So it is 2011. Work has been slow so I have no travel planned. The weather has been poor and I am doing some work on my house. Its kind of a bland year. I am going down to the coast and will see family and friends and I look forward to that. I am also going to volunteer at the Vancouver International Fringe Festival and meet some new people and see a lot of theatre and that will be a lot of fun. But still no excitement and not much challenge. a bland year.

So when a new company started offering skydiving in Golden I knew this was what I needed.

Like lots of people I'd thought that I should go skydiving sometime but that time had never happened. Obviously my time had arrived.

I chose to do a tandem skydive. This means being attached to an instructor. I did this as it was cheaper as they didn't have to train me and when you do a tandem jump the plane goes much higher and you free fall for several thousand feet before the chute opens and that seemed like it would be an interesting part of the experience. Also I considered safety and I thought that the company has the most incentive to consider and protect my safety when I am attached to an instructor. All this and it is cheaper too! what's not to like?

So I showed up and got prepared and in the plane which then climbed to 12,000 feet (about 3,650 metres) so we were looking down in the local mountains and then instructor attached us together and I put my feet and legs outside of the plane and we left it. Woooooh!

We fell for about 45 seconds and I understand we reached speeds of about 175 kph. It wasn't exactly fun but more like an intense experience to be processed afterwards. Then the cute opened and we drifted down for a few minutes before landing in an open field next to the runway.

It was a very interesting experience. I am glad that I did it but don't think I will do it again. Once was enough for me. I didn't find it scary which I think was because the company (Extreme Yeti) was relaxed and professional and I asked enough questions to satisfy myself they were being careful nd professional. I should note I was a bit nervous/scared as the airplane was reaching the altitude where I was going to leave it but I dealt with that by focussing on the procedure and what I had to do.

So it did add some excitement to the summer but I defintely need to make some intersting travel plans for next year

John