And the Fun Has Only Just Begun...

It’s been a weird one and a half years. My travel plans have ground to a halt due to the pandemic and family matters. Thank God I was in New Zealand (even twice in a row), which somewhat filled up the reserve tanks just before COVID-19 and all the crazyness (there was a lot of Corona-unrelated heartbreak) started to unfold. After over a year of working from home and barely leaving the city the tanks have run bone dry and I was more than ever desperate to break out of the daily grind. So I pulled out the good old bucket list and scanned it for unchecked items that are achievable within the time frame of a summer and under the given circumstances. And the choice fell on becoming a licensed skydiver.

It was a crazy and fantastic journey. Skydivers are a wonderful bunch of people. My instructors and the staff at the drop zone were awesome and managed to teach me how to have fun while plummeting towards our big fat home planet at 200km/h (about 125 mph) and how to stay safe while doing it. The nervousness during the ride to altitude (we jump from 4000m/13,000ft out of a lovely Cessna 208 Caravan) transforms into pure bliss the very moment you throw yourself out of that aircraft door.

With only 30 jumps under my belt I am a complete noob and my journey has only just begun. Although I have a license now I would not even call myself a skydiver yet. I have just learned how to jump out of a plane on my own in various ways (float, dive, climb out), free-fall in a stable manner, do flips around each of the three axes, open the parachute at the right altitude and land in one piece in the intended spot, plus the very basics of formation jumping. There is still A LOT to learn and to improve, and that’s a good thing and something I look forward to. I can’t wait to go back next year, continue my progression and, most importantly, see my fellow students and the crowd at the drop zone and jump out of that plane again. 🤙