Skydiving...take 2.

We anxiously called the skydiving operators at 8:10AM to check on the status of today's dives….

…

Success! All dives are a go! We quickly packed up our stuff, checked out, and drove on over to the airfield.

Since we'd already spent many an hour checking out NZone's facilities yesterday, we parked and briskly walked straight to the check-in desk. The guy checking off divers tried to put us on the 11AM dive, but we quickly straightened that out. We were NOT taking any more chances -- particularly with our afternoon flight to Australia. They bumped us up to the first dive of the day…and without time even to head to the bathroom one last time, we were off to get suited up and into the air!

We took a short flight (or so it seemed at the time) up to 12000 feet (2.3 miles!).

Ian was actually the first one out of the plane -- one second you see him, the next second you don't! They tell you to assume this "banana" position when you're falling, apparently Ian went for the kicking banana position instead.

They also tell you that you'll get three rocks at the door and that you'll jump on the 3rd rock…I'm pretty sure there were no rocks. I'm pretty sure it was -- one rock -- and go!

Soon though, the parachute came up and it was a slower drift down to earth. I didn't mind the freefall part at all (it was great!) but the parachute portion got a little too drafty for my stomach. Ian says his guy did dozens of turns and spirals too -- yeeeks - glad I didn't get him!

All in all, an unforgettable experience…but probably not one I'm going to be repeating in the near future. But hey -- now we can say we've jumped out of an airplane flying at 12,000 feet!!!

And to prove it, here's the professional video of the jump. We decided to get photos for Ian and the video for me -- I think because Ian assumed I'd make a funnier video subject. The original one included about 45 seconds of advertisements at the beginning, so Ian inserted the still shots of him instead. The video proves that I managed to keep my wits about me and even assume some "action poses" during the 45-60 second freefall period. See if you can catch the "superman," "sleeping," "punching," along with the more normal, wave, peace signs, and thumbs up. :)

Enjoy!