remember anything from the first few seconds, but the stomach rush feeling was there. I remember thinking, Shit, is this feeling going to last for 45 seconds???! Fortunately the feeling stopped quickly, and we were flying through the air at 200km/hr - Wooh!!
No No, wait a second...!, Oh shit, no going back now!
Surprisingly it felt okay, and actually nice - there wasnt any discomfort. The camera girl diver was in front of me almost all the way videoing, and I was constantly shouting Wowwwwww, it's amazingggg, although she kept signaling to remind me that I shouldn't talk during the dive!
The free-fall felt like it lasted for about five seconds, and when the instructor pulled out the parachute, my reaction was, "Eh??" - I asked and he said we'd been falling for 50 seconds. "What??, Where did the time disappear to?" - It was a really odd feeling not having a clue where that time went, and throughout the day I was thinking about it. But okay, as the hours went on I did start to remember more of it, but still not more than about 15 seconds!
A nice view of the east coast of Spain!
After the free-fall my ears were hurting and I had a pretty bad headache too - I assumed it was because I was shouting loudly when I shouldn't have been, but I'm sure it was just the pressure. I couldn't hear myself properly until the next morning, whereas the other four guys felt normal straight away without any problems.
From the parachute onwards it was just a nice chill-ride, dangling legs into nothingness and controlling the parachute to go in both directions. I rememeber saying "Right, Where are we going?", (me pretending to be in a professional driver mood with a passenger/tamden guy on my back :D). My instructor let me steer it for a while.
For the landing we were told to lift our legs up, which was pretty tricky, but the landing was smooth, Yeaah, we did it!
Thanks tamden guy!
Myself and Wilson congratulating each other.
Wilson had a bit of a scare when he thought the
instructor's parachute wouldn't open, HAHA.
The jump was really draining, and I wonder how the instructors can do around ten jumps a day. I guess they cope well because they don't have the anxiety/adrenaline of doing it for the first time.
Fez was eagerly waiting, and had to wait perhaps another 45 minutes before the next plane - this must have been really difficult, with all of us relaxing and reflecting on the event...and he still hadn't done it. Ouch.
Fez waiting patiently...!, Daniel, Myself, Wilson
Chilling out and reflecting on what we'd done!
So the experience was amazing, and I was so pleased to have done it, but I do think it's something that people think is worse than it actually is. I think bungee jumping is far worse, and I don't think I could have made a quick decision about doing that.
We were handed our DVD/CD's for the two of us that paid for the video. I think as it's something you only really do once, it's nice to have a record and pay the extra money. In heinsight I should have done some funny things on camera on the way down, but I can't say this was on my mind at the time!! I've since watched my skydiving video three times - I may cut it down and put it on the blog, but for now there are just a few pictures.
So after a short walk along the Benicassim beach to reflect on what we did, we headed back to the VLC once more. I can't believe I jumped out of a plane!
