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Tess Dared to Sky Dive
Date:03/04/2009
Well Wilders, as you might know we want you guys to send us emails at Totally Wild and challenge us to do something. The other day I had the SHOCK of my LIFE when young Ethan of SA had dared me to skydive! SKydivE! ARGH!
I have always said I would NEVER skydive and off camera I had some serious reservations about whether I was going to go through with it. I knew that jumping out a plane would be awesome, but I was also very scared. In the end, knowing that if I wimped out it would be splashed all over TV - I found enough motivation to do it!
As we flew up in the plane my whole life kept flashing before me. It took 25 minutes to reach over 3,500 metres and I kept thinking ‘I can’t believe I’m doing this, do I really have to do this?, maybe it’s a bad dream…’. We had a great view from up there - but that was the last thing I was thinking about!
Have you ever wondered who takes the video of the person skydiving?! When I jumped out of the plane, attached to my instructor, there was a photographer who also skydived with us and he had a digital camera attached to a helmet on his head, and a little video camera on the side too.
The photographer has to climb out before us and HOLD onto the side, standing on a tiny rim so he can jump at the same time. When the story hits yours screens later this year, keep an eye out for the photographer shaking my hand mid-air during the dive!
So let me take you through my sky dive. When the time came to jump, the door opened and my instructor and I wiggled to the edge. Sitting there with my feet hanging out the plane, my bum on the very edge and not being allowed to hold onto the plane’s side, is the scariest feeling I have ever experienced in my LIFE. As I fell out I was absolutely PETRIFIED – I felt like my stomach had just jumped right out of my body. Everything in me was screaming ‘YOU’RE AN IDIOT WHAT ARE YOU DOINGGGGGGGG?’.
In the first part of the jump you tumble upside down and all you can see is ‘earth, sky, earth, sky.’ Then once you’ve stabilised a bit and are in the free-fall position it is the most incredible experience. You're falling but you also feel like you’re in the same spot. It's really windy and then when the parachute goes up you rocket up in the sky!
When I landed, I was SOOOOOOO happy just to be alive, and of course I was full of adrenalin from the dive. Make sure you catch my sky dive when it goes to air in the next few months – it's really quite funny!
Catch ya soon Wilders,
Tess :P xox
