We really did have a great summer. We had lots of amazing people working here, some great campers and a lot of fun times.
But, as the summer ended, I wanted to have a little bit of a celebration. Ever since Kim and I moved down here we saw the sign at the corner of highway 95 and 98. It says "Skydiving, Experience the thrill." The sign was a little beat up three years ago when we moved here, so you can imagine what it looks like now. When we first got down here we wondered if that place still existed. Our questions were answered the first time we went to the Blue Angels Homecoming Airshow. The first act that jumped in with the American Flag? You guessed it, the Emerald Coast Skydivers! So we knew the place existed, and actually had a pretty good reputation. They wouldn't let just anyone jump into that air show right?So, for my celebration, how about a skydiving jump? Sounds good to me! Kim gave the place a
call, and I was scheduled for a jump. We arrived at the airfield and got to watch a fun video that was starring the guy who created the tandem jumping equipment. Basically that means someone like me can go skydiving after only a few minutes of instruction, rather than the 6-8 hours of instruction that it used to take before they would let a newbie skydive. The video was awesome to watch, and what made it even more interesting was that the guy had a massive beard. That's a picture of him over to the right there. He's a genius, and has invented a ton of stuff for sport skydiving. They showed him jumping, and while he was jumping he had to have the beard tucked into his jump suit. Crazy huh? I don't know if we should tell him, but I think he might be compensating for the lack of hair on his head? Maybe?Anyway enough about Bill Booth (that's his name.) So we took off in
the Cessna 182 and headed up. We needed to get to 10,000 for the jump. Unfortunately a 182 isn't the fastest thing when trying to get altitude. In fact, it took almost 20 minutes to get up to the jump altitude. I got some beautiful views of the area however, and I can see why they call it the emerald coast. The water was beautiful and there sure is a lot of it. We flew right over camp, twice while getting up to 10,000'. Once we got there it was time to go. I got out the door, and the tandem master that was strapped to my back jumped out the door for us. We fell head first for a little while, then tipped back up to look at the plane flying away from us. Then we actually did a whole flip before getting into the "free fall position." The feeling was amazing. Terminal velocity for someone in that position is about 120 mph, so we were heading down at 120 miles an hour! Talk about noise!All the noise ended when the chute opened. We slowed down to 14 mph and it's a kick in the
crotch when that happens let me tell you. As we went down my tandem instructor showed me how flying the chute works, and how to flare the chute for landing. It's a crazy feeling, practicing the flare it felt like we completely stopped. Anyway, we spiraled a little bit to get down to the ground, and set up for our landing. Kim overheard the local skydiving crew sitting at the Drop Zone mentioning that the winds were pretty gusty, so they had a couple of guys help us out when we landed so we wouldn't get pulled by the parachute. We also "sat" the landing, with me landing on my butt instead of my feet, turns out that's more stable than trying to run the landing. I guess little kids have it right when the land on their backsides when they are learning to walk. Anyway we landed safely and it was an amazing experience.I did learn a little bit about faith and trust during the jump. It's amazing the amount of faith and
trust you put into people to help you. When I signed up for the jump I had to basically trust that the guy who packed the parachute did a good job, that the tandem master I was with knew what he was doing (he had over 1000 jumps to his credit so I wasn't too worried) and that the pilot who flew us up to 10,000' was having a good day. Incidentally as a side note, the pilot was wearing a chute too. He mentioned on the way up that he wished he could be jumping out with us, but someone had to get the plane on the ground for the next group. Funny.So anyway, that's how I celebrated the end of the summer. It was a great way to end a great summer camp. Well, I think that's it for now. If you ever get the chance, go skydiving. It's amazing!
