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Posts Tagged ‘Parachute’

It started over two years ago. We, Laurie and I, thought it’d be cool to do something special for Garrett’s 16^th birthday; something cool like skydiving. Well, for all its “coolness” we couldn’t get past the age restrictions that prevented Garrett from being allowed to jump, so…we waited. Fast forward two years.

Garrett turned 18 in January and we gave him a computer printed receipt for a skydiving adventure with me (dad). Unfortunately, the weather in Western, NY is not exactly ideal for January skydiving, so we waited. In the meantime, during our wait, I put on my “winter coat” (which consists mostly of colorful calories and carbs aka excess weight aka “fat”). When we approached a better season for jumping, I was in desperate need to drop a few pounds to slide in under the weight limit for jumping. I started some serious cardio workouts and tried to moderate my insatiable eating habits (have I ever mentioned how much I love food?). Ultimately, I reached the weight goal and we had our date set for the jump.

June 26, 2009 – Rochester Skydivers

We arrived at the jump site for our introduction and training brief. Both Garrett and I were repeatedly asked by our friends and family; “Are you nervous??? Are you scared???” Our repeated answer was “no.” To be honest though, I did have some reservations…but not regarding the act of jumping out of a plane. My fear was that I would do something to irritate the jumpmaster. I didn’t want to be “that guy” they invariably talk about in the break room. You know the guy; this is the dude they make fun of because he couldn’t get anything right… Anyway, I didn’t want to be that guy.

So we got our training and we were assigned first spot in the jump order. We got suited up and strapped up with all our harnesses, headgear, and goggles. We got crammed into the little single engine plane; yes, crammed in. Remember, I mentioned I had to lose some weight to jump? Well, just for the record, I’m no longer the aerodynamic, svelte, BMI (body mass index) poster boy I was back in my 20’s (who am I kidding…I never was, but I digress). Ok, we’re in the plane and we take off. It seemed like it took us 15 minutes to get up to the 10,000 foot jump level (ok…no more weight jokes). Read the rest of this entry »

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