Free Fallin’
We did something crazy. We jumped out of an airplane at 13,500 ft, going 90mph. As I’m not an adrenaline junky, amusement park kind of person, I would simply define this as insanity. Insane things don’t necessarily make you insane though, right? It’s like “my action was crazy, but I, Jenna Legatt, am not crazy”.
I’ve had thoughts of skydiving in the past and knew someday I'd earn my stripes, no matter how terrified, but my requirement was it HAD to be somewhere cool (sorry Wisconsin). And then, COVID hit and our wedding got rescheduled and we hit our 3 year anniversary mark. I wanted to celebrate. I wanted Jake & I to do something BIG together, that would be a huge accomplishment and a forever kind-of memory. SKYDIVING! Aside from being unemployed and this being a fairly expensive sport, I had no excuses left in the cookie jar. ;) I did my research and signed us up in a world-renowned sky school - Skydive Snohomish. We were going tandem jumping, ready or not.
We decided to keep it a secret from our family & friends until we did it as it was something special for us to do together and honestly, I was afraid enough without people telling me about that person they heard on the news whose parachute never deployed and they hit the ground at 120mph and died on impact. So we kept it our little secret. The morning of, weather was looking sketchy and they gave us a 50/50 chance of even jumping. It was overcast with some hints of sun, but we are told it would all be a game time decision. Before we knew it, we were being shuttled onto the plane. I guess it’s cool then?!? The cloud coverage is all good, right? RIGHT?!?!
PRE-JUMP HYPE
THE WAIVER. Ugh - the waiver. If you can get past the waiver, I think you will be just fine. But my advice if you are terrified is to not read the waiver. Just sign your life away. The waiver defines you as an experimental test jumper, releases all of your rights, promises you won’t sue, says you accept death, etc. #next
And then you watch a training vid - takes about 15 mins. Then, we got geared up. Matter of fact, you don’t just jump out of a plane without harnesses! You typically suit-up in a jumpsuit, but with COVID, they decided those aren’t necessary…
Then, you get into a small-ass plane sitting on your butt in between your instructors legs (men call this butts-to-nuts - how FUN). The plane is sketch; at least for someone who is used to commercial aircraft and buckling up and knowing where you can find your breathing mask, it was sketch. AKA no apple juice was served! The ride is fairly rough and climbs up to ~13,500 ft within 15mins. You’re basically a rocket-ship. Okay, maybe a slight exaggeration.
Next, the door slides up and jumpers start flopping out…that’s how it happens. This was the most surprising to me. You don’t actually jump or do a backflip or hold hands and get in FORMATION - you scoot up until you are literally hanging out the door and just fall over the edge. Luckily, the instructor falls for you.
YOU ARE IN FREE-FALL.
We stayed in free fall for maybe 45 sec or so, falling from 14k ft to 4k ft at a jaw-dropping 120mph. I actually think I was in shock for a good portion, just floating thru the layers of clouds. But really, how does one prepare for falling through clouds in her street clothes and no helmet?! Truly, no feeling like it. Of course you can see forever, Piget Sound to one side, Olympic mountains to another, Cascade range to another, corn mazes reading “Thomas farms” below. ABSOLUTELY NUTS.
Then, I felt a sudden pull and realized the parachute was deployed. This of course reduces your speed dramatically and positions your body more vertical. I have always pictured driving a parachute and just gracefully moving through space. YO - parachuting was also scary. You pull some serious g’s when you are turning in them, probably like the swings at an amusement park - I was always too afraid to actually ride them, but I’m imagining. The parachute “ride” lasts about 5mins, the ground getting closer and closer.
The instructors appear to have a lot of control of these things, even in 50/50 weather. Jake and I probably got within 50ft of each other which was crazy and I nearly panicked because I didn’t want our chutes to get tangled in each other - if I fall you’re going down with me, baby! Real footage from the vid below - that’s my chute to the right!
THE LANDING
The landing gets all of the hype with skydiving. I’m sure you see the memes of skydiving landing #fails. But they really told us one thing - PICK your feet up when I say so. A few seconds before landing, I picked my feet up, and we came in sliding on our butts. Not even a grass stain. However, they explained that much of the smoothness of the landing depends on your weight. You land somewhere between 5 and 15mph. Jakers landed just after me and we celebrated with a “THANK GOD WE MADE IT” smooch.
TO WRAP IT UP…
You should do it. I thought I’d say I never want to do this again after finishing, but it was actually really awesome. Unlike bungee jumping, I felt incredible afterwards. What a thrill! Watch the full youtube vids of our jumps - Jen’s & Jake’s :D I was so scared, as you can see in my vid. The only thing I could do to calm me down was focus on my breathing because that’s actually a thing! People hold their breath - like you would on a roller coaster - especially in free fall, but the hill doesn’t end after 3 seconds here. It got me to the jump, and at some point (i.e. when I hit the ground), I started to relax.
Peace, love, and jump out of shit (safety first of course),
yo’ girl Jen
“Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life”
PS) we even got certificates to frame on our wall of our accomplishment! S/O to Skippy who actually did all of the work while I just sat there :D
