SKYDIVE

SKYDIVE

My First Skydive

This whole article will be focused on my first sky diving. I had an amazing experience today(11-10-2012) that I would like to share with my all friends, family.

So let me start…

We are human and we are always imagine to fly and we eager to talk with one another if we can fly what we going to do. I know that most people do it, from child hood I have always wondered what it would be like to fly. As a child I used to pretend that I was superman, an airplane, a bird, anything that flew through the air. I ran through the school corridors, back yard in the play ground even at small hills also in village and streets are in the city with my arms spread out like an airplane, simulating weird engine noises, simulating like bird flying in the sky whenever I would make a turn or go into a steep dive. Well, today I got to fly for the first in a small plane and it wasn’t by riding in an airplane. It was by jumping out of one.
Skydiving has always been of interest to me as a natural consequence of my desire to fly. I have always dreamed to do it,

I got request from friends that they need to try skydiving and they remind my old plan that we place many years before. When that time on our way to the skydiving centre in Dubai JBR (Jumeriah Beach Residence).we called the centre twice for extra information. We two were walked through ‘the walk’ in JBR and finally found the place and arrived 30 minutes before my scheduled time at 11:00 a.m.
At the centre I met many of the other people who were diving (also first-timers), signed a form saying that I wouldn’t sue the company if I was injured and that nobody in my family could sue them if I died, waited for few minutes and we heard our named called out by one of skydiving staff for next jump. He guides us to where we can learn about how to position yourself during freefall. I was skydiving in tandem, meaning that there would be a guy strapped onto my back who would monitor our rate of fall, control our descent, and deploy the parachute.

Then I was introduced to Junior, who was my instructor and tandem skydiving partner. He gave me a harness to wear over my clothes and then took me over to the airplane. Where he strapped my harness on. Then he put his parachute on, handed me some clear diving goggles, and we got into the plane. We were the first ones in the plane and the last ones out.

We were in a small plane, so there was no seating area, or any kind of area meant for people. We sat in a plane inside on toothpaste-tube-shaped cylinder. There were nine of us crammed in there. Three of us were jumping first time tandem with an instructor, other people were driving alone, and there were three cameramen. We all sat on the floor with the guy in front of us sitting between our legs and leaning back on our chests. When we were only a few minutes away from making the jump we shifted onto our knees so that the instructor could strap himself onto our harnesses, and so we could put our goggles on.

The ride up was nice and easy. Everyone chatted kindly with one another and talked about how great the weather was for a dive. Max Cameramen asked me how long I had wanted to skydive and how I feel when we are in high and ask from myself are you definitely jumping?my answer was yes hence its my desire to jump also he asked me any greeting from family or friends while I am waiting on the ground. I told him that I had come with my one of friends he said. “This is going to be the greatest thing you’ve ever done, trust me.”
I asked Junior how long he had been skydiving he said he is three weeks here at Sky diving Dubai and he had been skydiver for many years. I really don’t know what made him do it for the first time. But I am sure he has strong willpower to be Skydiving instructor.

I had not experienced any anxiety or nervousness about the dive. we were reached about 13,000 feet in the air. The plane hatch door was aboutsix feet in front of me, but I had an angle to where I could see the ground far below us. “it was beautiful seen!”, I thought. ”I’m going to be jumping out of this thing in just a few minutes!” Amazingly enough, I did not get any anxiety only things is I want to jump out. I know jumping out surprised me more than anything. I had always thought that I would experience extreme fear and trepidation when I went on my first skydive, but aside from my thoughts, I felt no fear at all. While I sat in the plane I wondered if I would feel that way once I was standing at the edge of the plane with the wind whipping through my hair.

Once we had reached 14,000 feet we heard a shout from the pilot crying, “Door!”  The two people closest to the hatch door raised the door and immediately did Superman-esque dives into the air with my friend and vanished from my sight. The tandem divers ahead of me all started duck-walking toward the open door (the ceiling was too short for anyone to stand up) and dove out of the plane. Then it was time for Junior and I. We scooted right up to the edge.

Let me take a moment to describe the process of this kind of skydive. Once you reach the edge of the plane kneeling over the side. The wind hits your face at about 100 miles per hour(160.934 Km) so your face immediately feel rushing Air. Hair and face get blown to the side. But you have a 185 lbs guy strapped to your backside, so you’re not going anywhere. At this point you cross your arms over your chest and wait for your instructor to get you both out of the plane. He does this by leaning forward (or outward) once, then back, and then leans forward again, at which point you are flying through the sky end over end for the first five seconds of your freefall. When he’s ready for you to be in your freefall position he slaps both of your shoulders, and you immediately lay your body out flat and spread your arms in a 90 degree angle. You arch your back, tuck your legs together and hold them back like you’re trying to kick your instructor in the butt, and keep your head up. You fall in this position for 7,000 feet at about 120 mph(193.121 km), so your freefall lasts for about 40 or 50 seconds.

