Sky Diving in San Diego, California

It was  the  decision that I took at the end of the year,  December of  2021. I had always wanted skydiving after seeing cool Hollywood television series every Sunday in Nepal Television when I was growing up, back in Himalayas, Nepal. I searched google , did some basic research on safety and  figured out that it's 0.003 casualties per 1000 jumps in  ten years, that's nearer and dearer to me than anything else. It's less than 1 in 107 dying in a car crash and 1 in 289 in gun assault in the United States.

I was quite surprised but not shocked to find the cost of a complimentary product - video/photos are literally equal to the cost of jumping, I know we live in Instagram world and I do not use facebook and Instagram. I made up my mind and within a minute, I bought a package for $393. Half of the cost is video and pictures. It's a lifetime experience, I am determined.  I checked the weather and Saturday looks sunny with 65 as highest. Now the clock starts to tick and I was just waiting for the Saturday noon.

I was a little  worried about what clothes I should wear although the site has a good FAQ and everything about sky diving. I went to REI and bought a blue t-shirt and altrahike shoes. It was just a coincidence to buy those gears that I had needed for some time.

It was a 30 minutes drive south from the place where I live. I reached the place at 11:40 at 13531 Otay Lakes Rd, Jamul, CA 91935. Everything was self directed. Although the guy at reception  forgot to give me the T-shirt, I got the T-shirt in my mail after a couple of weeks. It is a nice T-Shirt.

The first thing I needed to fill was waiving hundreds of pages of liabilities. I was quite uncomfortable signing the pages many times and each page request for waiver of liabilities. Every time I read it, "we don’t cover this, we are not liable for this." It was really scary - believe me, that part was more scary than jumping from the plane in 13,000 ft. altitude. 

After that they gave me the badge for photography. I looked at  the trainers' pictures - there were 12 of them and I realized that every 20 minutes the plane flies whether it has 2 passengers or 20 passengers at the maximum.

They gave me basic training about safety. Later, I met my instructor, Chris - a middle aged man who does this for fun and has been doing the same in the Army. I didn't stop short of saying, I used to work in Nepalese Army for 9 years, The bond becomes even closer. He walked me through what's going to happen. I was even more confident

As we started to move towards the plan for the flight, it was even more exciting. We were marching like the soldiers. The plane has long horizontal seats on two sides where two individuals can sit, the door looks pretty rudimentary.

Everybody was instructed to put on the seat belt, there was only one pilot driving and cock-pit was pretty open, the other side of the pilot seat was empty.

My instructor and I were sitting face to face and he showed me the beautiful parts of Tijuana, Mexico and San Diego, California. It also had a majestic view showing the pacific ocean in the rim. The plan was hitting 50-60% in grade, the sky was blue and clean and we are waiting for 13,000 ft. in altitude. Chris asked me to sit in his lap and he fixed all the clips. It was quite an experience being dependent on someone for your life. But honestly, you are doing the same when you are flying in the airplane or somebody is giving you a ride in motorbike.

There was a couple behind me, she looked very stressed and nervous. She asked me “ Have you done this before” , I said to her , “No, first time”, She said you look very calm, I said I am really excited. Her face looked nervous and she was nervous. I keep on making things calm and easy and keep on exciting them. We were only three for tandem jump.

Then in front of my eyes, they opened the door which is in the back side of the plane. The  solo jumper started to jump in the air like a spider man - quite amazing, huh ? I feel like I was watching a spider man or matrix - resurrection ( actually this weekend I watched both of those movies in theater, I found Dr. strange in spider man and wondering you will take me to the amazing land of Himalayas, Nepal)

I realized that our time is coming and Chris told me that I have to lean towards him when we are falling and jumping. Also, I was instructed to put my legs close together and lean my feet up towards the sky.  I didn’t know why but it's all about gravity in the free fall and I was not sure if I could do that right or not. As we reached the door of the airplane, I believe I did right. When I saw the pictures and video later, I found I was doing a back-flip at 13,000 ft. altitude. How exciting is that ? It's truly more beautiful than the matrix - resurrection. I love you Keanu Reeves! and Trinity

It was really really  fast for the first 15 seconds but it was the moment I was looking for. Every second counts as you fall down and you feel like you are in the phantom of space where nothing really exist and your mind doesn't have time to think anything else, forget about your body or existence. I really enjoyed it, it was too short, it was like being more than in the metaverse, the real metaverse, not the digital fantasy that you created in the computer programs. 

I really enjoyed that part of the fall and certainly I was in the sky looking downwards and my cameraman was in front of me. For a long time he was asking me to see the camera but I didn’t realize, I keep on seeing his eyes. I just came out of the metaverse, how could I realize the reality. Finally I realized I had to  see a camera, so I did it. After a few minutes I had a pressure in my shoulder and certainly the parachute opened, after that it was simply an easy and relaxing flight as you watch the beautiful terrain of southern California and lower your altitude. The parachute swings to and fro and falls down gently towards the ground.

Chris told me to put my legs a little up when we were landing, we landed perfectly. It was amazing, it was a great experience, it was something you should think about, it was a life changing experience and yes, I am going to do it again!!.

The video: Dec 11, 2021, San Diego, CA

I thanked Chris and my photographer for being so close to my life. I am done, that's all about my sky diving 101 ? What do you think ? I expect to do the second one in the Himalayas, Nepal  near Everest at least from 20,000 ft from sea level.