"Its Another day for me in Paradise"!True Phil Collins said it a few years back and now its my turn to say the same after this magnificient experience..
No wonder a few months back during a visit to an airshow ,i said "hmm......now this is what fascinates human beings...... the feel and the imagination of flying like birds ... makes you feel "Ghoshh !!! Life is beautiful”!!
Wish i was also one of them “.., looking at the sukoi's and the F-16's.
Little did i realise i would be one soon and Life indeed was beautiful when this fascination turned into an reality on one saturday!!!Forget Paris, Madrid, Italy, Amsterdam...Skydive and bullfight (a disappointing experience though!) were certainly on my agenda during my stint here...Thanks to one of my friend who’d been there already a few years back, made life easy for me in terms of booking etc.. This needs to be done a month prior to the dive considering the fact that the slots are booked day in and day out.
My first attempt towards the dive was sometime in August (guess 20th) which proved futile with weather playing spoil sport and had to head back home disappointed. But as the cliche goes "never give up" was the order of the day,let alone the numerous occasions when we were in a catch 22 situation as there was nothing much to play around if the dive supposedly would get cancelled. Reason being, March where the parachute centre is located in between Chatteris and Wembligton is actually a remote place,an hours drive from London amidst a farm far off from the main town .
Having hired a car we began the journey to March which was a forgettable experience as that involved navigating through loads of motorways and narrow roads, really had a trying time.The first time around we managed to decipher the route effectively because of a "GPS" fitted in! Nevertheless we reached the Para centre early morning close to about 3 a.m and had to manage in one of the bunkers available, very different from the first time around when we pitched in with tents and here we were at the North London Parachute Centre.
With queuing being one of the constraints we had to get up early and started waiting as early as 6 a.m. And trust me we were fortunate enough to have been the second in the entire lot and certainly was worth loosing sleep as the queue started pilling up gradually. It was close to 9 am when our names were called out after which we were given a few instructions about so called "midair -mannerisms" and a few landing instructions, an effective way of making one disciplined when the instructor would always say "if u do this or that mid-air we all would be killed". That works!!!The rest is left for one to comprehend.
With all set to make the maiden jump, there was a definite peril trying a sport like this, but one's got to risk and explore things in life that ought to make you think or feel different. But once you step in the aircraft your mind goes blank and all you think about is "what the ****... is this gonna be real “!!!Along with you are a couple of other escorts one being the camera guy and the other is your instructor. Gary, my instructor made me feel pretty easy all the way, no wonder he chose skydive as his profession from a hobby and has been doing it for 19 years now and the number of jumps that he'd made had crossed a cool 6500!
Once the aircraft takes off everyone is given a few safety instructions and as we approach 13000 feet the aircraft slows down,the doors open and there you are all set for the jump where each one is taken towards the exit one by one. I was the last but one to take the jump and trust me the sight of every other person jumping out gives you goose bumps like never before. Finally it was my turn to take the plunge ,as you are taken towards the door the camera person(Andy) hangs out of the aircraft picturing each and every single move made by me right from the point of jump. One can feel the adrenalin rush when you are made to sit at the tip of the door and all you can see is nothing but the clouds around(wat else does one expect!) and everything else from there happens in a flash. The instructor then takes off and the dive is on and my goodness the freefall for about 35-40 seconds is unbelievable and simply fantastic.One has to do it to experience it!
When midair the instructor taps you on the shoulders where one is expected to do all kinds of stunts in front of the camera like thumbs up, salute and so on... And it is only when you look at the video later on do you realise you look like a caricature with the cheeks fluttering .At about 6000 ft the as parachute is opened one can feel the jerk as it takes you upwards .As we sail through the clouds its amazing especially when one gets fortunate enough to control the parachute for a few minutes wherein one could practice landing midair, manoeuvre the parachute right and left and the gush of wind just takes you along .It’s really a hard task controlling it specially at the cost of an additional life in the form of “ME”!
The whole activity ,the fun and frolic unfortunately lasts only for about 5-6 minutes and later on all one can do is to gaze at the other parachutes falling over not to forget the certificate for the first jump by the British Parachute Association as a token of participation and some pics along with the video, ofcourse all of which comes at a cost(except for the certificate).
And lastly for those who haven’t attempted this is one thing that is most recommended very strongly and I can say with conviction even in spite of a “definitive peril involved in trying the sport” it’s a very safe sport! Try it and am sure each one would say “I have never experienced anything like it. It was the one of the most exhilarating experience of my life."
Check out the thumbs up ad as an added inspiration!
It’s great! Any advice on this feel free to contact me through the comments section down here.
Cheers,
Karthik
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