The Big Jump!
Never even dreamt that I would do this one day. Let me date things back a little to explain where and how it all started.
My friend Bhuvan did all the research and mentioned that there is a place called Umm-Al-Quwain where we can do sky-dive and wanted to know if I was interested. It was hardly a month before our term exams and I knew, it’s now or an opportunity lost. So decided to go for it. On the day of the jump it was a mix of nervousness and excitement. Bhuvan, Rachita and myself reached the place at around 9am, signed a hand full of papers, got introduced to our trainer and finally all set inside the plane after a small training session. On reaching 11K feet, there was only one thing that crossed my mind. “I can’t believe I am doing this” 🙂
The moment I got off the plane and the AFF (Accelerated Free-fall) started, fear was not there in my head as I knew I had a good 50 seconds at least before I can hit the ground unlike in a bungee jump where you have 5 seconds. The tandem instructor did a couple of 360 degree turns and every time he did that, I could feel the pressure in my ears. Guess this is what people call as experiencing G’s. Once you reach the no drop zone, the parachutes get deployed and it feels like someone pressed the pause button in a video. It takes a while for you to realize that you are still loosing altitude as the air that was gushing past you at close to 200 kmph and now its somewhere around 60 kmph. The instructor asked me how it was like to get off the free-fall. Told him it looks like everything has come to a sudden halt and it is in slow motion now. He smiled and asked if I want to learn how to lose altitude fast in a parachute? Gave my obvious answer. Then he showed me the small grass land where we had to land. He said, the wind direction plays a major role in landing and as its good, he said, we will be able to drop altitude vertically for a few seconds and then start drifting towards the landing area. He then started to pull one side of the chute and we started to literally spiral down. We repeated that fiasco by pulling the other side of the chute also once and then I could see that we were really close to the grass strip.
So totally I had a 40 second AFF followed be a few minutes of gliding in the parachute. This is something that will definitely last a life-time for me. Once you are on the ground, you’ll feel like you have conquered something. And then you will ask, “Is that all? Can I do it again?” 😀 In simple words, it is a perfect blend of excitement, achievement, sense of calmness and clarity.
As usual, I called home post all my adventure to say I just jumped off a plane 😉 Somethings are to be kept as a surprise and this is one of them. I had to explain a couple of times before my dad actually understood what I was trying to tell him as he definitely didn’t expect me to do this. I’m sure by now my parents know they have one crazy devil at home.
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So what’s next? Solo sky-dive. I’m sure this is a long way to go. But someday, I will have the certificate to say I have conquered the blue skies. And ya, it does not end here. I need to scuba dive too. Give me some nice places to do these two guys!!!
I had to come and see this post for once ..Well there is something that i read and resonated – I had no clue that you hadn't spoken about it at home as well ..same pinch dood!
Nevertheless well it stands to be the best of all experience for me till now..
Solo = 3rd jump from now which would include 2 tandem's to qualify:)
Guess we need to go to Dubai again (closest) or I need to plan trips to US 😉