For my birthday my wife gave me a coupon for a tandem parachute jump at http://paracentrumtexel.nl . On a nice Tuesday me and my wife went to Texel. Although I live close, it took about over 1 hour to get there. Texel is an island in front of Den Helder, so you will have to travel by boat.
After some formalities it was time to put on a suite.
After meeting with the instructor, he made sure that everything was tighten correctly. He didn’t speak very well dutch, but that didn’t bother me.
And then there is the moment that you walk to the airplane. This would bring the group up to 9000 feet. It was a bit bumpy but that was okay. The instructor asked if I was nervous and I showed him my watch with heartbeat. It was 59 bpm !
It looked a cloudy day, but at 9000 feet, the sun was shining ! Very nice weather. There was a storm at the horizon with a very dark sky. I saw some round rainbows and above all, it wasn’t cold !
In short : The view was AWESOME!
After 30 seconds we were at about 5000 feet and it was time to open the parachute. I really liked the feeling and the views. Of course the instructor wanted to show off by circling down some times, but even that I enjoy it !
And yes, I did it. Now it’s time to see if I can get my Accelerated Free Fall license somewhere. I loved the feeling of the free fall.
Zen
For me the whole experience was pretty “Zen” ! I enjoyed being part of the nature, no fear, no stress. Nothing in the sky, just me hanging on a parachute.
Below you see some graphs. My jump was around 10:40. Look at the stress level. Totally inner peace !
