HOLY SH*T!!
Before I start off, I just gotta say that we came up with the idea to go skydiving last Thursday, with me, Joe, Cristina, and Kristalyn wondering how we could end this summer off with a bang... and we came up with jumping off a plane. Researched around when we got home, set Wednesday as the date, and yeah that's all it took.
It's funny how the whole thing took only an hour from the time we showed up at Lodi, to signing the forms and watching the safety video, to getting suited up, to boarding the plane and the 10 longest minutes ever to get all the way up to 14,000 ft, to the glorious fall back to Earth. For me, I was actually my guy's FIRST EVER tandem jump customer. He just passed the course and had jumped with his wife under him twice that morning, and I was lucky nuumber 1 for him. Thankfully he didn't tell me that until we had deployed the parachute and were gliding back down, but I was kinda feelin his nervousness haha. He didn't really engage me in small talk when I tried beforehand and kept to repeating what I was supposed to do and what not.
The actual jump was the most intense thing I've ever done in my entire life. I was the first one out of the plane and that first look out the door was so surreal. I blurted "Holy Shit!" before he tilted my head back and jumped out the plane. He definitely had a problem from keeping us from spinning around, so we weren't exactly a straight freefall like everyone else was, it was just nuts tho falling that fast and spinning around and around. Finally he got us straightened out and had a little bit of time to just chill and just fall hahah. And after about a minute since we jumped out, he pulled the chute and we glided back down to the hangar. Gliding down was actually hella fun too, except for how damn tight the straps were around my crotch area after the canopy deployed.. that plus I think all the spins finally got to me around that time and I started getting a bit dizzy. I think the whole spinning made most of my photos not exactly the greatest either lol.
All in all though, it was an amazing experience, something that I can proudly say that I did once in my life (for now haha). And it definitely fit how my summer was going so far. It was semi-spontaneous (which goes along with most of the activities I've done this summer), a thing on one of my lists to do (my list of things to do before I die, not my summer list), and just a HELL of a lot of fun.
Afterwards, I think all of my adrenaline just wore off and I knocked out on the way home. Dropped off Tony and Cristina. Then me and Joe bbq'd burgers at home and chilled. I'm done for today that's for sure. What could I possibly do today after this afternoon?
*edit
Oh how the hell could I forget to talk about how dope the place is in Lodi in general haha. The hangar where everyone just stays between jumps is pretty much all couches and lockers for the jumpers, and the jumpers' little dogs are running around playing with each other all the time. AND ALL THE WORKERS THERE ARE FROM AUSTRALIA. All the guys and girls have dope australian accents and just chill around on the couches, setting up their parachutes on the ground till the next people come in. And they just go around to different jump zones from time to time and skydive. Now that's the life folks.