My Late 21st Charity Tandem Skydive Challenge

Well it's finally happened! Yesterday I did the impossible and jumped out of a plane at 12,000 feet and parachuted back down to Earth. Truly an overwhelming experience and here's the story behind it all.

Since my 21st back in June, I've wanted to celebrate in style but thanks to the weather we've had, it got delayed for a couple months. As I mentioned in my 5 Centimeters Per Second post about my fascination with the sky, well this was my shot at seeing it all up close and very high indeed.
Cannot believe I raised a whopping £1,080 on Justgiving.com, thank you to all those real special people who contributed to a dear cause of mine!

Oh Yeah! remember how I mentioned back on the post about Preparing For The Skydive about wanting to participate in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge? Well, I actually did! I forgot to add this to the post and only remembered today (24th Sept) that I actually got nominated twice for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and did it... twice on August 26th. Watch here as I contribute and suffer at the hands of my sister. And I donated £10 twice! :)

Anyway, yesterday on 17th September 2014, me,  Mum and Dad set off for Headcorn Aerodrome, Kent. Left at 8.35am this morning and arrived just before 10.00am. Mum and Dad were dressed in their "Autistic Society" t-shirts (I would have worn mine but they sent a Large instead of a Medium and I had to wear thin clothing in order to fit in the Skydiving gear). So I signed the paperwork including the death sentence ha ha I'm kidding and I also paid for the expensive £150 camera man to tag along and record me during my session for later on.

Several other people were there for the day too, including some pretty girls doing a group session, I just had no balls at the time to go up and talk to them. I remained calm preparing and waiting very... very... very patiently for when my time would come.
Everyone had a briefing at 10.15am by Clem (my instructor for the day) who explained everything perfectly, clearly and with great humour that made us all feel more relaxed. I understood and followed his instructions and watched the video on screen carefully as he explained the simple instructions for the skydive. He even had a couple jokes at the end to share with us all as we all took turns signing the paperwork afterwards.

Destiny called me at 1.25pm to gear up and prepare after I'd been waiting roughly 2 hours there in the warm sun and bloody strong chilly wind outside with Mum, Dad and all the other people anxiously waiting for their turn too.
I got into my sky blue suit and found out that Clem was my instructor, what a relief. I also met Lee, my camera man, great guy who had like 3 cameras on one massive camera (a GOPRO, Video Recorder all sitting on one of those huge cameras that camera men use when filming live ya know). After following his instructions everyone was prepared and everyone had photos taken with their parents, we all got in the shuttle bus that would take us halfway to the other side of the field where the plane was waiting to take us up.

As we all huddled together and got into position in the plane before take off, within 15 mins we saw ourselves looking down on the world at 12,000 feet above it. I got into the correct exit position by gripping the small yellow grips on the side of my arms like a Mummy Sarcophagus position and placed my feet underneath the plane safely. I was 3rd to jump out. I got into position and... before I knew it... I was falling...
I screamed WOOO and YEAH at the top of my lungs as Clem instructed as it's very good to shout and breathe when falling as some people hold their breath which causes a bad start. Lee was right by me and after looking at a lot of the pictures, I wasn't looking up enough when seeing him ha ha but I still have several good shots of my face and my graceful display when falling.

After the sudden 30 seconds-ish rush during the free-fall, the first parachute was pulled and Me and Clem were left sailing down gently. I then allowed myself to hold my nose and blow hard so that I wasn't suffering ear pressure anymore. Clem then let me take control of the reins and let me steer us around a little. I actually did pretty okay but one spin got a little too much and I think I overdid it a little as the adrenaline rush and spin almost made me throw up a little (ugh), still there were no problems/ issues with the controls and safety. I was tempted to say before the jump out the plane for fun "Wait! I changed my miiiiind!

Within a few mins, we were heading in for the landing position which is to lift your legs up straight with toes facing to the sky because landing while trying to run is far more dangerous and irresponsible as you can trip and break your ankle. With a gentle bump, Clem and I landed back down safely. I was completely overwhelmed by everything and was so proud of myself for conquering such a task and did it all in the end and never chicken out.

