April 2013
This one tops my bucket list. I'd been wanting to do this for 2 years now. Heard about this place in Dubai which is known to have one of the worlds best sky dive spots. Watched videos of 2 friends who did it and I tell you.... Just watching someone sky diving will give you enough adrenalin rush to want to do it. I wanted to.,. I crazy desperately wanted to sky dive. For 2 yrs, ever since I heard about it, the right time hadn't come. I had to plan up for this expensive dive (expensive, yes... but totally worth it for a lifetime experience). Finally 2013 was destined to be it !! The big 30s was already running... And I'm off to a flying start to the bucket list.
Skydive Dubai. http://www.skydivedubai.ae/
One of the worlds best location to sky dive because of the wonderful view of Palm Islands from up there. The booking was known to be always full for weekend slots up to 3 months and we had to really plan in advance. I decided a date for this super adventure - my birthday. So I looked up the website of skydive Dubai to book my spot and save the date. Gathered a few more friends who were interested - 6 of us booked this for April 2013. Now we all had to wait patiently for 3 whole months for the D-day. The word 'patience' is such a huge challenge for me in such times of excitement. Every second and every minute and every day of mine were only looking forward to my birthday tht year. Days went by, weeks went by and finally it was here. Yaaaayyyy... The most awaited day of the year!
Our slots were booked around 12 noon. I was busy preparing quick breakfast early that morning for us and friends who were joining us. 3 other friends were already enroute to the location. The general mood of that day was filled with hyper excitement from everyone. Amidst this morning buzz, I received THE call. THE devastating call of the day - due to sand storm in UAE, sky diving was cancelled. All of us were soooo heart broken - ME, the most! The team who were already enroute to Dubai reached the spot and double confirmed this news. We were being refunded :-(
The next available date was only after Sep as Sky diving over the Palm Islands was closed during summer (Jun-Aug) :-(( A heart broken ME shut off for the day with all the excitement broken to pieces.
September 2013.
As soon as the bookings reopened, we booked 4 slots (this time it was a group of 4) on the earliest convenient date for all - 29 Sep 2013 @ 2pm. Needless to say that this time I mellowed down and played it low on the excitement levels and hyper enthu. I don't think I had it in me to wait another 3 mths incase this time flopped as well. My patience is not that good. The day finally arrived. Clear summer skies seemed promising this time.
Adrenalin rushing faster and faster as the jet was going higher and higher with an open door. Looking at each others faces - the mixed emotions of fear & excitement as the moment was nearing - could only be empathized by those in that moment. As we reached 13,000 ft above, one by one started diving out of the jet with their own tandem diver & personal video/photographer (meaning, 3 people dive out of the jet at the same time). As I was seated at the very inside of the jet, I couldn't see much of the ones who dived before me. Quickly my turn came and as I was standing at the door with my tandem diver & video/photographer, I could see below me my friend who dived before me.... the speed in which he was free-falling below me gave me goose bumps. The view below while I held on to the door was breadth taking. I couldn't believe I was about to jump out of a plane from 13,000 ft. I dint have much time to think. Everything was happening fast. I was already at the door and the video/photographer was hanging outside the door in front of me with his camera focusing on me. My tandem diver swayed over the door and within seconds we had jumped out of the plane free falling.
The moment is undefinable. I don't know the exact word that can define my emotion at that moment. But if I could use a couple of words - overwhelming, breadth taking, thrilling, spine-tingling, heart stirring, exciting, amazing and hair-raising (literally!!).
During the free fall for a couple of seconds, I felt the wind slapping hard on my face (thank god for the goggles that allowed me to keep my eyes open and enjoy the view below). The view below was marvelous - right below me was the palm islands - such an amazing engineering!!! (one can truly appreciate this only from THIS view, from the top). Little besides the palm was "the world islands" - only Dubai can think and do such engineering marvels!! On the other side was Dubai land - the skyline of Jumeirah, Sheikh Zayed road and the empty dessert beyond. Infact I felt like I could see the earth being a sphere when I tried to look to the farthest I could. Enjoying the moment. Experiencing every second of the free fall. The video/photographer had asked me to keep looking at him during the free fall so he could take some good clicks - however I had forgotten about him when I looked at the various views below. I was confused where to look - the palm, the world, Dubai skyline, empty dessert, the spherical ends or the video/photographer. I still managed to pose now & then during the free fall.
