Skydiving

About 9 years ago I graduated college. For my graduation present I told Russ I wanted to go skydiving. He would have taken me then but I was pregnant with Kyleigh. Then life happened. Then Katelyn happened. Life again. On our tenth anniversary trip to the big Island we wanted to go and found out it wasn't available over there. Not long after that trip, Ridge happened. After all that, we finally went skydiving. We scheduled it for the 14th of September when my parents were here, so they could watch the kids. It was SO MUCH FUN. It was a tandem skydive, so we had instructors strapped to our backs. The plane ride up was the scariest part. They had a super old looking plane. We both figured we were safer than the pilot with a parachute strapped to our backs. The space in the plane was tight and the equipment we had on was even tighter. It took about 20 minutes to get up to 10,000 feet. By the time we were ready to jump I was really looking forward to relief from the harness around my waist. I only had one tiny second thought when I watched Rusty jump out. I didn't really have much time to think about it, though, because I jumped just a few seconds after him. They had us put our feet on the platform, cross our arms, and the instructor launched us out of the plane. Your legs fly up and back and your arms go out. They told us not to fight the wind, but let your arms be pushed by it. The freefall lasted for about 20-30 seconds. They said we were going about 110-120 mph. The video shows more skin flapping than I knew we had. Once they pulled the parachute we got to steer it. We were over the ocean for most of the descent and we landed in the same field we left from. So, would I ever do it again? YES, I started thinking about it as soon as I landed. A friend told me you could get a good Kamaaina rate on Oahu. I will look into it the next time we go to Oahu.