Today is my 34th birthday. After a week or two of keeping it a secret, my wife Michelle finally told me on Friday what she had planned for me today. She booked me a skydiving session with Sky Dive Arizona. I’ve always wanted to jump out of a plane and today, I finally got to do it. I mentioned it a couple times on Twitter and people said they wanted pictures and video, so I thought I’d post about the experience. Initially, I had sewn a small spy camera into a shirt sleeve, but they told me that I couldn’t use it because of the contracts they have in place with the video company, so I scrapped that idea and changed into another shirt I brought with me.

I thought that I would be nervous or my stomach would give me problems (it has lately). Instead, I was excited to get up there and jump out. We started with a video about how fun skydiving is and how we shouldn’t sue anyone. While watching the video, we filled out forms that stated about 50 times that we wouldn’t sue anyone and that we realize that it’s dangerous, we could die, etc. We then paid and I asked if my last minute “sleeve cam” would be OK, which is when they explained the contractual conflict and said they appreciated me being honest and asking. So I changed out of the cam shirt (seen at right) and into my Strand shirt.

After a little video intro recording, my instructor, Joe, harnessed me up and explained how it would work. Then we sat for a few minutes and Joe and I headed out to meet the plane. The plane climbed to 13,000 feet in about 15 minutes and my instructor attached his harness to mine on the way up. At 13,000 feet, we watched everyone else jump out and then we did. It was a lot less scary than I thought it would be. We did a free fall for about a minute at about 100 Mph and then pulled the chute. The jolt to my inner thighs was horrible, but then it was just peaceful, floating out in the middle of the air.

The free fall is loud and cold and the combination of air rushing into my mouth and adrenaline left me with cotton mouth. The floating was awesome. He showed me how to steer the chute left and right, fall faster or slower, and we even did some wicked spins. At one point, I adjusted my straps mid-air to be more comfortable. It took a while to come down and I certainly didn’t mind it. When we landed, it was smooth and the whole thing was without any problems at all. Enjoy the video below of the whole event, and you can see the rest of the pictures here.

I’ve said it before and I’ll repeat it.. My wife is just awesome. On the way home, we wondered how she could top the best birthday gift I’ve ever gotten and we’re still stumped.

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