The next half hour was trying to get our heads back to reality - taking pics, catching up with the others on their experience, unloading the gears, breathing hard & drinking water. We waited for a few mins as our personalized video & photos were being processed into CDs. Saving the memories for a lifetime!! We then head back home.
Fear Rating: 5/5.
Only for the brave hearts! - highly recommended for a lifetime experience
Here is the video that has captured my experience to save it for lifetime....
The excitement is contagious.
http://youtu.be/IORVf0hZBjo
This one tops my bucket list. I'd been wanting to do this for 2 years now. Heard about this place in Dubai which is known to have one of the worlds best sky dive spots. Watched videos of 2 friends who did it and I tell you.... Just watching someone sky diving will give you enough adrenalin rush to want to do it. I wanted to.,. I crazy desperately wanted to sky dive. For 2 yrs, ever since I heard about it, the right time hadn't come. I had to plan up for this expensive dive (expensive, yes... but totally worth it for a lifetime experience). Finally 2013 was destined to be it !! The big 30s was already running... And I'm off to a flying start to the bucket list.
Skydive Dubai. http://www.skydivedubai.ae/
One of the worlds best location to sky dive because of the wonderful view of Palm Islands from up there. The booking was known to be always full for weekend slots up to 3 months and we had to really plan in advance. I decided a date for this super adventure - my birthday. So I looked up the website of skydive Dubai to book my spot and save the date. Gathered a few more friends who were interested - 6 of us booked this for April 2013. Now we all had to wait patiently for 3 whole months for the D-day. The word 'patience' is such a huge challenge for me in such times of excitement. Every second and every minute and every day of mine were only looking forward to my birthday tht year. Days went by, weeks went by and finally it was here. Yaaaayyyy... The most awaited day of the year!
Our slots were booked around 12 noon. I was busy preparing quick breakfast early that morning for us and friends who were joining us. 3 other friends were already enroute to the location. The general mood of that day was filled with hyper excitement from everyone. Amidst this morning buzz, I received THE call. THE devastating call of the day - due to sand storm in UAE, sky diving was cancelled. All of us were soooo heart broken - ME, the most! The team who were already enroute to Dubai reached the spot and double confirmed this news. We were being refunded :-(
The next available date was only after Sep as Sky diving over the Palm Islands was closed during summer (Jun-Aug) :-(( A heart broken ME shut off for the day with all the excitement broken to pieces.
September 2013.
As soon as the bookings reopened, we booked 4 slots (this time it was a group of 4) on the earliest convenient date for all - 29 Sep 2013 @ 2pm. Needless to say that this time I mellowed down and played it low on the excitement levels and hyper enthu. I don't think I had it in me to wait another 3 mths incase this time flopped as well. My patience is not that good. The day finally arrived. Clear summer skies seemed promising this time.
The 4 of us reached Skydive Dubai. The place was crowded. We submitted our registration and were told to wait for some more time as the previous batches were yet to finish. We wandered around the place, stepped out to look at some of the other divers floating in the sky in parachutes heading towards land. Watching all the excited faces having successfully completed the dive was fun. Eventually our turn came. Each of us had a tandem diver (expert diver to whom we would be stapped along with for the dive). These tandem divers did 5-6 dives each day, batch after batch, and dint seem to lose any energy nor excitement while gearing up with the next batch. Amazing body energy !!! Each of our tandem divers gave us our diving gears and strapped them on us. We all had our individual video/photographer who was shooting and clicking all our excitement as we were gearing up. Few quick instructions were told to us about the signals we make and hand/leg movements before and after jumping off jet. As it is impossible to speak when in that altitude against the high wind speed while diving, the only mode of communication to your tandem diver were through this hand/leg gestures, so it was important to understand these instructions and follow them exactly. Not very complicated though. We were all geared up, various straps all over and then taken in a buggy to our jet. The seating inside the jet was body mass wise, and I was the lowest in that group and thus made to sit in the fag end of the jet - which meant that my turn to dive would be the last. The tandem diver with me was a very sweet New Zealander lady who coped with my excitement shrills and reactions from time to time, and was speaking encouraging stuff to calm down the slight nervousness amidst all the excitement. She linked my straps with hers as we sat into the jet and waited for everyone to settle into the jet before it took off.
