Break the Illusion Blog by Davey Wavey

Wednesday was the day of reckoning.

After a few weeks of planning (and a lot of prodding from blog buddies like you), Haley Star and I drove down to the beautiful and scenic Newport, RI to take our jump with Skydive Newport.

Haley’s mother came along to show her support; my mother, just as I had predicted, spent the afternoon worried sick on the toilet whilst praying the Rosary.

We packed ourselves into the smallest plane that I’ve ever seen and climbed our way into the skies. At about 7,500 feet, the magnitude of the situation started to sink in. As the instructor strapped my harnessed body (insert bondage joke here) to his, things became very real. And when he opened the plane’s door at 10,000 feet, I was eternally grateful that I had douched.

It was a tandem jump, meaning that the skydiving professional would be doing all the work. My only task was to place my two feet on the small step outside the plane’s open door – and lean forward. Simple as it was, every cell, muscle and bone in my body resisted. I turned to Haley – and she later recounted that she had never seen another human turn so white in her life. The instructor, presumably accustomed to such hesitation, pushed me.

And down we fell, at 176 feet per second.

I can’t even begin to describe the sensory experience of free fall, and so I won’t make much of an effort. It was incredible – and I think the above picture says it all.

After 30 seconds, the parachute was deployed, thus ending free fall and beginning our 5-minute descent to the ground. As we slowly made our way down to Earth, with tears of joy streaming across my face, I managed to find some words: “That was the most amazing experience in my entire life.”

As it turns out, the parachute ride was a bit too dizzying for someone as delicate as myself – but I managed to hold my insides in, despite the various shades of green that I became. Had I thrown up, I suspect the video of the jump might have gone viral. Oh well.

Will I ever jump again? Hell no. But am I glad that I did it? Yes. Pushed or not, it was one of the most empowering things that I’ve ever done. I didn’t just survive – I thrived. And I can’t recommend it enough.

P.S. The entire experience, by the way, was captured on six different cameras. I’ll be sharing the video with you on September 15 via the Davey Wavey YouTube channel.

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1. Davey Wavey is a Mahout.
2. Davey Wavey: Unplugged for Two Days.
3. Going “BI” And Loving It.