Skydiving in Cairns

I did it…I conquered one of my biggest fears.  The fear of skydiving seemed insurmountable.  After trying to talk myself into it about three times in New Zealand and failing each time, I finally committed in Cairns, Queensland, Australia.

I’m not going to lie…I was unbelievably scared.  It didn’t help that of seven of us I went last.  Each time another person “fell” out of the plane, I cursed.  By the time it was my turn, I nearly cried.  It all happened so quickly that there was no way to back-out.  In the end, I’m so glad I did it.

Skydiving may be the most exhilarating and scary thing I’ve ever done in my life.  Once we were down safely, my instructor told me that we actually did a nice flip out of the plane but I didn’t notice because we were surrounded by clouds.  He then asked me if I would do it again and I said “yes”.  I didn’t actually remember most of our conversation, but it’s all in the video (note:  I hope to post the video later…for now, I can’t figure out how to do it).

Interesting “Facts”

• We jumped at 14,000 feet.
• I was lucky enough to jump with the “boss”…the safety officer.
• He’s done well over 4,500 jumps.
• Rain was coming in, so I asked if they jump in rain and he said “no”.  But, sometimes it does happen by accident…today it happened, but only for a brief moment.
• The free fall was approximately 60 seconds.
• The remainder with the parachute open was 4-5 minutes.
• We thought we’d get full jump suits, but we only got pants to put over our shorts.  If I’d have known, I definitely would have wore a different shirt.  I was cold for the first couple of minutes.

And yes…I do believe I will do it again.  I also know I will be just as scared as I was today and it will be worth it.