When plane reached the 13,000 feet looked out of over the ground below me. It was beautiful. The ground was nice and flat, vast blue ocean and The Palm and side of me, a seemingly endless horizon where the clear blue sky never quite touched the ground. The wind was loud in my ears and blew my hair all over.
Some of you maybe be surprised to learn this, but I am a man plagued with incessant self-criticism. Everything that I say and do is filtered through a lens of intense inspection and examination. I do not know if this will ever leave me, or if it is an affliction that I must contend with until the morning dew shimmers over my grave, but it has been a vital part of my consciousness for as long as I have been self-aware. It has been of great benefit to me because it always forces me to try to do better, to be better, to experience more, to learn more, to love more fully, to grow more wisely, and to gnaw at the bone of life and suck the marrow out of it. It has also been the cause of much private despair, displeasure and self-doubt over my failed enterprises and lack of accomplishments also Martial Arts, Scuba Diving and many more other things I experience in my life had been making me as a fearless Man.

So I must trust you to believe that I am not trying to fabricate any sense of bravado when I say that I felt no fear. There was no anxiety, and no tension. I was utterly devoid of pain, grief, and worry. I felt no affliction of the mind or the soul. I looked out upon that beautiful earth and was surprised to feel complete peace within myself. In that moment, I owned the world. (Moment that I born)
I have experienced some dangerous and lethal encounters. I have been on my deathbed in a Many time, has been in serious accidents from child hood. Those accident place many scars on my face and body (still visible) Swimming in the ocean when there is dangerous wave, Crossing wide rivers by swimming when still there is presence of high current. Climbing mountain, crossing dark forest, crossing Desert and many other activity doing in my life had been make the man I today.

Junior and I rocked forward, and back, and then fell out of the plane. We tumbled end-over-end for a few seconds and then got into freefall position. It was incredible. I was falling at 120 mph, hurtling towards the earth and my possible destruction. The wind whipped past me with incredible ferocity. The rush was absolutely exhilarating. My heart rate skyrocketed from the intense experience, but I was not afraid. I was extatic. I felt a fullness of life that I had never experienced before.

To my great surprise, I did not see the earth approach me as I fell. The view from 12,000 feet was no different from the view at 5,000 feet when Junior deployed the parachute. Junior pulled the rip cord and I felt a gentle tug in the harness as we slowed from 120 mph (193.121 km) to 15 mph (24.1402 km) in less than a second. We began a slow descent to the earth, which took around seven or eight minutes. There are two cables that run down from the parachute with strap handles on the end of them, which are used for steering. I took them and steered us slowly to the left, and then again to the right. Then Junior told me how to do a spiral, by pulling down hard on one strap and letting up on the other. I pulled hard with my left hand and suddenly we were in a tight spiral dive, with the horizon spinning incredibly fast before our eyes. I tried it several more times and laughed with joy.

The landing was not as I thought it would be. I remember seeing videos of military operations where those guys would hit the earth fast and hard, and have to do a roll on the ground to try to avoid breaking a leg. This was as light as a feather. You cruise into the grass with your legs up high like you’re doing an ab workout and land on your butt, to absorb the shock. In our case though, we came in a little too fast, so Junior yelled at me to put my feet down at the last second. It was such a gentle touchdown that I didn’t even know I was on the ground until I felt the parachute falling to the ground behind me.

When it was over I spent a while chatting with Junior about the dive, and I thanked him and gave him a big hug. I got out of the harness and returned the jumpsuit, and spent a little time hanging out with the other divers and the people who worked there. They gave me a Video of my Sky dive and Still pictures DVD, Wish I have a certificate to show that I had completed my first skydive but there is nothing like that but some of sky diving centre do it. I drove away from that little airport with the pulse of life rushing through me.
They say that a man can’t know the scope and fullness of life unless he has tasted love, poverty, and war. I have experienced these criteria (thirty years of war at my country) I am of the way there, but I believe that the awesome power of my first skydive has thrust me a full closer. It is an experience that I hope to undertake many, many more times and shall never forget.

I love Sky diving….
Palitha Ariyarathna