It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's Justin skydiving!!! For his birthday a couple months ago I gave him the chance to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. Well he finally collected.

Since he couldn't convince me to go with him, his dad went with him. Here is the before shot.

Here is Justin's instructor prepping him for the jump.

The boys are ready for the jump (I think)!

They sure do cram a lot of people on the plane. Guess since they won't be staying long it doesn't matter.

Plane is ready for takeoff.

Here is Mike coming in for a landing...

And safely on the ground.

All smiles after the jump.

And now for Justin's take on skydiving:

Skydiving is something that I have always wanted to do. But I don't know why I have never done it. Probably because it involves JUMPING OUT OF AN AIRPLANE!!!! When Lauren told me that she was going to send me skydiving for my birthday I didn't really think anything about it besides it would be fun. Pulling into the parking lot and seeing the airplanes started to get the stomach turning a little and a little more when you walk into the hanger and people are suited up.

The ride in the plane was quick and when we passed through the clouds I thought we must be pretty close to 13,000 feet but a quick glance at my altimiter reveled that we were only 1,000 feet. I think my eyes started to bug out of my head thinking about we are going up another 12,000 feet. When we hit 13,000 they opened the rear door an a rush of cool air quickly filled the plane. At this point we were already connected to our instructors and I have to admit my leg was shaking uncontrolable. I turned to my dad expecting him to be about to chicken out but he was calm as can be. Atleast that is what he has been telling me.

The people in the back of the plane started to funnel out and I was just thinking to myself "I wonder if a human body bounces when it hits the ground at 120 mph". The instructor asked my dad and I who wanted to be the first one out of the plane and I said that I wanted my dad to be first because I wanted to see his face before he jumped. As they were scooting to the back of the plane I was right behind them just waiting for my dad to say that he wasn't going through with it. Well they got to the door and before I even got a good look at my dad's face they were out the door leaving only myself and this crazy druggie looking fellow that is attached to my back. Did I forget to mention that he is yelling "WOOOOOOOOO.........WE'RE GOING SKYDIVING, ROCK ON!!!!!". Standing at the door with nothing besides me and looking down and seeing the ground made it all sink in. I AM ABOUT TO JUMP OUT OF AN AIRPLANE AND FALL TO MY DEATH.

But before I could do anything out we go. The first few seconds I can't even remember, I think my eyes might have been shut or I was so scared that I blacked out for a little while. The next thing I remember is the wind in my face and my lips being pulled apart and cheeks flapping in the wind. Did I also mention my crazy hippie fellow is still yelling "WOOOOOOOOOOO..........WE'RE SKYDIVING". The feeling was incredible, something that you can't explain with words. Everyone needs to try it before they die.

When we were close to 6,000 feet the instructor tapped my arm to the altimiter so say it was time to pull the parachute. I reach back and find the string to pull but then realized I didn't give the signal that I was going to pull it so I sat there for a little bit wondering if he wants me to pull it. Yes I know, probably not the smartest thing since we were on a quick path to meet our maker. All of a sudden there was a jerk and the chute was open. Wasn't near as bad of a snap as I thought it was going to be. Then everything was quiet and you could see downtown in front of us and the Gulf of Mexico behind us. It would have been great to have had a camera at that moment. Once back on ground I couldn't wait to do it again. And I've already bought my 2nd jump.