Adrenalin rushing faster and faster as the jet was going higher and higher with an open door. Looking at each others faces - the mixed emotions of fear & excitement as the moment was nearing - could only be empathized by those in that moment. As we reached 13,000 ft above, one by one started diving out of the jet with their own tandem diver & personal video/photographer (meaning, 3 people dive out of the jet at the same time). As I was seated at the very inside of the jet, I couldn't see much of the ones who dived before me. Quickly my turn came and as I was standing at the door with my tandem diver & video/photographer, I could see below me my friend who dived before me.... the speed in which he was free-falling below me gave me goose bumps. The view below while I held on to the door was breadth taking. I couldn't believe I was about to jump out of a plane from 13,000 ft. I dint have much time to think. Everything was happening fast. I was already at the door and the video/photographer was hanging outside the door in front of me with his camera focusing on me. My tandem diver swayed over the door and within seconds we had jumped out of the plane free falling.
The moment is undefinable. I don't know the exact word that can define my emotion at that moment. But if I could use a couple of words - overwhelming, breadth taking, thrilling, spine-tingling, heart stirring, exciting, amazing and hair-raising (literally!!).
During the free fall for a couple of seconds, I felt the wind slapping hard on my face (thank god for the goggles that allowed me to keep my eyes open and enjoy the view below). The view below was marvelous - right below me was the palm islands - such an amazing engineering!!! (one can truly appreciate this only from THIS view, from the top). Little besides the palm was "the world islands" - only Dubai can think and do such engineering marvels!! On the other side was Dubai land - the skyline of Jumeirah, Sheikh Zayed road and the empty dessert beyond. Infact I felt like I could see the earth being a sphere when I tried to look to the farthest I could. Enjoying the moment. Experiencing every second of the free fall. The video/photographer had asked me to keep looking at him during the free fall so he could take some good clicks - however I had forgotten about him when I looked at the various views below. I was confused where to look - the palm, the world, Dubai skyline, empty dessert, the spherical ends or the video/photographer. I still managed to pose now & then during the free fall.
After a couple of seconds free-falling, my tandem diver signaled to me & the video/photographer and then released the parachute. The wind immediately took us higher while we parted with the video/photographer who quickly waved a bye and kept free-falling further down. Once the parachute was out, our speed decreased big time and we were soon floating in the air slowing descending towards the ground. My tandem diver did a quick check on me to see if everything was fine. The descend on the parachute took about 15 mins roughly. We chat up a bit. She swayed the parachute to make the descend a bit adventurous as we went in circles slowly with the move of the parachute. The view was still breath-taking as we got closer to the ground. My stomach was churning by this time and I felt weightless. I could finally see the others were landing below me. We were finally getting there too... as my feet touched the ground I saw the video/photographer waiting for us there clicking away pics.
Finally I did it !!!!!!!
I believe I can fly... I believe I can touch the sky.... - Song by R.Kelly - This has been my all-time fav inspirational song and that day I literally experienced it :-)
Finally I did it !!!!!!!
I believe I can fly... I believe I can touch the sky.... - Song by R.Kelly - This has been my all-time fav inspirational song and that day I literally experienced it :-)
The next half hour was trying to get our heads back to reality - taking pics, catching up with the others on their experience, unloading the gears, breathing hard & drinking water. We waited for a few mins as our personalized video & photos were being processed into CDs. Saving the memories for a lifetime!! We then head back home.
Fear Rating: 5/5.
Only for the brave hearts! - highly recommended for a lifetime experience
Here is the video that has captured my experience to save it for lifetime....
The excitement is contagious.
http://youtu.be/IORVf0hZBjo
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