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The roar of the wind was deafening. I seriously thought the door would break off the side of plane. Then again, it also seemed like the wind was capable of tearing my face off. I had felt pretty calm before, but at this point anything seemed possible. I was 10,000 feet (3,000 meters) above the earth and it was a long way down.
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I had always thought it would be cool to go skydiving. I´m not usually an adrenaline seeker (If I can´t control it or I can´t be strapped in, I´m not doing it) but something about jumping from a plane just seemed so badass to me. When I was in Cordoba two years ago I could have gone skydiving. For some reason I didn´t, and now being back again I was not going to let the opportunity pass me by. It would be a lot cheaper than doing it in the US, and a better story too (i.e. ¨You went skydiving in Latin America? Do they even have safety standards down there?¨). So I made my reservation and was taken to a small airfield near Alta Gracia (the boyhood hometown of Che Guevara) about an hour
away from Cordoba. This was last Friday. On the way to the airfield I felt pretty calm. As the instructor suited me up and explained to me what I needed to do when we jumped, I still felt pretty good. Even after takeoff, still good. I had been in small planes before so it didn´t bother me too much. Things began to change about 15 minutes into the flight. We continued to ascend. Aren´t we high enough by now, I thought? I looked down below, uneasily. For a little bit more money, I had the option of jumping from 10,000 feet rather than 9,000 feet, which meant about an extra 10 seconds of free fall. By now I was just itching to get it over with. The cameraman (he had a videocamera in his helmet and was filming everything and taking photos) signaled that we were just about ready, and the instructor and I put ourselves into position near the airplane door.
A few minutes later the airplane door opened, and the most intense rush of air I have ever felt came at me like a Mack truck. As we inched closer to the edge of the plane, things
started to get rough. Curse words, which I will not repeat here, kept cycling through my head. I think I let a few fly too, loud and clear. The camerman looked at me, gave me the go sign, and I pushed off. It´s really hard to describe what freefalling feels like. It´s not like cliff-diving, where you can see the water below. You just keep on falling and falling, and there is nothing that will slow you down, until the chute opens of course. The cacophony is deafening, and you can feel your cheeks contorting and twisting (Too bad I don´t have a double chin; it would have made for a funny video!). But because there is no vehicle, no bike or no board that you are somehow attached to, you feel totally free. If skydiving doesn´t create a heightened sense of awareness, then nothing will.
The free fall was supposed to last about 35 seconds. Time went by so fast that it seems like only 5 seconds had passed until the instructor, who was strapped to my back tandem-style, pulled the chute and we began slowly drifting to the airfield below. At this point the camerman was much
further down than us. As you can see he managed to get some great shots (uploading the video is too tricky with these slow computers here, it will have to wait till I get back to the US). Although the freefall was exhilarating like no other, the 5 minutes parachuting down was equally as impressive. There you are, floating in the wind. The views of the valley were stunning, and getting such a birds-eye view (literally!) was truly special. We continued to float our way down to the airfield. Our landing was pretty soft and not as painful as I thought it would be, although my instructor did most of the work. When we hit the ground, it was good to be back on Planet Earth again. My mission to become a badass was complete.
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I spent most of the next day sick in bed. My body clearly didn´t agree with being subjected to such extreme temperatures, even if it was only for a few seconds. One sick day for a mind-blowing experience? I´ll take that trade anyday.
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Josho
non-member comment
Chicken little
Awesome. How coked up was that dude that was strapped to you? Bring me back an 8 ball.