Month completed: September 2007

I am not a massive adrenaline junkie. I would much prefer to spend a day in the comfort of my house, reading a good book with a nice red to keep me company.

But I have found one thing that makes me think that I do have a junkie streak hidden deep down inside of me. That thing is skydiving.

I did my first skydive in Mercer, New Zealand in early 2006, and absolutely loved it. It was from 15,000 ft, which means about a minute of free fall before the parachute needs to open. I am not a big fan of heights (really, who is?!) so I was extremely apprehensive, but Nat applied a healthy dose of peer pressure, which I am now very glad she did.

The feeling is hard to describe, but impossible to forget. But to get back into a plane, and go through the anxiety of having my legs dangling out of a plane thousands of feet from the ground, above the clouds, I felt was going to be a struggle. Thus goal 145 was born, to see if I was game enough to go through with it again.

And on the afternoon of Saturday September 15, I was. This time the jump was from 14,000 ft, in Nagambie in central Victoria (anyone wanting to do a jump, go with Skydive Nagambie – they were brilliant). Nagambie is pretty much the home of skydiving in Victoria.

We went for my brother Nicholas’, as Nat, my sister Mel and I had bought him a skydiving voucher for his birthday. Nat and Emma (Nat’s friend) also decided to jump.

I gave him clues in the weeks leading up to the jump, so that he could try and work out what he was doing on the Saturday, rather than just tell him he was skydiving, as this may have led him to have two weeks of sleepless nights before the jump. So here were my clues:

A big name

Feet

Lagoon

Fauste

90 plus 55

The day of the jump was ideal. Not more than a few clouds in the sky, plenty of sun, and not many other jumpers meant that we could jump pretty much as soon as we arrived.

And the jump itself was even better than last time. I think the fact that I knew what to expect made it much more enjoyable. I was much more relaxed, and I even did some spirals (the name explains what they are) on the way down.

Would I do it again? Absolutely. Anyone up for a dive, let me know. I am definitely ready for another leap of faith.

Here is a picture of the crew, post jump as you can tell by the relieved smiles. Me, Emma, Nat and Nicholas.

And here is me with Marty, the tandem master that I jumped with. He freaked me out a little, by mentioning problems with the release handle just prior to jumping.

And what did the clues mean, you ask?

A big name - An anagram for Nagambie

Feet – the measurement of how high you skydive from

Lagoon - Nagambie is an aboriginal word, meaning lagoon

Fauste - Fauste Veranzio is credited as the first person to perform a parachute jump, or skydive

90 plus 55 – equals 145, the number of this goal. I made it an equation to add a little bit of a red herring

Would you have worked out the clues?