i crossed out one of the entries in my big list of things to do before i die.
its a long long list. and truthfully, this is one of the only achievable things at the moment. the idea first came upon me when my elder brother did one in sydney, and came again after watching flo rida’s ‘wild ones’ video. so when my housemate announced that she was leaving dubai; we decided that this was one thing that we needed to do before she left. so we booked ourselves 2 spots in skydive dubai for a tandem skydive.
from the very start things were just so quick that i barely had any time at all to process any feelings that came to me. once we signed in a guy on a cam started video-ing me as the intro, then my tandem skydiver strapped me up and began explaining what i should be doing during the jump. basically 2 things; smile and be a banana. meaning arch my body upways like a banana and do nothing like a banana.
next thing we know, we’re walking up towards this little propeller plane, my partner asking if i’m ready, my heart’s pumping like mad while i’m smiling to her saying yes lets do this. we climbed up to 13,000ft, her pointing to the view outside, but really who the fark leisurely enjoys the view when you know you’re jumping off the plane next.
oh my, crazy doesn’t even begin to describe how it felt. i just remember screaming and screaming and screaming the moment we jumped out. and after a few seconds of that i remembered i was being videotaped so i started to attempt some cool gesture shots. what an epic fail. freefalling makes its really really hard to move ANYTHING when you’re up in the air. i had to use every single little ounce of muscle i had to make a tiny effort of hand, arm or facial movements! it didn’t really feel like i was flying really, it felt more like a continuous fall that would never end.
it was really enjoyable for me. i was more excited during the entire experience more than afraid. lots of people naturally imagine what happens if the parachute doesn’t deploy, what if my tandem jumper faints in mid air (lol!). but seriously, they jump on an average of 8 times a day. if something does go wrong, that will be my fate then. HAHA.
after a few seconds of falling you get used to the feeling. and start enjoying the view, as if falling was so natural and you don’t think about it. at a certain height my tandem diver deploys the parachute and adjusts the straps to make us more comfortable.
then she pops a question; “you like roller coasters?”
me: “i love them!”
and she starts twirling us around like a little puppet. omg that beat any roller coasters i’ve ridden in my life. after a few seconds of intense g-force,squealing, laughing and god knows what, i had tears in my eyes and had to tell her to stop.
it was a perfect landing. =) no wobbly knees or fainting spells. more like a happy wide-eyed kid who just got out of the best ride of her life. the whole experience was so quick and mind-blowing i didn’t really feel much. nor had time to think about it.
it costs AED1750 / ~USD475 for a tandem dive including still photos and a video. in total the jump probably lasted only a couple of minutes but the whole experience took probably about 2 hours including waiting time.
if i had the chance, i’d definitely do it again. just maybe somewhere else =)
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