Free Falling

“Wave at the camera.” he said as I pushed myself up from a chair I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave. I gave a somewhat forced nervous grin. Don’t get me wrong. I was excited, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit nervous. I had been planning this moment ever since I watched my friend Laura do it on video last Fall. I must have thought about what it would be like a hundred times and now I was actually going to experience it firsthand. I waddled to the jump platform making sure to look straight ahead. I knew if I looked down, it would take a lot more convincing than a countdown to get me to jump. As best as I could with my feet strapped together, I hung my toes over the platform.

The only thing keeping me from freefalling 500 feet to the river below was a metal and glass building, called a pod, strung with cables across a river gorge. The journey to the pod was scary in itself. Some 20 odd passengers, including myself, took a bus up a steep one way dirt road where I thought the Earth could give way at any moment, causing us to tumble a good couple hundred feet to the grazing sheep below. Getting to the middle of the gorge on the actual pod required taking an open gondola. We were strapped into it with nylon belts and locking carabiners as if that would somehow save us from some freak accident. Not likely.

And now as I stood gazing at the valleys and hills which I so often admired from ground level, I thought to myself, “Am I really doing this?” I unknowingly spoke these words out loud because the jumpmaster replied, “Oh, yes you are.” Reggae dance music blared in the background drowning out words of excitement and encouragement from my friends. The only phrase I distinctly remember hearing clearly was “Go you skank!” Yeah, I thought it was an odd moment for name calling too, but Renee seems to enjoy calling me that.

“Don’t forget to jump as far out as you can. Wave at the camera.” said the jumpmaster one last time. “Ready?!” And so began the countdown to by first bungy, the Nevis Highwire, one of the world’s tallest platform jumps at 440 feet!

It never really hit me what I was doing until gravity began pulling me back down to earth and the air rushing past my face blurred my vision. Silence for the first few milliseconds of my freefall. After the light bulb in my head clicked on, I screamed “Holy S#*%!” not exactly choice words, I know. But that’s what came out. Unfortunately, you can hear it loud and clear on my video. As I was reaching the end of my bungy line and beginning my first bounce, I let out an enthusiastic “WOOHOO!” Woohoo is one of very few words to describe my emotions and feelings of the whole experience. It was amazing! Spectacular! A must do for everyone who craves adventure and a good mental challenge. A definite must do for myself on more than one occasion! After unhitching my legs to be pulled up in a seated position, I sat back and relaxed enjoying the beauty of everything in that moment of time. It was difficult to take it all in. It happened far too fast! The only thing I could say as I climbed safely back into the pod was, “Can I do it again!?” All in good time! I will be back!