Skydiving

On day 3 of our Yes we Cairns vacation, we went skydiving. Justin has been skydiving before, but not a full jump. He's done the kind where your parachute is deployed as soon as you leave the plane. But today we were doing full tandem jumps from 10,000 ft. That means we are strapped to the front of instructors who have the parachutes on them. When you jump, you get to freefall for about 30 seconds. In the words of one of our instructors, its long enough to realize what is happening.

We were with a group of about 10 people who were all going to be jumping. The jumps themselves actually happened in pairs, and Justin and I were up first. We met the instructors we were going to be jumping with. Mine was Estonian and Justin's was Australian. They gave us some pants to wear so we wouldn't get too muddy, and strapped us into the harnesses. When they first put the harnesses on, they are surprisingly loose. My instructor assured me it would get tighter later on.

The plane itself was tiny. I was going to jump first, which meant Justin got onto the plane first, with his instructor immediately behind him. Then me and my instructor. We were essentially sitting between the legs of our instructors, jammed into the tail of the plane right behind the pilot. At first our harnesses were clipped into the plane. Then, once we had taken off, the instructors unclipped us from the plane and attached us to them. Both the instructors had go pros, and were taking pictures both on the way up and all the way down. The plane climbed for what felt like 10 minutes. At one point I was sure we must almost be at altitude, but my instructor said we were only halfway up.

Once we got close to altitude, they started to give us timing warnings - 3 minutes out, 1 minute out, etc. They also started buckling and adjusting our harnesses (they did in fact get tighter). Soon we were at altitude, my instructor told me it was about to get really loud. He opened the door beside us, and it was time to go. They had given us instructions when we were first harnessed up, then again right before we got in the plane, with a reminder of the process at the 3 minutes to go mark. I think that all of our adventuring guides and instructors really like Justin and I because we are both excellent at following directions, especially in high pressure situations. If you tell us to hold on to our harness straps and make a banana shape with our bodies, come hell or high water, we will be holding on to those straps and making that banana shape.

The actual process of jumping is really less of a jump and more your instructor pushing you out of the plane. Essentially, the plane door opens, your instructor puts one leg out of the plane, then you put both of your legs out. At this point your butt is so close to the edge, the instructor can brace off the sides of the plane door and push you both out. And then, suddenly, you are in free fall.

The free fall felt both like it lasted forever, and it was over really quickly. The wind is intense and very loud. Both of the instructors wore earplugs, and mine had a knitted Shrek hat that he tied onto his head. When you start the jump, your hands are crossed across your chest, holding the strap on the opposite side. At some point during freefall, the instructor taps your shoulder and you can put your arms out. The wind was so powerful it was hard for me to hold them out straight. I know that I was screaming on the way down, but I couldn't hear it because the wind was so loud. It was definitely colder during free fall, but it was still warm enough that I was fine making the jump in just a T-shirt.

After what felt like a really long time, the parachute was pulled, and suddenly everything tighten and pulled up. You have eye protection on during the free fall, but you can take it off once the chute has been pulled. Then it's just a surprisingly graceful float down. You can feel the air get noticeably warmer as you get closer to the ground. My instructor told me that in the summer its so warm start sweating before you even land. Both the instructors gave Justin & I the controls on the way down and let us steer for a bit. Then they took back over control and steered us to the landing zone. You pull your legs and feet up when you land, so the instructor lands on their feet, then you just stand up in front of them. And that's pretty much it. The instructors unclip themselves from you, you take your harness off, and suddenly you are just back on solid ground.

After some debate, we decided to buy the pictures from our falls. Most of them are hilariously bad, with terrified and stunned expressions, but some are actually pretty cool. Because I jumped in just a t-shirt, you can see the wind pushing the skin and veins on my arms and neck around, which is kind of crazy to think about. There are also a few where you can see the ground below us, which really puts into perspective how high up we were.

Since we were the first jump of our group, we got to see everyone else go. Unfortunately there were some intermittent downpours throughout the day that they had to work around, so there were a couple of delays. Overall it kind of made for a long, slow day, but it was still an absolute blast. Both Justin & I agree we would definitely jump again.