I am currently an A-licensed skydiver with 36 jumps, and my two jumps
were tandems. All but two of my jumps have been made at Skydive Arizona
in Eloy, Arizona, including my tandems. That first one was an
incredibly spontaneous event. Although I had always wanted to jump, I
had feared that I would never get the oppurtunity because my mother used
to jump in the early seventies with her, then, fiance. Unfortunately
her fiance, Rick, was killed in a skydiving accident two weeks before
their wedding in 1974. She had always sworn to me that I'd never get
the chance. Well, to make a longs tory even longer, I wanted to see
where Rick had died on my first trip to Arizona in 1995 (he had died at
a one-time dropzone near Eloy). While at the site of his death, we
found out that there was a dropzone in Eloy and I begged my mother to
take me there so that I could see the sport in action. As we pulled
into the dropzone, I had my head out the window and saw about 22 people
just falling out of the sky under canopy. From that sight on I knew I
had to jump! My mom had been telling me all the way that I wasn't going
to do it, but after seeing my excitement and talking to a tandem master
about how safe it was compared to jumps in the 1970's, she let me go for
it. I had the greatest jumpmaster ever, and soon after arriving there I
was suited up and on the plane, embarking on the most amazing event of
my life. As we exited the plane from about 14,000 feet above the earth,
I felt so incredible. Adrenaline was pumping through me like never
before. It was also the sunset load for that day and the view of the
sun setting behind the mountains in the distance of the Arizona desert
is one that I will never forget. As we fell back to Earth I knew that
I was never going to be the same. Even though I have made several more
jumps since then, that first tandem is the only one that I remember with
such vivid detail. Although this entry is long, it still doesn't fully
explain all that I have to say about my first tandem.
Blue Skies,
Shannon Carter
Member of the Internet Link Exchange
Web site by Carl P. E. dos Santos (carl@tiac.net).
This page was last modified on Thursday, 03-Oct-96 at 22:40:48.
Copyright © 1997 Carl P. E. dos Santos
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