(Disclaimer: this is not a technical account of my first sky diving experience. You will not find cool lingo or daring feats of courage, so gear heads and adrenalin seekers can tab down to the next story with a clear conscience.) 🙂
Inspiration At The Library
My first sky dive came about when my friend Carolyn took me to see Larry Wiss present at the Hawaii State Library to honor the anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission when Commander Neal Armstrong, Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin and Command Module Pilot Michael Collins landed at the Sea of Tranquility and were the first humans to walk on the moon. As anyone who has ever spent time with Larry knows, he is a consummate professional and the presentation brought the excitement and awe of that amazing feat to life. After the program we spent some time with Larry in conversation and happily discovered that we were headed to the same Mexican restaurant for dinner. We decided to meet and enjoy the evening together. What I remember about that dinner was a table loaded with camaraderie and fellowship. The group that accompanied Larry were veteran skydivers whose eyes glowed with excitement and they breathed that joy that I would associate with surfers after a good day on the water. I caught the spark, it whispered in my ear all night.
At dawn I started trying to contact Carolyn but she has a Saturday morning workout ritual so I did not actually speak to her until around noon. That same day Carolyn arranged to meet Larry at Dillingham Airfield on the North Shore of Oahu. We spent much of the commute from Hawaii Kai to the drop site alternating between contemplating a swift death and thoughts of plummeting through the air to a two-point landing. We finally got suited up then it seemed like we spent a long time climbing to altitude, in the plane the atmosphere was thick with tension weighing the unknown and managing expectations. Finally it was my turn, my tandem partner Jon barrel rolled out of the plane and as planned, I was honored to have one of my new skydiving friends, Dave, fly in to hold hands with me for a few moments in freefall. I felt that the instructor should have told me that he was going to show me all the different ways to fall through the air because the head-first option scared the shit out of me. When it was time to touch down our friends were still on the field so we had little room to land but my expert partner saved us from embarrassment. Larry brought out his famous celebratory beer and we basked in the glow for a while.
Donna Sav
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Wishing you blue skies, gentle winds, and soft landings! – Larry D-6730
Another interesting story…thanks for sharing!
What an interesting story, Donna. You can’t beat a great presentation, mexican food, a quick jump out the plane and a beer. All in all a great 2 days! Jon sounds like a lot of fun…barrel rolls…how cool. I agree with you on the whole driving head first, that’s too scary.