Soar like an eagle at 14000 feet. Review on Sky Diving

I was in California for some time and decided to spend some moolah on adventure...narrowed down to sky diving.

I searched around and hit upon a place called Bay Area Sky Diving ( http://www.bayareaskydiving.com), Byron CA which is around 1 hour from San francisco.

I am prone to exaggerate a bit a live on the side of superlatives -- but what I am going to unfold here is a watered down version of what I really want to say :)

This is the sportè-de-ultimatè (pardon my francais) We were 10 friends who decided to pamper ourselves with this treat. We negotiated with the friendly folks to part with a 15$ discount for each of us. So the cost of this came to 155$ and an extra 85$ for a videos and photos.

We reached there at around 10 AM. Many were already there getting ready for indulging themselves. WE, like a boisterous noisy lot, joined the fracas. The whole setup operates from an old hangar in the Byron airport.

4 of us were selected for the first flight trip (all 10 of us cannot be accomodated in a single flight) --

This is because -- We are accompanied by an instructor -- and ...hold your breath ....a personal cameraman!!!! -- wowie!! -- Yes,...Another guy specially flies alongwith you to capture your momentè-de-supremè . he will sky dive with the camera mounted on his head and will capture every moment of the thrill. He will also take snaps. The undeveloped roll will be given to you after target terra-firma is reached.

before that -- the instructor -- gives a simple training session --''I will not tell u much -- because you are going to forget everything after you dive :)''

We then took an old rickety flight -- the 12 of us (4+4+4) and there were 2 AFF jumpers (cool dudes who dive alone :))

We reached an altitude of 14000 feet -- MY Cameraman(i like to say this) stepped out of the aircraft and stood on a tiny ledge awaiting my Exèunt. As I stepped out of the ledge (My instructor firmly bound to me tagged along)..I gave a brave smile to the cameraman and then the heavens open, the clouds embraced me as we let go of the shady airplane... we soared on and on..I was screaming out of sheer joy (NO FEAR at all)..My mouth was going all weirdy on me (have u seen jackie chan in Armor of God 2 in the german war base?)

the camera man steered very near to us -- my instructor caught him by the leg and we swirled around for quite some time...then he let go of the cameraman and then we unfurled the parachute..(i had been told that this is a tricky part where in we would feel quite some tug)...This done...it was our turn to enjoy the scenic beauty of Byron while slowly descending...My instructor-- a cool chap -- gave me the guide ropes for the parachute...and asked me to tug one hand..and then our parachute went in circles...nice trick :)

Then it was time to land ..the camera guy had already landed and was in position to capture my landing...we reached the ground in some speed and I was asked to fall backward..But as we came down....a small land-wind blew our parachute a bit -- and we were thrown a couple of feet away from where we were supposed to land ...No injuries...so nothing to worry :)

Then we walked back to the hangar like old war heroes signing off...

ye all, I ask each and every one of you who are in the Bay area/ or are planning to be there -- to visit this great place.....This is a once-in-a-lifetime thing and will make you feel proud about yourselves

Cheerio,

PVm