Let's Go Skydiving

I'm not very good on fairground rides. And I hate heights. So why not jump out of a plane at 12,500 feet?

I blame Iain. He mentioned that, seeing as we were out in LA a day early, and he knew of this ace skydiving place down the road, why not drive down there and maybe do a jump?

Iain is a proper skydiver, with his own parachute and everything. I would be travelling with a partner who would do all the important bits and make sure that nobody died. Having signed one of the scariest waivers I have ever seen in my life, forked out a goodly sum of cash (including the video package where they give you your own cameraman up there to film the whole thing) we set off.

I felt really sorry for my instructor. There were three of us doing tandem jumps. Two charming, beautiful and petite young ladies. And me. If he did draw the short straw, he took it with good grace, and was excellent. How you can make a career out of strapping yourself to total strangers and leaping out of planes with them is a mystery to me, but by gum, he was good.

 

Forced jollity at ten thousand feet

After this it is downhill all the way

The instructor even let me drive for a while.

Bank on terra firma.

I can't describe what it was like. How it feels to be falling at 120 miles an hour is a difficult thing to put into words. I can say only it was like nothing else. And if you get the chance you should do it. I've got a video of the whole thing, nicely set to Frank Sinatra. I'll put it up once I've transcoded it.

Thanks and kudos to instructor Adi Blair, videographer Herbie Loureiro and everyone at the Perris Valley Skydiving School who made the most frightening thing I've ever done in my life so much fun.