An Unusual Wedding Present....

 Skyfall or a Good Day to Die

Wonderful view from the plane

We did it, who would have thought?  Ever since I knew the date we would jump, my bravery turned into fear.  The fear of dying.  The thing with jumping out of a plane from 3000m is kind of live or die.

So we were just at the beginning of our second 500km cycling trip as we got the confirmation of Mr. Luke Sankey that our wedding present is booked, he always wanted to throw us out of a plane, and I always wanted to do it as well, I thought.

 

doppel Daume nuff !

The excitement turned into thoughts and thoughts turned into worries, which turned into fear. I managed to concentrate on cycling and Alex’s crash was a “good” distraction up until we flew to Sydney…

Sydney being one of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever visited and Serina living right on the cliffs of Bondi, helped not thinking about it all the time.  So Sunday came along, one more sleep, should I jump?  What if the parachute doesn’t open? Is there a chance to survive, jumping over the sea? Well, questions upon questions.

Jedward in the sky

I tried to reach my parents, who were busy and suggested to speak the next day.  That was of course not an option as I might be dead by than …

Instead I got up at 3:30 at night to speak to them, I felt much better after, obviously I didn‘t tell them what we were about to do as I would have stressed them out too much and my mum wouldn’t have slept for a minute.

Monday morning arrived and the sun was shining, what a fabulous day to die. 

I’m not the most superstitious person but I took all lucky charms with me I could find, an earing I inherited from my grandma and another one my mum gave me to bring me luck on the trip.  I started to count up the numbers of the date just to see under which star the day was standing and it was a 2!!! That being my lucky number gave me the peace that I might even survives this.

It was a very quiet drive, on my side… the boys were chatting and singing along to Rap music, to the place of the Skydive.  Just arrived, we had to sign our lives away, oh my god I was petrified. What the hell am I doing here!

  From there on minutes seemed like hours till we got geared up, met our Guides and got put on a bus to the airport. Something happened on that bus, I think I finally realized that I’m going to do this and I better enjoy it, all the fear and doubt left me and got replaced with excitement….booooh yah I’m going to jump out of a plane woohoo

Watch this…My Skydive

Tadaaah...well happy

Chipmunks Away!

Calm before the storm.....probably the best way to describe how I felt about the whole skydive.  For some reason the prospect of abandoning a perfectly viable aeroplane at 14000 feet above the sea didn't worry me.  Perhaps I was just resigned to my fate, or have come to learn that the guides on these kinds of ventures don't want to die.  Either way I was going to fall out of a plane and so I was intent on making sure I enjoyed every second.

Meeting Cormack my Irish guide I had a momentary "double take".....an Irishman in Wollongong jumping out of a plane with an Armenian Frenchman attached to his chest sounded far too much like the start of a newspaper story.  He asked me how I got the scars on my elbows, when I told him, he did a double take.....probably thinking "oh sh*t.....I get the berk of the group!"  In essence there were two events that worried me; the exit and the landing.  I pictured myself knocking out my guide as we left the plane with a Saroian special manoeuvre  or getting a leg caught on landing and face planting at 40mph. One high speed crash this trip has been more than enough for me!

Looking calm

Julia was at one end of the plane, I was at the other, sat next to Sankey and frankly the look on her face spoke volumes.  This was a lady exercising incredible restraint.  Unlike the lady next to her, who appeared intent on freaking out anyone in her vicinity by planting her legs against the side of the door and holding onto the bar above it, screaming at the top of her lungs.  If you look in Julia's video you can see Julia's reaction to these shenanigans and hear the screams, just before the guide pushes her out the door.

There she goes!  Julia has left the building

I had a final few quips with the guide, put my best "idiot high on adrenalin" grin on my face and watched my wife drop like a stone.  I wasn't sure if I should be more worried about my wife that tightly strapped to another man, or having an Irishman's groin so securely fastened to my ass.  The phrase "get off her you b*stard" came to mind.  However that would have been a suicidally ridiculous thing to shout, so I just watched and grinned as she fell away.

Is that the harness or are you.....?

Hyena Giggles!

One more high five and then we "scooted" like dogs with worms towards the exit.  The rush of the wind and absence of any real reference point made it clear this was unnatural.  I assumed the position and ....whooooosh.  

Queue my very best impression of Alvin the Chipmunk in his latest film "oh my god I have humungous nostrils!"  Check it out here and apologies for the hyena-like laughter....I wasn't really concentrating on the video!

Alvin the 6ft Chipmunnk

Watch Alvin the 6 foot Chipmunk here

Survived