Skydiving – The King of extreme sports. And something that had been sitting on my to-do list for far too long.

One of my bestest friends in the whole wide world (AKA Jacquie) had just turned 21 and to make up for not

thinking up a good gift idea in time my other bestest friend in the whole wide world (AKA Eliza) agreed that it was a good excuse to force her to jump out of a plane – alongside ourselves of course.

It was a quarter life celebration after all!

About a week later we were eating breakfast prior to jumping out of that plane.

It’s safe to say we were extremely excited and kind of nervous that one of us would poo our pants
I had arranged the whole experience through Coastal Skydive who I originally had a bit of trouble with as they had double booked our morning jump (on a day whichwas expected to have a rainy afternoon). We were given the option of coming in later to try our luck so we did just that (we were also given the offer of a discounted photo package which was super nice).

I also received this exciting offer in the apology email from the wonderful Coastal Skydive pilot Alex

Also, if you do wish stay on a bit later after your jump I would be happy to take you up in the right seat of the cockpit – for some exposure to a turbine aircraft!

Ummm… YES!

We arrived in drizzly weather. The group that landing as we arrived had actually jumped through a cloud and looked pretty sore and traumatised. It wasn’t looking hopeful.

There was still a group before us and this is when I met the lovely Alex and had the chance to take him up on the turban engine flight offer as he dumped some divers through the sky.

It was incredible to see how the whole procedure worked from the cockpit and after the skydivers had vacated the aircraft I experienced the wildly steep decent down and even had a chance to take control of the stick myself for a while.

It also made me realise exactly what I had gotten myself, Jacquie and Eliza in for.

Before we knew it we were strapped up, boarding the other end of the turbine engine and making our way up…

I had only booked us in for 9,000ft but my buddy Richie (the man I was strapped to and had complete control over my life for the next 10 minutes or so) kept checking his altimeter watch which rose steadily up to 14,000…

We were very high.

It all happened very quickly. Jacquie was first to go and I am not kidding when I say that one of the scariest moments of my life was watching her disappear so quickly out of that aircraft.

It was horrifying.

Next it was us. We crept alongside the aircraft and after a few horrific seconds of hanging outside the even more horrific moment of letting go of the aircraft happened. And we were falling. Fast.

I had a minor wardrobe malfunction with a jacket string but not even that could take away from the mind-blowing experience of ferruling through the sky. It was phenomenal.

At some point the parachute was inflated and the adrenaline turned to wonder and we floated over my home-state admiring the coastline.

It was one of the best things I have ever done and I am so glad to have shared the experience with two girls that share special places in my heart.

Thank you Alex, Richie and the team at Coastal Skydive for a perfect day and thank you Eliza and Jacquie for sharing the adventure with me!

Contact

https://coastalskydive.com.au