After everything, I was given a Certificate, I thanked Clem and Lee "it was an honour!" And was expecting to wait 45 mins for the finished video but it was done within 10 minutes, WIN!
I told the girls what it's like as they were next. Nothing to worry about, just smile, scream your heart out and enjoy! With that being said we all headed for home... which wasn't easy for any of us.
You see on the way back, the god damn Sat Nav decided to take us through Maidstone instead of the backroads. We ended up taking 50 mins to do only 9 miles due to a huge delay that Dad wasn't happy about which turned out to be a lorry broken down in the centre lane, but that didn't explain the 2 Ambulances and 2 Police cars zooming past. During the ride home, the adrenaline, hunger and everything else hit me as I had an upset stomach and felt a little ill. I guess adrenaline doesn't agree with me so easily and I had only eaten breakfast way early in the morning and didn't fall till 1.45pm, so an empty stomach caused me pain for the ride home. Feeling great now after a lot of food and watching on Facebook as everyone praises me and takes a look at my photos ha ha.

Well this has been something. When I looked out over the horizon seeing the blue sky up close and this time not in an EasyJet plane, it felt far more different to anything I could imagine. It was frightening and exhilarating, I felt the air rush through my mouth, since I was going at such a blazing speed and my hair and eyes were protected but not my mouth (it wasn't painful), it was just the best way to breathe through and it felt confusing that I was receiving the air to breathe, it was just flowing through even faster.

Here's the finished video that Lee "Camera man" edited and filmed himself. I'm very grateful, I will admit the music is a little cheesy to me but what can you do?! If anything I would have preferred to use one of these tracks below because to me they help set the scene and add more to the atmosphere. Who knows I may even tinker around with the clips and video that I was given and maybe someday use some of these tracks and edit them too! ;) Some of the songs below are only a few on my list in my head full of ideas on how to make montages but with edited songs ha ha (I sound like I'm developing an Ego or acting like Howard Wolowitz in The Big Bang Theory after his adventure though I aim to not brag or make a big deal out of what I've done like he did with his in the series).

This song from a game that really could have been something, still has some cool music especially this one. The beginning and whole song has a fast paced running feeling and I can just imagine this playing as I reminisce about the memory already.

This remix song from one of my favourite all time games, reminds me of the fast paced action that I endured and faced. I think this remix is a little better as the original is slow and still good, however this one suits the feeling a little more.

This one from another classic Sonic game is a great opening theme and has a slight rock theme which is a another good thing I can imagine using in a future video that I may create myself or after another dive someday, use as my own video music.

And this one is a real sing-along, even the video itself is such an inspiration to watch. I think when Jared Leto sings the big moment of the song "No no no no, I will never forget, No no, I will never regret, No no, I WILL LIVE MY LIIIIIIIIIFE!", that's the best thing to imagine when doing a dive like this. I am taking his advice and living my life!

Despite my little mishap with my stomach and the long pause before tackling the challenge, I wonder myself, will I ever do this again and maybe go for the license/ lessons to go solo? Possibly?! For now, one big thing's been conquered and accomplished and that's what I'm happy with now.

So what's next for me on my daredevil list? Well on Saturday 27th, Me, Rebecca and one of each of our friends are seeing the legendary comedian Lee Evans at the O2, S GONNA BE GOOD.
Also I might enquire with a friend about attempting the Tough Mudder challenge for next year's May?! I think I may have "bitten off more than I can chew". As I've just done something that takes courage, this thing however is a 12km obstacle course and run... I may do it but then again if I don't get round to it due to fear or doubts or even not feeling medically/ physically fit, then it doesn't mean I can never do it, right? Just not for 2015. I hope my friend Aimy has a blast doing it with her friends and perhaps someday I can join her another time or with luck, confidence and proper training/ advice from the instructors at the gym, then maybe... just maybe I too can tackle it too next year or someday.
But for my other tasks to do on my Bucketlist? I can tell you for sure that I won't go 'Swimming With Sharks', I'd rather go for a hike or go and see more of this world such as Africa, New Zealand and Japan someday. But for now, I need to just take things slowly and enjoy the rest of the year as I've had done more than enough extreme sports for this year.
If anyone had a bet, if you won or lost, then at least be grateful that this Lad's still kicking.

The night before this, I had a pleasant trip to the cinema with Lewis to watch that new film starring "Scarlett Johansson" - Lucy (which I have begun writing a serious review up about and will upload in a couple days).