The Secret World of Skydiving

Living in Whistler is similar to living as a lollie inside a pick-n-mix bag (I'm obviously a watermelon wine gum). You get to meet some very colorful characters from a variety of different places. It also means you find yourself going to strange places to visit them, which is how we ended up at a Skydiving camp to see Ben.

The drive there was made exasperatingly longer because Jodie had never, in the three years of owning her car, checked her tires. Resulting in three girls caring a rotten wheel through a Sears shopping mall auto section. I rolled up my sleeves and hoped my inner lesbian meant I was also a naturally good mechanic (?)

I was.

Hayley explained that we'd be staying the night at the housing they had on the airbase. I was a little confused because I've never heard of a Skydiving business also offering accommodation but too proud to question it, I said something like "cool, whatever, sounds good." 

Then Hayley made some comment about how I would also be jumping that day but too proud to question it, I said something like " cool, whatever, sounds good." 

As we got closer to our destination, the directions pulled us off the paved road and onto a small beaten track through the bush. I was half suspecting we were going the wrong way, when suddenly there was a massive air hanger in the middle of the forest. 

An older gentleman greeted us and asked if we'd be jumping that day. Although the three of us said yes, I couldn't understand how I'd ended up actually doing it.

During some lovely small talk with this guy, he told us he'd thrown himself out of a plane some 5,000+ times and when he spoke about it his eyes brightened. The roughness in his voice changes and softens as he smiles slightly at the end of every sentence.

When you are given the opportunity to glance into people’s lives, from all over the world, you realize some things are just so universal.

The weather isn’t the best though and we can’t jump with the cloud cover too heavy. “It’s not like back home,” Ben says to me. “There’s forest everywhere and if we can’t see the landing area properly, things get pretty hairy.” So everyone that lives and works there and the three of us wait our time out patiently outside, hoping the clouds clear.

In Whistler, we keep our heads towards the sky while we pray and hope for snow. When all the conditions are perfect, the entire town is throwing themselves down steep powdery runs and dodging trees. You wait for the fresh snow and when your patience is rewarded it’s the greatest feeling in the world. A town united by their respect for the mountains and their love of the powder.

That’s our religion.

And Skydiving is theirs.

The hours we spent waiting crawled past as I entertained myself with a game the jumpers had invented (involving a metal hoop tied to piece of sting that dangled from the rafters and a hook. Which I would later proclaimed could ‘go fuck itself’ in a burst of great frustration).

“There’s no way we’ll be able to jump today,” Ben broke to us. “We’ll just have to hope that tomorrow’s better.”

With comical timing our names were called over the PA system to suit up and prepare to meet our tandem partners. I was so nervous; what happened next skipped my memory completely. All I could think about was hoping I’d be able to see my dog again and that I was glad I had strong pelvic floor muscles otherwise I would have for sure pissed myself.

Before I knew it, I was rapidly climbing altitude harnessed to a stranger that was the difference between life and death for me. 

As he walked me to the side door of the plane, I screamed internally. DON’T JUMP YOU FUCKING IDIOT!! WHY ARE YOU NOT LISTENING TO ME?!

"If you could bottle what you're about to feel," he yells in my ear over the wind, "I'd buy it for a million dollars." 

And he flings me out the door.

I crumple my face and my stomach feels like it's trying to escape out of my ears and butt all at once and my brain congratulates me on killing us. 

In the longest second of my life, I know I'm going to die and I come to terms with it.

I open my eyes. 

Then...

Nothing. 

Not a sound. Not in my mind or in my ears and I see the entire world unfolding bellow me.

I see clouds with a peachy hue, mountaintops peaking out from blow them and the sun caressing their every line with his loving embrace.

I don’t know god but I’m closer to whatever god is than ever before.

The adrenaline washes over me and I don’t blink out of fear of missing it all.

I'm falling from 14,000 feet and I'm so unafraid. “In that moment I am infinite.”

Later that night we join everyone else in the camp, welcomed and initiated, with simply a glimpse into what these people do every day. This was their normal.

“Do you want to go out onto the air field and light some fireworks?” Ben asks us.

I’m certain that travelling is the greatest gift I’ve ever given to myself.