Skydiving Texel
By Jaimy de Vries
A leap of faith
Lately, I’ve been saying ‘yes!’ to all the fun things that come my way or I always wanted to do someday. Before I had all kind of excuses: ‘I don’t have anybody to do it with’, ‘But it’s too expensive’, ‘Yes, but I don’t want to do it in the Netherlands, I want to do it abroad’. No buts anymore! Just (fucking) do it! There are fun things to do in the Netherlands as well, just look, really look, what you can do around you. Even in my “Kikkerland” you can find fun things to do (keep an eye out for my next upcoming post: My top fun things to do in the Netherlands).
So at one point a friend Amy, who followed my adventurous trips in the Netherlands, sent me a message: ‘I would like to make a skydive jump someday…. in Texel or somewhere else in the Netherlands’. I thought; yes I would dare to go skydiving. So I replied to her: ‘well, If you’re looking for someone… (with a wink smiley)’ And then the idea was born: we’re going skydiving together! After that we sent each other more than 100 messages like: ‘Are we really going to do this?’ – ‘I’m really afraid of heights!’ – ‘I’m scared’ – ‘Yes, we’re going to this’ – ‘Really?’ – ‘Yes, really!’.
And then we pressed the confirmation button .… ‘Now we cannot go back!’ we said to each other. It is real now! !
We still had the choice whether we wanted to jump from 9000 or 13000 feet. There was an offer, both heights for the same price. We looked at each other and were laughing: ‘Of course we go for the highest jump; 13000 feet!!’ We are Dutchies; so if it’s free or cheaper we’re going for that option
I felt so tough the week before the jump. No nerves, no shaking hands, not even when we arrived in Texel. Until the morning of THE day. We arrived at Paracenter Texel. I felt my heart pounding faster and faster and my stress level (I can check that on my smartwatch) went from 20 to 80!
When the gentleman behind the reception told us more about the position we should adopt just before the jump, it suddenly became very real. He told us to keep our arms in the chicken dance position and our neck pushing back like a banana. We went to a big hall where we could prepare ourselves for the jump. We practiced our chicken banana dance and we had to wait until we were called. During the time we waited, we saw a lot of happy people coming down. That reassured us. My nerves had dropped a bit.
And then we were called up. Aarghh so exciting! We put on our harnesses, masks and wind goggles. We were introduced to the instructors. I got a middle-aged man. ‘Yes! I thought, someone with experience’. We crawled into the plane – yes crawl! The airplane was so small, we were all tucked together. And then the plane went off. Now we REALLY can’t go back. I asked my instructor if the harness should not be tightened, because it was really loose. Then he said: ‘No that’s not necessary, I like a little excitement’. Omg I thought. I laughed back with a very nervous laugh while in my head I was crying. Everyone laughed at me on the plane. The instructor said back ‘ Well, if you’re gonna die today it will be spectacular’ – ‘ well that’s true’ I said back. As you can see on the picture I was quite scared.
Even more when the camera-man gave an eye to my instructor and pointed to my harness if it shouldn’t be tied up. Oh my… why do I always get an instructor with his funny pants on? Please not this time…not when my life depends on it!’ I asked; ‘ Who will go first ?’ – ‘You!’ said the instructor. “Swallow”…….’Okay okay, then I’ll be the first to get rid of it’ I thought. So a minute after that they opened the door and we crawled forward to the exit. And there I was; hanging on the edge, my legs outside the plane tied to the instructor. ‘Oh my, oh my it’s so high!!’ – So I said to myself: ‘Okay Jaimy, okay Jaimy focus: chicken and banana, chicken and… ‘ and off we go!!! I didn’t have the time to think and prepare myself for the jump.
That moment you jump out of the plane… you feel a big blow in your face. It was a good tip to make a banana shape and push our neck backwards. If you don’t do this, the massive blow in your face will kick your neck and that will guarantee a stiff neck afterwards. The other (worst) scenario is that your head may kick back hard against your instructor’s head – there is a chance that the instructor will become unconscious. Oef! It was good that we practiced our chicken-banana dance.
With the free fall we went from 13.000 to 5.000 feet in less than one minute!! That’s a speed of > 150 km per hour. The moment I took the free fall I felt nothing, I was just enjoying and let everything go. All the stress, all my anxiety was gone. And all the fat in my face got blown away by the power of the wind. More effective than a vibration plate at the gym.
And then after a minute we opened the parachute and it felt like we were flying upwards, because the free fall immediately stopped. ‘Wow it’s so quiet now!’ I said. It’s because you hear so much wind in your ears, it’s very loud! The moment the parachute is open you just fly quietly with no winds in your ears. I enjoyed the view and felt so peaceful and calm. I even got to steer the parachute by myself! Wow! I felt so happy and excited to do this. The instructor asked if I like rollercoasters. ‘Yes, of course!’ I toughly said. He told me to pull hard on the parachute-line. When doing that we went steep down and I got those jitters in my belly – the feeling you get going down on a rollercoaster.
After 5 minutes of parachute-flying we almost arrived at the paracenter. We were preparing ourselves for the landing. Together with my instructor we landed with both our feet on the ground. Immediately afterwards I got interviewed by my camera-man who asked how my experience was. Later on I saw the instructor folding the parachute. I asked if I could help him, but it was not necessary. We elbow-bumped (the corona “proof” way) and I looked for my friend Amy to see if she survived the trip. And she did! We hugged (not so corona-proof) and we were so happy and so full of adrenaline! How amazing! If you ask me, I would definitely take the jump again!
