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 skydive and wanted to know if I was interested. It was hardly a month before our term exams, and I knew it was now or an opportunity lost. So, I decided to go for it. On the day of the jump it was a mix of nervousness and excitement. Bhuvan, Rachita, and I reached the place at around 9am, signed a handful 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 could 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 “experiencing Gs.” 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 losing altitude as the air that was gushing past you at close to 200 km/h is now somewhere around 60 km/h. The instructor asked me how it was like to get off the free fall. I 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 wanted to learn how to lose altitude fast in a parachute. Gave my obvious answer. Then he showed me the small grassland where we had to land. He said the wind direction plays a major role in landing, and as it’s good weather, 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 by a few minutes of gliding in the parachute. This is something that will definitely last a lifetime 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, a sense of calmness, and clarity. Note: I have chosen my words carefully to illustrate exactly what I went through.

As usual, I called home post all my adventures to say I just jumped off a plane ;). Some things 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.

So what’s next? Solo skydive. 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 yeah, it does not end here. I need to scuba dive too. Give me some nice places to take these two guys!!!

#Adventure