Thank you Skydive Chicago for a SAFE and mindblowingly amazing experience. 

I am not having a midlife crisis...I'm just having fun!  My husband and mother, understanding that I'm an adventure junkie (not quite up to the par of a true adrenaline junkie, but working on it), were very supportive of my decision to dive.  My friends, my coworkers, my boss, and my 13 year old son expressed their opinions that I'm completely insane. 

One of my classmates set up this group and I took my first tandem dive on Monday August 25th, 2008.  My dive instructor was Chad, a soft spoken guy, who was professional and a lot of fun!  He was very informative, and patient, and made the experience well worth the money.  (Sorry, I forgot to mention Mark[?], who did the intial video and introduced us to the equipment.  Hi Mark!  Thanks for doing such a great job too!)  Along with orientation to the equipment and the dive, Chad and I also discussed a little bit of the difference between altimeters and depth gauges, since I'm a scuba diver. 

On the ascent, Steve and Chad and the other divers around me were cracking jokes and kidding around just like I see my scuba buddies doing on the ride out to a scuba dive.  I felt right at home surrounded by smartalecks, and a lot less apprehensive because of the camraderie.  We climbed to 13,000 feet and I didn't get apprehensive until the door on the side of the plane opened, I looked down and about that time, the first two solo divers popped out.  Chad thought it would be funny to ask me, "Did you see that? They just fell out of the plane..."  If he hadn't been strapped to my back, after my initial 2 seconds of near-panic, when I realized he was joking, I would have smacked him... I love a good joke, and if you're reading this, Chad, I wouldn't really smack you. 

I instinctively reached up for the bar (didn't want to fall out, haha), right about the time that Steve, my videographer, climbed out onto the side of the plane, only like I've seen in movies and daredevil stunts, and hung on and started filming while Chad reminded me to put my hands on my harness (not the bar).  I would imagine that if I had been allowed to grab the bar, they would have had to pry my hands off. 

Because I have a little bit of issues with horizon and motion sickness..ok, and I was scared spitless, I shut my eyes for the exit.  (I'm glad Steve got video of the two divers falling ahead of us, so I can see what it looked like. ) I felt us leap from the plane.  I think I screamed when Chad threw us into a single barrel roll, and then when I felt us stabilize, and Chad tapped me on the forehead, I opened my eyes and put my arms into the "W", did my hat check, horizon check, and altitude check.  I think I looked at my altimeter 4 or 5 times...it's really easy to get lost in the whole sensory thing.  Then we did some video, and it felt like about fifteen seconds later, I was reaching for the orange ball to see if I could find it, because I thought I had a lot of time left, and I couldn't find the ball, but I felt the chute deploy.  

In retrospect, I may have reached for it early, or it may have been late, but it wasn't until I looked at my altimeter a few seconds later that I remarked we were at 3000 feet.  I'm telling you, it's really hard when you get up that high, to tell the difference.  Anyway, it feels just like it looks on TV.  The deceleration feels like an upward rush, and the harness is actually not uncomfortable at all. 

It was really neat.  When we started the descent under the canopy, Chad had me stand on his feet...in midair... so he could adjust my straps for a more comfortable descent.  Bless his heart, I am not a small person, but he was very professional and never rolled his eyes once at the pudgy 41 year old soccer mom strapped to his chest. 

I realized at that point that I was a little exhilarated... scared off my rocker more than anything... and I told Chad that I didn't think I wanted to "drive" the chute because I was feeling a little overwhelmed.  He was totally cool and asked if he could do some maneuvering, which I was up for.  He did a few spins, which when I was watching maneuvers like this from the ground made me think I would get sick if i tried, but it was really a blast.  It felt kind of like a roller coaster. 

I asked a few questions on the way down about things such as speed, how high up we were (duh, forgot about the altimeter), who packs the chutes, and where the heck we were.  We did a practice landing around 100 ft. where he had me pull my feet out in front of me, and he warned me that we would probably be landing on our butts, unless conditions were absolutely perfect.  He showed me how the braking system worked.  That was pretty neat, but it almost felt like it would stall, like a kite does when you let it out too quickly.  The landing was softer than falling off a picnic table (as demonstrated by me earlier in the day)...  I just sat there and laughed, whooped and hollered a little bit, and congratulated myself for finally doing it.  When I stood up, I realized I was so amped up on adrenaline, that I was trembling. 

After my brain caught up with my body on the ground, Chad found me for a post-dive debriefing.  He was very thorough with his critique, and said I had a great arch and I was altimeter aware (ok.. maybe a little bit), and that in spite of my feeling that I kind of chickened out on handling the chute, I had a good first dive. 

Would I do it again?  HELL YES!  My birthday is next week, and my mother is thinking about buying me another dive.