I’ve been travelling a lot, but still, when I hop on a plane I get a bit nervous, specially during take off and landing. Well today for the first time in my life, I boarded a plane with not even a small thought or concern about landing, no fear nor anxiety.
The Trick? I jumped out of the plane, easy.

Yes, today I lost my skydiving virginity.

For those of you fanatics about pictures and videos, you social media lovers, I’m sorry, your addiction will not be fed by me today for 2 reasons: the first, do you know how bloody expensive is the pics/video package?? the second, I jumped for the sake of adrenaline and embracing my fear, not for having a cool profile pic (I already have a cool profile pic anyway!).

But still, probably because of the adrenaline still running through my veins, I feel to share this experience.

So after many attempts (first time a year and a half ago in Amsterdam where, because of the bad weather, my booking was canceled twice, then a bit more than a year ago, in Dubai, I had to give up due to a 3 weeks long waiting list) 2 days ago I booked a Skydive experience. Woke up today at 7am, got ready to find out that the weather once again was trying to fool me. I went to the Skydive shop: canceled again! Rescheduled for the afternoon, hoping that the clouds were going to part.
Spent the morning setting up this blog/website/gallery/whatever, thinking that maybe it was a sign, “it’s not meant to happen”… or maybe, it’s just the way it is, no signs, no fate, just unfavorable circumstances: try again. So I did, sun was shining, literally, so here I am sitting on a small plane with no seats, sitting on the ground between a guy’s legs and having another guy sitting between my legs (no, it’s not as you think, no sex involved, just work for them… I mean, ohh forget about it man), flying up towards the 12thousands ft.
My restless mind was kept busy by the stunning view: Queenstown if you don’t know it, is a magical place, a tiny mountain town,  resting its bones over a crystal/blue lake,  hugged by a belt of snow topped (at least at this time of the year) monumental mountains. It’s strange how much a cold place like this can warm up your heart.

Anyway, back on the plane! Red light goes off! Get ready: helmet on, the door opens up, the first photographer places himself out of the plane hanging there as it was the most confy place on the planet. The first instructor gets on the edge, having his jumping buddy in between his legs (stop it, again it’s not what you think!); next thing I know is that they’re flying out of the plane and I can’t help thinking “shit they felt out of the plane! are they okay??”. No time to check, I’m next in line. Ok, he said to put my arms like this, my le…Wait give me a sec, I need to… too late, we’re out!
WOOOOOOOOWWWWW what the hellllll!!!!!! (I was screaming something else, but I can’t write it here).

For a time that realistically was 10 seconds, but seemed to last for ever to me, my brain was in shock: spinning, loosing reference points, trying to reach for a stable and still surface to hold on to, we’re in the clouds, I can’t see much, I just feel the air running fast over my face, what the guy said during the briefing? 200km/h free falling speed? Yeah I’m pretty sure. Hey look at that! The clouds are gone, I can see now! OH MY GOD!!! (sorry, don’t get upset if I don’t believe in you but I call your name in this situations, if you’ve tried skydive, you can understand me).

We’re getting more stable, the free falling is steady now and I can see the valley below, the mountains around us, the sun shining through the clouds, creating beautiful light and shades effects… what a view, I wish I had words to describe it. I mean, skydiving is an amazing experience wherever you do it, but in such a paradise, gives you a plus.
At this point I’m laughing and screaming like an idiot, the Walsh guy behind me must had thought I was out of mind, and he was right, I was. I felt happy and excited like a kid, free and alive as never before. Out of mind, for an overthinker, that’s a big deal! Eventually I found a way out of my mind.

And when you think it can’t get any better, this cool guy that came to NZ 15 years ago, supposedly only for a short stop during his world’s trip, asks me: “do you want to give it a try?” handing me the strings to manoeuvre  the parachute! If I want to try?? Hell yeah!
Pull the left one….pull the right one… starting going down in circles, fast, really fast: the stomach that for few seconds thought the worst was over, started to make its way up to the throat. I also realize that my breath is heavy, I feel a pain in the chest, probably my heart will jump out of his cage in a sec. Breath, again, and again,look around, smile and feel happy.

Here we go, the land is getting closer, gravity is getting us back to the ground, and me back to reality; few more seconds and I find myself sitting on the grass, struggling to compute what had just happened: my mind is all over the place, my body is trying to put things back in place (literally, I’m pretty sure my organs were arranged in a different way  when we took off) and I can’t stop laughing 🙂

So, that’s how it feels to fly. Pretty cool.

I leave you with a suggestion and a quote: if you can, do it, skydive, it’s awesome!
And here the quote I found on the skydive shop’s brochure:
“I must not fear,
fear is the mind killer.
Fear is the little death that brings
total obliteration.
I WILL FACE MY FEAR.
I will permit it to pass over
and through me.
And when it has gone past
I will turn the inner eye
to see its path.
Where the fear has gone
there will be nothing.
Only I will remain.”
Fear by Frank Herbert