(no subject)
that is not me. but that is what i did last night.
i went to the skyventure windtunnel in nashua, NH which is where skydivers and regular people alike go and either just mess around, or (mostly skydivers cause why would anyone else need to do this) practice their ~skillz~
the last time i went to the windtunnel i only had about 15 actual skydives under my belt and i guess i didn't really know that i wasn't arching as much as i should be because i couldn't get myself off the net in the tunnel. that's the one thing you'll hear repeated over and over as you're learning to skydive; ARCH! if you flip or do something else funky in the sky, as long as you arch you're back on your belly.
it's weird going from messing around in the sky to the tunnel because while you might think you're the bomb in the sky, you get to the tunnel and realize, you're really not that good. in the sky, you've got unlimited space to do whatever the hell you please. in the tunnel, there are walls. though that's pretty obvious, i still learned the hard way.
last night though, now with almost 50 skydives, i was so much better and didn't touch the net once! i was flying around, spinning, sliding back and forth.. it was so much fun and i can now join all my fellow jumptown skydivers in praising the wonderful thing that is the windtunnel!
i went with my dad who's learning how to control flying on his back, my friend eric who is doing the same thing as my dad, birdman rick who's practicing flying head down, and this other guy eric who was working on transitions from belly flying to back flying. we each got 12 minutes in the tunnel, at 2 minute intervals, and while 12 minutes doesn't seem like a lot, it really is. 12 minutes in the tunnel is the same as 12 skydives! i got out and my arms hurt from the wind pushing them, and my lower back was achey from arching.
the only bad thing about going to the tunnel last night was walking outside into the pouring rain and realizing there's still at least an entire month before i'll be able to jump out of an airplane again and feel that same thing, but somewhere open..