Sep 29, 2003 01:36 PM
11449 Views
(Updated Sep 29, 2003 01:36 PM)
''Are you ready to jump?''
These loud words shot into my ears, suddenly drowning the cacophony of the jet plane I was travelling in.
A feeble, half hearted ''yes'' from me didn’t deter my jumpmaster from saying, ''GO'', and that ended the seemingly endless tense moments of anxiety I had been going through the whole day long.
It all started off on a boring workday when Mike asked me if I would like to go skydiving. The initial response wasn’t so positive , as I wasn’t sure about the sport, and not very sure if I would like to do it. But I really wanted to float in the air with a chute on, and the idea fascinated me, prompting my response to go positive the next day.
And so it was on. Mike, his bro Irvin, a couple of friends and myself would be going skydiving on Saturday. We had a lecture session on Thursday, in which we were taught how to jump from the plane, and what to do when stuff goes wrong.
Friday seemed to be a long day, with Mike and myself pretty excited about going sky diving the next day. As evening approached, I started getting on nerves, and my folks totally freaked out when they heard that I was going skydiving. A friend helped to ease out the pressure by telling me about a show he saw on TV in which this guy, going skydiving for the first time, panicked and landed on a high voltage wire.
This definitely was helpful, and thanks to the friend, I cudnt sleep the entire night.
Saturday however was a beautiful day and we had to drive 100 kms outside the Gauteng province to Mpumalanga to skydive in this place called Nylstorm. We left at 6, had breakfast on the way and here we were, at this locale, for the first skydive in our lives. It was a long wait till 10.30 when we got to board the jet, with our attire on, parachutes et al. As I was the lightest I was supposed to jump last, so I went in the plane first. There were five of us in the plane, all going sky diving for the first time in our lives.
As the jet plane gained height, the tension soared in everyone's mind and was visible on evbdy's face. Mark was the first to jump, followed by Irvin, then Saun, another guy and finally myself.
So here I was, with my legs outta the door, holding the frame of the door with both my hands, clinging on to dear life. The nerves and the wind velocity had my legs shaking when I pulled them outta the plane.
And then the jumpmaster shouted,
''Are you ready to jump?'' .
I let go of the plane, trying my best to make an arch as I jumped. However, something went wrong as I arched, and I tumbled head on into a free fall towards mother earth. 5 seconds later (it seemed a lifetime to me at that time), my parachute opened, and then there was bliss...
I went into an absolute trance, as I never had this feeling before in my life.
It is inexplicable.
I was flying.
Flying in the air, moving the direction I wanted to, with nobody around me for miles. Just me, and this beautiful sky, embracing me with a light breeze every now and then ,as if to say ,'' welcome to my world, hope you have a nice time''.
As I looked down, the scene was awesome.. Beautiful mountains lining the horizon, sprawling meadows beneath me, the highway meandering through them like a tiny river... man I feel good, I said to myself.
And now I realised why man spent a relentless effort in making his dream of flying come true.
Each moment spent in the toil seemed worth it to me now.
Suddenly I was broken from my reverie by the shouts of the batman, who was waving bats on the ground to show me which way to land. It was too late anyways , and I just chose a spot and landed, falling on the ground instead of landing smoothly.
hehehe.
Anyways, each moment I spent up there left an indelible charm on me , which will always augur me to go skydiving again and again.
