Yesterday my father and I had a blast. I decided to take my father out and go.....Skydiving! Yes Skydiving. If you all remember I went last year in New Zealand and I thought that it was absolutely amazing. It was closest thing to flying in the sky and I decided to do it again. Of course I did my best to not tell my dad. We got up early in the A.M, had some coffee and I drove us an hour and a half to this place called Skydive on the Gulf. It was technically in Alabama but the drive was just about as far as Pensacola for us. So really it wasn’t that bad. 

When we arrived at our destination my dad goes "My guess was right" and I just looked at him and smiled. My father had been suspicious for a while about what we were doing and of course he just knewwww what it was. To be honest I’m not surprised he figured it out, I’m just happy that he was still down to go and do it even after we got there. When we parked the car I asked if he was nervous. Surprisingly he answered no. I know for my first time I was pretty nervous but I did my best to hide it and to not let it get to me. For him it was just a straight no. 

Once we were inside we got to file out some paperwork. Basically saying that you can die and if you do that it’s not the companies fault and etc. We both filed the paperwork and then watched the video. Once the video was done we waited for the plane to come back down and to be suited up. Which to be honest felt super quick. In New Zealand I waited about two hours before I got my turn. 

(If you want to read about my first experience then click here to go read all about it. I will say, it is quite the story.)

Of course I am sure that when you only have two or three divers in your facility it changes things quite a lot and you have to be aware of when to take breaks and how often you need to do that. They did say that they jump every half hour so I am sure that after the third or fourth time you will need a break from it. 

Once we were all harnessed in we got assigned to our divers and we made our way to the plane where we got to take videos and photos before climbing inside. I got a briefing of how to pull the shoot on the way down. By the way, if you have never skydived before they won’t give you the option of pulling your own shoot since it’s a lot to take in the first time and of course it’s both your lives on the line. Since I had done it before he gave me the option and as nervous as I was I also wanted to give it at least a shot. He did tell me that if I didn’t pull it in time that he had a backup cord to pull the shoot. 

After the briefing we met our pilot and we climbed inside. I was jumping first so my dad got into the plane with his diver and I climbed inside and got to sit right next to the pilot. 

While we were climbing I watched the gauges and I got to see the outside world in full view. It was just so awesome to see where we live in such a different light. It was amazing. Once we got up to 10,000 feet my partner reminded me of what to do and then opened the door. Right away everything melted out of me and I just remember feeling light. I whispered to myself "You got this" and I swung my legs out and bam, we were falling. This time I remember everything. I remember seeing the plane fall away, I remember the clouds as we were going by, I remember my instructor taping me on the shoulder, pulling the shoot, everything. I remember it all. The entire time we were falling I can say that I felt so good. I felt so light and I felt like the world was just so beautiful. 



When the shoot was open my partner and I had a great talk about jumping, New Zealand, my Dad and just how cool it is to skydive. You get so many different perspectives and you get so many cool views. Not only do you get to experience the jump but you get to experience the world. It truly was beautiful and I am so glad that I picked them to do this dive. Once we were on the ground my dad said that he had an amazing time and that it was so much fun. He now wants to go get his license to do solo dives. Truly that is amazing to me. I’m just glad I could give him a taste of what it is like before he made the decision to go and do anything. So Happy birthday Dad, I hope it was a great one!