During my Junior year of college some friends and I were heading out for Tempe, Arizona for spring break. Somehow I talked them into going skydiving after I found an awesome place called SkyDive Arizona was a short drive from our hotel.

This was recorded on VHS in 2001, which I later imported into digital format, so the quality is pretty bad.

Jumping out of an airplane was the greatest rush I’ve ever experienced. I love roller coasters but nothing compares to falling to the Earth at 120 mph. I’m quite confident I would not survive a solo jump because I once I jumped out the door I forget everything my instructor told me. Notice how he has to get me to put my legs together once we start “flying.” I never once checked my wrist to check our altitude. When he got me to take a look, I panicked and couldn’t pull the cord (it seemed like it took an eternity at the time). In the end I landed safely and would love to do it again.

One of the things they don’t mention that stood out to me was how hard it was to breathe while falling at that speed. I had to make a conscious effort to keep breathing during free fall and ended up with what felt like a sore throat for most of the day.

I wanted to get this posted so I don’t lose the video and the memory. I almost couldn’t get the CD backup to load, so it was good timing.