I love checking things off my bucket list. I’m not sure exactly what is on that said list, but it seems fitting that making a jump out of a plane would make the cut.
We headed down the highway on our way to SkyDance Skydiving, an outfit out of Davis, CA. Once we arrived we had to complete all the typical first timer stuff and started with a class, safety video and hands on instruction. I was so ready to go. The weather was almost perfect– besides the wind. There were gusts of over 25 miles an hour, so per regulations we had to wait an hour after the last gust.
As soon as we could we suited up and got going. As the plane climbed up in elevation, we took in the view the stretched from the snow-capped Sierra Nevadas to the San Francisco Bay. It was beautiful. We reached our jumping elevation of 13,000 ft, made our way to the edge and that was it.
The free fall was the most amazing feeling. Everything they instruct you to do beforehand, I am not sure I did. My brain wasn’t processing anything besides maintaining permagrin for 60 seconds. I felt like I couldn’t catch my breath even though my nostrils were blown open to 4x their original size. It was the fastest minute ever. From free fall your chute opens and it’s a whole different experience. It takes about 7 minutes or so to reach the ground. Once we landed, I immediately wanted to go again.
I can’t say enough about my instructor, Tom Grayson. This guy is nuts, over 5000 skydiving jumps and more base jumps than a few of the instructors had skydives. He had the best energy and made my already good experience, great. Check out his website for a glimpse at how easy he makes badassery look.
Check out the video of my jump here.
sea + surf travel 