DareDevil

Always up for a challenge, my opportunity to do something daring and out of the norm came about suddenly. My best friend Mara called me at work one morning and started the conversation off by saying "I've opened up my mouth and got myself into something I can't get out of". "Okay what happened" I asked. She proceeds to tell me about a conversation she had with her 62 year old co-worker Ms. Patricia about things they have always wanted to do but haven't had the chance to do. The topic of Skydiving came up and Ms. Patricia tells Mara how nervous she is about it but, how badly she wants to do it.

Ms. Patricia asked Tamara if she would consider jumping with her. Mara prematurely agreed not thinking Ms. Patricia would actually go through with it. Well she thought wrong. Minutes before specking to Mara that day she received a call.  Ms. Patricia blurted out the date May 18th.  Mara asked what that date represented and she said "Oh, that's when we're booked to go skydiving." Stunned, nervous and in disbelief Mara didn't know what to say. She ask Ms. Patricia to clarify what she meant by "booked". It was just how it sounded. Booked as in a deposit was already made, date and time were scheduled.

In a way I was a little surprised at Mara for agreeing to do such a thing. Whenever I brought up skydiving to her in the past she would flat out say "hell no".

So, after she finished telling me about the conversation I asked her why she was calling me? I knew why but I wanted to hear her say it. Lol. So she says " I know you and Chantel were talking about going skydiving this year soooo why don't we all do it at the same time?" I laughed. I gave her a hard time for few then agreed to do it. I could hear the fear in her voice. I called Chantel and as expected she was extremely excited. "We were going skydiviiiiiing".

May 18th was finally here and I was pumped. Tamara, Ms. Patricia, Chantel and myself headed to Long Island around 12. We arrived about an hour later. While driving up to the parking lot we could see people making their way back down to earth from their jump. My adrenaline was on full throttle UNTIL we walked into the trailer and were handed the dreaded Sign Away Your Life Forms. To make matters worst, while filling out the forms we had to watch a video of an older man with a long beard who I later found out was one of the best skydivers ever telling us how we could die and the company would not be responsible. JUST GREAT!!!!!!  This was one of the only times I felt like turning changing my mind.

Once we handed in our papers we went to the waiting area and waited for our transportation to the setup area and planes.  We were picked up by what looked like the Scooby Van. The only difference was Shaggy's name was now Brent. He drove us (about a minute or two) to our instructors and it was game time. I was introduced to my instructor Nick. A tall, cute, energetic guy originally from Canada. After getting suited up I asked him how many jumps has he done. His response "how many would make you feel good?" - Smarty pants.


He took a few pics and shot the intro for my video. Chantel and I were going up together so as soon as her and Keith were ready we made our way to the plane. Pumped and ready to ride we had ourselves a top gun moment. "We had the need, the need for speed". Hehehehe

The plane was so tiny. There was only one seat and that was for the pilot of course. The four of us (Tel and Keith, Nick and I) squeezed into the only vacant space available behind the pilot. We were positioned so that we were sitting in between the instructors legs. (Smile). Once Nick closed the door I grabbed every ones hand and said a prayer. On our way up we got to know our instructors a little better, snapped some more pictures and had a few jokes.
When we were about half way to our desired altitude Nick began preparing us for the jump. He tightened my harness, hooked himself to my back and gave me instructions to follow for when we initially jumped out.

Okay it was showtime, at 10,000 feet the plane was set to neutral. Nick opened the door and stuck one leg out. The wind was ferocious. I stuck both my legs out and in no time I was free falling to the ground. There was an instant rush. It was such an amazing feeling and the view was breathtaking. As we descended Nick instructed me to free my hands from the harness strap and give him a thumbs up. I only let go one, just in case.

Moments later he pulled the cord and the parachute opened. What a relief........ As we made our way down Nick let me take control of the parachute. We did some spins, twist and turns.

After a perfect landing I thanked the Lord and touched the ground. Nick turned the camera back on us and shot the last part of the video. As soon as the ladies and I were reunited we hugged, thanked the man upstairs and expressed how great of an experience it was. I will definitely be going back.

Book your jump today.

Location:
Long Island Skydiving Center
91 Montauk Highway
P.O. Box 359
East Moriches, New York 11940

Website: Long Island Skydiving Center