Skydiving!!! (Accomplished August 15, 2010)

Here is another thing you should know about me: I'M DEATHLY AFRAID OF HEIGHTS! Honestly, I can't even go off the high dive at the pool!

Skydiving was the single most significant thing I had checked off my bucket list. Not only was it the most ballsy, but it was the culmination of my biggest fear: heights! I thought if I did this, I would get over my fear. Here's what went down.

My family and I are originally from Seattle, Washington, but for summer vacation, we decided to rent a beach house in Laguna Beach.

View from the house

Only weeks before, I received a text from a fraternity brother in LA asking if I wanted to go skydiving in August. Realizing that skydiving was on my bucket list and that I would be in Laguna Beach when we would go, I said of course! What I didn't realize was how much grief I would be getting from my family.

My family and I (mom, twin #1, dad, twin #2, me) in Laguna Beach

Every day I would be emailed articles from my mom and dad about freak skydiving accidents and death statistics trying to get me not to go. Whenever I passed my dad in the rental home in Laguna, he would say, "Nice knowing you, Patrick!" He even went as far as to say that I'm throwing my life away a few days before the jump.

The night before the jump, the family dubbed the dinner "The Last Supper" and made my favorite meal, Spicy Spanish Chicken (think of Paella and you'll have an idea of it's epicness), which took all day to make and tasted AMAZING!!!

It turned out that my little sisters got more psyched out by my parents than I did because the day I left for the jump they were crying and begging that I don't go. It was quite depressing.

My mom drove me to the skydiving business by Lake Elsinore about 90 minutes east of the beach house. I guess she wanted to spend every last minute with me that she could! When we got to the site, we saw that they actually had a bar by the drop zone, so I think it's safe to assume that my mom was knocking back glass after glass of Chardonnay while she was waiting for me.

I went on the jump with several fraternity brothers, including:

Phil

Steve (on right)

Vince

The first thing they did was make you watch an instructional video in the waiting room with your group. After that, you got one-on-one instruction with your pro/tandem buddy. When jumping out of the plane, it's all about the banana pose: hold on to your harness and arch your legs and body back like a banana. It was the one thing my instructor repeated over and over again. He also gave me an altimeter, which he attached to my wrist to display our altitude. I had a window between 5,000-7,000ft to pull the cord to release the chute, and I had to remember to check the altimeter for that while in free fall. YOU BET YOUR ASS I WOULD REMEMBER THAT ONE!

Instruction in the stationary test plane

Over the course of the instruction, I was surprisingly calm for a guy who's afraid of heights and about to jump out of a plane at 13,000ft!!! When we got on the plane, I was still calm. It was a small 12-person propellor plane with bench seating along either side of it. Before I knew it, we were off the ground and ascending rapidly!  Halfway up at 6,500ft., a guy to my left said, "Let's get some air conditioning in here," and opened up the hatch to reveal the vast expanse of land below. Then he said, "See ya later," and he was out of the plane. That was the point where my calm composure turned to SHEER TERROR!!!

The moment he jumped, my cameraman (tip: worth the extra money to record your first skydive) started filming me and it hit me: I'M GOING TO DIE!

My friends could tell I was scared, but Phil motivated me with one simple phrase: "Don't be a bitch, Patrick!" I found out later that my mom thought I was going to be in the plane when it landed as opposed to in the air falling. To be honest, I considered it, but I didn't want to be THAT guy!

Finally, we had reached 13,000ft. and it turned out that I was the first to jump out of my group. Damn it! Nothing is scarier than looking over the edge of an open plane at 13,000ft!
"You ready?" my instructor said.
"No!" I yelled.
I think the wind and propellers drowned out my voice because he started counting down 3...2...1!!!

The scariest moment of my life!!!

The first 5-10 seconds of jumping out of that plane was the mostly blindingly terrifying period in my life next to coming out of the womb! You expect to touch ground right after you jump, like jumping off a chair, but it's just air! When you think about it, knowing you're not going to touch ground/water a second or two after jumping is an alien feeling to most people, and I consequently freaked out! You know how my instructor told me to make the "banana pose?" My safety training quite literally went out the window. I forgot everything! I was flailing the moment I left the plane, so my instructor had to put me in that right position himself.

Definitely not in the "banana" pose

After soiling myself and stabilizing, I entered free-fall, the point at which my body's air resistance reduces gravity's pull to a constant velocity, creating a feeling of weightlessness. And let me tell you...it's the most peaceful, out-of-body experience ever!

The only thing you can hear is the rush of the wind. You can't even hear yourself! All I did was say "wow!" in my head a thousands times as I admired the mountains to my left, the ocean off in the distance, and the lake in front of me. I was in free fall for about 45 seconds, which seemed like forever and no time all at once.

Before I knew it, my instructor pointed at my altimeter and I pulled the cord!

Unfortunately I decided to wear very loose-fitting athletic shorts that day, which ended up giving me an ATOMIC WEDGEY the moment the parachute opened and shot us up! Then we engaged in a tailspin for 5 minutes and raised our legs up for landing.

We had to slide for our landing and unfortunately my loose-fitting shorts turned into a thong by the time we finished sliding. I can't tell you how amazing it felt to be on the ground again! I was speechless and felt superhuman from all the adrenaline running through my body. To my amazement, it took a few days for the feeling to wear off!

I'm sad to say I didn't get over my fear of heights that day, but I'm definitely glad I did it. While I will probably never skydive again knowing how scary the first 10 seconds of the fall is, I must say that everyone needs to try it at least once. It's truly one of the most unique and surreal experiences you can have. One of the skydive instructors put it perfectly: "You can't describe it if you haven't done it and it's indescribable when you have done it."

To watch my Skydiving video, click the link below.