Cosmetic Surgery Blog

Although I never thought I’d say this, I have found something better than typical airplane skydiving! Granted, it is the same principle, but it is an entirely different feeling. It is essentially a simulated BASE jump, but you are still in an aircraft. So it is the closest I can get to this feeling until next month when I jump the Perrine bridge in Idaho.

My friend, Mitch, organized a balloon jump with Balloon Addicts of Perris, CA. We had to be there at 6:15 AM, even though the balloon never takes off before 7 AM. The cost was $75 for about 5,000 to 6,000 ft of glorious altitude. There were 10 of us, but I was the only girl. I’ll admit it, I was scared to death. I was peaking so hard from the thought of it. I was quiet, I was nervous but I wasn’t going to allow fear to stop me. After all, fear was irrational. I had enough altitude, and I had a reserve. What could possibly go wrong?

We were laughing hysterically at how afraid we were to fall off when perched on the edge of the basket even though we were getting ready to jump out of it! Then you take a deep breath…Ready, Set, Go. And you are finally truly free. For the first couple of seconds, you disappear from the world. There is no feel of gravity holding you prisoner, it is eerily quiet, so quiet you can hear the conversations in the balloon above, it is peaceful, there is no wind resistance, there is only you and you have found Nirvana. Just thinking and writing about it, I get this feeling inside that I simply cannot explain to you.

Then it’s over. You accelerate at 32 feet per second/per second/per second and by second 3 you are traveling at 96 feet per second and by then you are 192 feet closer to the ground. The wind starts rushing in your face, it gets louder, and you start tracking away. You are officially addicted.

My first balloon jump was from only 8,200 ft, but it was enough to get about 10 seconds before I deployed. We were a little away from the dropzone, so I pulled a little high to make it back in time. I am completely charged as I gather my canopy and walk back to the dropzone. I have the biggest smile on my face; similar to my first few skydives. I think about going home because no skydive that day could ever live up to what I just did.

Then, manifest announced that Balloon Addicts was offering $50 lift tickets and that it was leaving in 20 minutes. YAY ME! So I signed up, forked over my money to the ‘crack dealer’. Obviously, the balloon does not have an engine and is a captive of the wind. So, we were going to drive Southeast to meet Phil, the balloon pilot, a few miles away. Of course, this meant my first off-landing. Basically, we would be landing in a field wherever we could find one. This time it was me and 4 guys from the previous balloon jump that morning, so off we went to the chase van…

We met Phil and climbed in the basket. We had to clear some small mountains, because landing on them is very dangerous because of the altitude differences. If you wanted to land on it (assuming there was a large enough flat area to land safely and the wind was favorable), you would need to set your altimeter to zero from the target landing area. But why do that?? To heck with the mountains, they just rob you of your altitude.

So, as we’re clearing these mountains, and we’re looking for a place to land, we are rising higher and higher. And higher…until 10,500 ft later we are ready to jump out. Phil said he has never let skydivers out this high. We spot a golf course—how cool would that be? Imagine 5 skydivers landing on the 7th hole, “Four!! Playing through!!” We rethink the fact that it would probably upset the club members and the USPA so we decline and spot a dirt field next to a fire station with not too many power lines around it. Perfect.

Three of the guys jump out together. We can hear them laughing and woo hoo-ing and then I hear the wind resistance getting louder and louder about 5-6 seconds later. I jump out in a two-way with the remaining guy, flip over then go into a tracking position. A few seconds later I start moving forward and I look over and my jumping buddy and we are both tracking and it is unbelievable! We aren’t even at 8 grand yet and we are still tracking over the city below. I think to myself how cool it would be to land on the golf course and quickly erase the thought from my mind. I am free, I am flying. This is the best jump I have ever had in my life. If I could relive one moment for the rest of my life it would be this one.

At 4,500 ft I do a barrel roll, wave off and pull at about 4 grand. My parachute opens perfectly. I perform a canopy check, do a ton of spirals and start heading for the landing area. I can see the three-way getting ready to land. It takes me about 2 minutes to get down; with no wind I hit the ground running. I am amped.

We call the chase van and we jump into it as I am sure people are wondering what the heck is going on. The firemen look confused as we drive past them. I don’t care, nothing else matters. I am euphoric and counting the seconds until the next time.

Photo Credit: Barry Holubeck