Byron Bay: This town has more hippies than I've ever seen in my life. Dreadlocks are encouraged and shoes are highly optional. We stayed just a block from the beach, and had a good time. It's an absolutely beautiful place. It's tropical, and there's a coastal rain forest lining the ocean.
But what, may you ask, did we actually do?
Naturally, we jumped out of an airplane.
That's right. We went skydiving. It was absolutely incredible.
We got picked up in a limo from our hostel. It was a pretty ghetto limo, but a limo nonetheless. There were six of us doing the jump today. Two of the girls were from Korea, and didn't talk. The other two girls were from Melbourne, and they were a riot. You know those people that just bring out the fun, silly side of everyone? That was these girls. We had a lot of fun. They could only take two of us at a time in the plane, and Robert and I were last. So when our new friends went, we took pictures for them. They returned the favor when we jumped, thus documenting the excursion.
So the plane was obviously very small. You couldn't have fit anyone else in there besides our quartet of daredevils. The jumps were tandem, and each of our partners had jumped thousands of times before. It was comforting to know that my life was in the hands of someone who does this regularly. Or maybe it should have made me worry to think that someone is crazy enough to do this for a job, and I was trusting him with my life. But he was a nice guy, and I actually had to sit on his lap once we got connected.
Down on the ground, it was overcast. I was bummed, because I thought it meant our descent wouldn't be as epic. But little did I know that the clouds were hovering around 4,000 ft, and we were jumping 10,000 feet ABOVE that. Once we got up there, it was blue skies as far as you could see. I literally couldn't tell where the sky ended and the ocean began. It was an incredible view, crouched in the back of this tiny aircraft. To paraphrase Derek Zoolander, it should have been at least....three times that size!
So after climbing into the blue for about 15 minutes, it was time to go. These guys don't waste time, either. The door flew open, and I think the wind would have knocked me out if I hadn't jumped willingly.
Robert went first. I wanted to watch him fall, and I wanted to watch him either land or crash and die. Luckily, the first was the case. Here's how it went down: the student is in front, so you have to stick your legs out of the plane. This was the scariest part, to see your legs dangling outside of a plane going that fast and that high. It was exhilarating though. Then, you cross your arms over your chest, and lay your head back. Then, you are at the mercy of the expert; he does all the work. He jumps, and you go with him! When I saw Robert go, it freaked me out. He just dropped, like it was hot. Swoosh, gone. We went a few seconds later, but he was already way below us.
The craziest thing is that you don't feel like you're falling. It just feels super windy. I was expecting that feeling like you get on a roller coaster for 14,000 feet, but it's nothing like that. You're flying, and you can see for miles. It may be more expensive to do this in Aus, but you can't beat this view. We jumped over the ocean, and we could see golden beaches for miles in either direction. The water and sky were so blue, the beaches were beautiful, and everything past that was more verdant than exists in Utah. It was breathtaking. We spun around a little, and had some fun. Somehow on the way down, I lost a contact. Totally worth it.
I also expected the parachute to hurt a little bit, and jerk a lot more. But it didn't at all. All of a sudden, we just weren't going as fast. He let me steer, and taught me how to do the death spiral. It was so incredible. I really can't explain it. But I now understand why people get addicted to that feeling. I now have this underlying urge to fling myself from a plane.
After we got back into town, we got gelato to celebrate. Or course.
Now we're in Brisbane, but I'm going to make Robert blog about it. I'll leave you with documentation of our legendary jump, though. Stay tuned for some legendary adventures in Brisbane.
Robert, with his tandem partner. He's jumped over 7,000 times. He was in good hands.
Are you ready to jump from a plane? Because I was born ready.
We're jumping out of a plane together one day. FYI.
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