At 6AM I was already sitting in a bench near the corner of Dole and University Avenue. Guy (that's his name) promised to pick me up and take me to the other side of the island where I would jump off an airplane at 14,000 feet. It was a chilly morning and I stood there waiting and slightly freezing. Surprisingly I felt so at peace and relaxed. Life couldn't be more perfect... I thought.
Finally Guy's van came along and when I opened the door, I found my self in the company of 4 Japanese teenagers and 2 young American girls. During the 40-minute drive to the North side of Oahu, we were all very quiet. I could almost smell the anxiety and the pervasive question "should I or shouldn't I?" was just lingering in the air. We all pretended to be busy reading and signing the waiver forms which essentially strips us with any right to sue the company or make any claims should we die in this exercise of stupidly jumping off the plane and experience a few minutes of rush!
When we got to the jumpsite, there I realized that I was not that crazy afterall. On the average around 20-30 people try out skydiving everyday. The staff made it all seemed casual and made me feel that skydiving is no big fuss at all. My tandam/instructor Kelsey psyched me up with casual conversations until it was time for me to board the tiny plane.
The drone of the plane was deafening and yet it seemed that I could still hear my heartbeat racing as the plane slowly moved up to the desired altitude. It was a good thing the air was chilly so I can't discern anymore whether my shivering was caused by the cold wind or the anxiety building up within me.
After a few minutes, the pilot signalled that we could already open the doors. Kelsey tied me up securely and asked how I was feeling. At that point... I was totally numb, my emotions suspended. For a few seconds, I thought "so this is how it feels, 4 seconds before you die." Kelsey moved me up slowly to the door. I saw my camera man jump ahead and without any warning Kelsey jumped (and dragged me of course). SWWWWSSSSSSSSHHHHH .... it seemed that for 2 seconds i was in shock and my visual field was in berzerk. I felt like i was watching a movie with the sound muted for a while. And then my senses came back and that's when I started hearing the deafening sound of the wind. The air was freezing but when reality swept in, I started to release the exhilaration welling from within. The next few seconds of freefall at 120 mph was unbelievable. After some struggle, Kelsey managed to keep me in the appropriate body position and we then started to flyyyyy. At this point I was already relaxed and I was enjoying the unusual feed to my senses.
After some moments of acrobatics in the air and countless shouts of "SHEEEE (soft e) EEEET" Kelsey signaled me to be ready before he opens the parachute. Then all of a sudden, the parachute opened and pulled us up in a rush. It felt as if my body moved up too fast too soon that my spirit was left behind (very much what I felt like during an astral projection experience I had in one of my graduate school class). That's when I felt like throwing up and started to feel really queasy. But when we were all settled, I was greeted with the most amazing view of Oahu. As we glided slowly near the northshore, the mountains of Koala and the sorrounding landscapes revealed its awsomeness. I wished I brought my camera.
The gliding part was like sunshine after a major storm. For a while I was just there, thankful and appreciative of what was laid out before me. I started to feel again the cold winter wind... And then for the landing, Kelsey started to remind me of the "must do's." Apparently, most of the injuries happen during this final leg. Thank God I was good at following instructions and we landed smoothly and safely.A few minutes later I was already viewing the video and the still photos that the camera man took.
Overall rating... it was really worth it! I would try it out again maybe 3-4 times more in this life time. By the way, the pictures costed as much as the jump. The video is even much more expensive than the jump itself (what a rip-off, hehe). I didn't take the video but of course how could I resist not taking the pictures at least. How could I even claim that I actually did it, right?
A guide told me that this coffeeshop in Vienna is where Sigmund Freud hanged out a lot. I don't know why, but this statement was enough for me to have a strong urge to hang out in this unimpressive place. I don't subscribe to Freud's psychodynamic blah blah but I definitely appreciate the kind of genius that goes with such a creative play of the mind. How could he have thought of his psychodynamic theory in the midst of a dominant introspectionisst and behaviorist paradigm? That for me is creativity at its best -- a kind of thinking that is way-out-of-the-box considering the context that he was in during that time.
