New Adventure #3: Please leave your carryon in the overhead bin, we're deboarding at 13,000 feet

I think skydiving is one of those adventures that is either definitely on your bucket list or definitely not. Someone asked me, "Why would you jump out of a perfectly good plane?"

My answer to that is... I'm apparently just thrill and adventure seeking.
I took the skydiving class at Ohio State and we talked about the biology of risk. And we took a BBC quiz on how "sensation seeking" we were. There were several different categories we could fall in (ie: we seek sensations because we are bored, because we are disinhibited, or in my case, because I just want the experience.) Take the quiz to see where you'll fall:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/mind/surveys/sensation/

My results: Thrill and Adventure Seeking - You score 10 out of 10
Sensation seeking is a personality trait expressed in behaviour as a tendency to seek varied, novel, complex and intense sensations and experiences and to take physical risks for the sake of having such experiences. These experiences could take the form of extreme adventure activities such as scuba diving, snowboarding and mountain climbing.

Or of course, jumping out of a plane.

So that's why I decided to go sky diving - and probably why I made a resolution to do 10 new things in 2010 in the first place.

I think I see it as a calculated risk. More than likely, my parachute will open - or if that fails, my backup parachute likely will - and my tandem instructor will get me safely to the ground. Otherwise, maybe it is just my time to go.

My grandmother always gets nervous when my mom or I fly on planes (let alone jump out of them), and my mom always says that - if it is my time to go. My grandma responds, "But what if it is the pilot's time to go?"

In this case, I'd better hope it isn't the guy who is strapped to my back's time to go.

Chrissy and I went together down to Start Skydiving in Lebanon, Ohio. We had to decide who was jumping out first, so we did the very scientific and rationale method of rock, paper, scissors, which only works, by the way, if one of you picks something other than scissors.

I think we played four or five rounds before one of us finally picked rock or paper. We eventually determined that I had to jump out first. I think that means I lost.

On the plane ride up, since we were the only two going, the pilot made a swoop that made us float and feel like we were "defying gravity." Pretty fun. Our photographers also wanted to have a fashion shoot. "Thumbs up"

"Pose like a tiger"

I don't think I realized until we truly got up in the air the true ramifications of what was going to happen. When you are looking down at the tiny little houses - as you do in all plane rides - except this one you know that you are going to be getting off the plane when those houses still look tiny. And when they opened the door to let us out... Wow. It was probably a good thing that I did go first because if I saw Chrissy out the door, I'm not sure I'd have wanted to join her.

But out we go at 13,000 feet - and my first shock is not even how high up we are or the fact that we are falling to the ground. It was breathtaking - literally and figuratively. Yes the landscape was beautiful and I was in awe, but the 120+ made it physically very difficult to take in air. But after the initial shock, it was just enjoying the ride.

I got to fall through some clouds!

For some reason this shot makes me feel like a teradactyl.

The camera man and I held hands and spun around in the air.

We are getting ready to pull the cord!

And there we are - parachuting. I think that was my favorite part of it actually - after we opened the parachute and we could very calmly float around the air. I got to steer and spin and look around at all the scenery. So much fun.


Want to see my dive? (And some embarrassing interviews by my camera man on the ground and in the plane?) Check out my video: http://www.lifepursuitvideo.com/asppublic/Video45036.aspx?VF=35867
Just enter my e-mail address, colleen.maleski@gmail.com, and your zip code.