Believe me, words cannot express the feeling. You'll never know unless you try it. Even the videos on the training pages pale in comparison to the actual experience. One thing I can definitely tell you is that it is like NOTHING you expect. The closest I'm come to a description is that is feels like a cross between swimming and sticking your head out of the car window on the freeway. All those things you expect to feel simply don't happen.
"But it's so high. I'm afraid of heights"
Me too, sorta. Being on top of a building with no guard rail is high. Most people with a fear of heights have no problem with an observation deck. It's kind of neat, right? In skydiving, the psychological guard rail is worn on the back, and the ground is SO far away that you don't really experience the ground rush that you might expect. On my first jump, I never felt it until I had been under canopy for several minutes and was down to about 500 ft. By then I could start to feel how fast the ground was coming up at me.
"I don't like that feeling of falling"
I never felt it. That feeling is caused by accelerating towards the ground. When you skydive, you don't accelerate very much. Once you leave the airplane, which is already moving, you very quickly reach about 120 MPH or so and then you no longer accelerate. It's more like floating on a cushion of air. Sure, you're still falling towards the ground, but at a steady rate. It's like an elevator. When it starts, you feel it in your stomach. Once you're moving, it feels more like you're standing still. Skydiving is the same, only the floor is just a cushion of air.
"What if your parachute doesn't open?"
You have a second one.
"What if that one fails"
WALK TOWARDS THE LIGHT!
Look, think about this for awhile. If there was a high probability of a double
failure, would there be so many people jumping? Do you think we all want to die?
I don't want to die. I want to keep jumping. Reserve parachutes are packed
differently in order to make opening even more reliable than the already reliable
main. It's a good system that works very well. People rarely need it, but if they
do, the reserve works.
I had my first reserve ride at jump #85, a very
low speed malfunction. Cutting away the main and going back into freefall was very
interesting. Nevertheless, it was a good experience and I am more comfortable
that the system works. I haven't even come close to a failure since then.
"But the landings are so hard. I've seen the movies"
Believe me, this is nothing like the D-Day invasion you see in the movies. Those jumpers used a round canopy that worked much like an umbrella. The current design for canopies is more like a flexible wing. Just like an airplane, you flare as you approach the ground land on your toes. I couldn't handle those crash and roll landings either. Most of my landings now are soft and easy. Occasionally I have to take a few steps.
"C'mon! You can't say it's not dangerous"
Skydiving is clearly a dangerous sport. I think that is why it is so safe. Oxymoronic? Maybe not. Let me explain.
If one goes out to go skiing, one generally does not think about the danger. If you get going too fast and lose control, of course, you could get seriously injured or killed. But that won't happen to me.
Scuba diving is filled with danger, but it can be managed. If my regulator just stops working, I can always drop everything and blow bubbles all the way to the surface (unless I need to decompress). And what are the odds of a hungry shark passing by? I'll just hide on the bottom.
Surfing is thrilling and the water is soft, right? I won't get hit by a board or dragged under or anything.
All of these sports are dangerous. The risk is manageable, for most people, and the joy is worth it. But in all of these sports, the risk is not nearly so in-your-face apparent and the consequences of a screw-up are not so final in their effect.
Skydiving has this way of reminding you, with every jump, that if you screw up, you WILL DIE! This has a remarkably focusing effect and as a result, Skydiving is statistically safer than those other sports. In other words, the danger is more obvious so skydivers are more careful. Interestingly enough, many of the accidents we've seen lately have been by experienced jumpers flying high performance canopies. The accidents occur AFTER the parachute is deployed when the obvious danger has passed. These jumpers feel safer under canopy, so they take more chances.
I had a scuba diver tell me he would never try something so dangerous as skydiving. "On a bad day, I can always surface. Skydiving is so final." He left out all the really neat bad day problems. He never mentioned the bends, embolism, lipoid pneumonia, sharks, poisonous sea creatures, pollution, careless drivers in motor boats or the occasional giant rouge man-eating squid. (it could happen) By not thinking about those things, he increases the chances that it could surprise him.
The moral is, know your limits and stay alert. Modern sport parachuting equipment is very safe and reliable when used as directed. Just to make sure, we always carry a backup. Safety is a major concern. Never forget that and you'll be OK.
Life is a managed-risk affair. Isolating yourself from everything that could hurt you would be quite boring. You could hide under the bed all day or weigh the risks and take a chance. It might just be fun.
Think about it another way: If you can face your worst fear and jump, just maybe you can accomplish anything. It's not what's in front of you that blicks your way, it's what's inside you that hold you back. Carpe diem!
Getting back to work on Monday morning after a GREAT weekend of skydiving and realizing how much the rest of your life really sucks!