Jumping out of an airplane at 13,000 ft

Yes, that is what I did on Friday. Some of you will remember that I had participated in an office fund raiser last year - skydiving for charity. Well due to our UK Visa issues and our unplanned trip back to the States last September I missed the jump. However, the charity I raised the money for was kind enough to reserve a spot for me in this year's charity jump.

So at 8:15 am Friday morning I took an extra long time saying goodbye to Joy and the boys telling each of them that loved them very much and that I'd see them after I'd jumped out of an airplane.

During the ride to the airfield I was seriously thinking if this was really a smart thing to do and maybe I should play it safe and let the charity retain my jump fees. I decided against bailing out as my pride was at stake and if one were to skydive you couldn't ask for a more beautiful day to do so in England.

I arrived at Hinton Airfield near Oxford with 7 other PwC colleagues and we proceeded to take the initial skydiving beginners course. We were all briefed on the do's and don'ts and the correct positions during the jump and we were all told the repercussions if we did do the don'ts - broken bones and possibly worse. We were all going be performing tandem jumps with veteran skydivers and we'd each have our separate videographers to record our jump - great at least if anything goes wrong on the airfield's part there will be a record of it.

It was time for the jump - we all loaded on the airplane and proceeded to fly to 13,000 feet. Our jump partners told each of us to put on our helmets and goggles and all of a sudden the side door of the plane opened and people started jumping out - I'm nuts! What was I thinking! I screamed to myself. My turn - since I was attached to the front of my jump partner I was hanging out the side of the airplane until it was clear to jump 3 2 1 .........

Words can't describe the feeling free falling at 130 mph from 13,000ft to 5,000ft in matter of 30 seconds - at first it was complete terror, then exhilaration and a surreal feeling that you've lost all perspective of what's around you. In those 30 seconds I've never felt more alive - it was truly unbelievable!

Would I do it again? Probably not but I'm glad I did it and it probably will be the biggest adrenaline rush that I'll ever experience.