Chris gave me a voucher to do a tandem skydiving jump on my last birthday in November.
Since I can't jump out of a plane out in freezing air, I have been sizing up the right weather and temperature to do it since the beginning of summer. Last weekend I finally got a spot to do the jump, and the waiting up had been really worth it. The summer day was sunny and dry, with very clear sky but not at all too hot.
I believe this is so far had been the best present I have ever received. I was expecting it to be an adrenaline rush like the bungee jump we did a couple of years back, but it was anything but. The fact that I was actually attached to an instructor twice my size who didn't waste time to jump off the plane on first chance (thus taking me with him), probably contributed a lot to the absence of real dread. The way up on the small plane was filled with anticipation, and once we were in the air, it didn't feel much like falling, it felt like flying! It was such an amazing feeling to drop through clouds (they're cold!) and to see so far into the horizon (including having to see there was nothing between my feet and the ground). Once the canopy was out, we descended slower and much more in control, until we finally touched ground.
The jump itself probably didn't last more than 2 minutes (I've got record of 38 seconds for the free-falling phase itself), but the whole experience was definitely the highlight of the already awesome summer of 2009.
Chris and Cora waited for me on the ground. At first Cora insisted that she wanted to come along, but then later on being OK to let me go. After I was back at the airfield, I asked Chris, how did Cora react when I left them for the plane.
"Cora said, daddy, now we can have cola ijsje." (Cola ijsje is cola flavoured ice lolly that I never allow her to have. She has different deal with daddy, obviously.)
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