First time..

...Skydiving. Get you minds out of the gutter!!

Was just talking to someone about skydiving today and it reminded me of my first time. Spring of 1988. I had only been in Oregon for about 9 months. No family or friends here yet. I was supplementing my income by teaching TKD at a local college. One of my students was going skydiving with a group of his colleg friends and invited me to go. I have a fear of heights and thought this might be a way to overcome it.

Went with about 20 people to a place in Sheridan, Oregon. The morning was spent getting instructions, then came time to jump. They took us up 3 at a time. In a little plane. All the seats were torn out and they lined us up by weight. Heaviest person first. I was about 30 lbs lighter than I am now, but still the heaviest person in my group. The first group. Seemed like a good idea until we started climbing, then I started to get a little anxious. Was actually thinking of chickening out, but there was this 18 yr old girl in my group and she was all excited to jump. I finally decided that I would rather die than chicken out. I knew she wasn't going to. I think the JumpMaster realized I was scared, because he got right in my face as we climbed to the jump altitude and kept talking me up.

So, here's the drill, you had to climb out on the wing and let go. A static line pulled your chute for you. I climbed out, let go, felt the tug of my chute releasing and looked up to see that half of my chute hadn't opened. No problem. During the instruction, they said you could release and pull your reserve chute. I could not cut away my chute. Seemed crazy. I kind of got sideways and bicycled around in circle until my lines untangled and my chute opened. What a rush.

Didn't do a darned thing to help my fear of heights though.

Have gone a few times since then. Still scares the heck out of me. Finally decided I would never do it again, but last year my daughter asked if I would take her for her 18th birthday. Less than a year away.