..ready..set..GO!!!

where to start? where to start??

first of all, I´m still alive ;) and I´m now qualified to jump out of a plane by myself ;) hehe :) ..it´s soooo totally AWESOME!!! like sex, just different ;) hihi ;))

well.. I´ll have to edit this entry, because just 5 min left, but let´s use the time :)

so I got up early on Saturday morning and got briefed about parachutes, emergency procedures and some other stuff you have to know if you want to jump out of planes ;)
skipped the second Tandem jump and jumped with two instructors instead, having a radio, so they can advise me if I have any problems landing.. but it´s easier than it looks ;) hihi :) just have to wait long enough to flare (full breaking, just 2m above the ground, to land softly on the grass :)
only thing was that we were getting into a cloud and didn´t react quick enough on the "pull-chute-now" sign, so one of the instructors did this for me (felt a bit dramatic ;) but let me pass to the next level.. anyway, broke the school record with making six AFF jumps within one day and get the graduation :D :D haha ;) seems I got a little skydiver in me ;) just needed seven jumps to complete the whole program and was mostly a step ahead, already practising some exercises of the next jump.. because the big planes they have take you to 13 500 feet and this gives you a good 55seconds of free falling, before reaching the 5500ft mark, where you pull the chute as a student.

..to be continued soon..

so here we are again :) ..I´m in the middle of figuring out, how far I want to go with my license.. it´s a messy thing, because ever country handles it differently and Switzerland doesn´t give me credits for the US-License and so on :P

so the six jumps of the day bring you from stabilizing, over horizontal turns to front- and backflip to the delta (as they do it in the movies to dive down faster and to deplace horizontally :) was really fun to practise and to jump with Luis, a real nice instructor! just should have eaten a little bit more during the day, made the whole program on a coffe, a juice and an "Arepa" (tasty corn puffer with cheese and ham). So I got pretty low on blood suger in the end ;) and was starving when I finally eat a sandwich after graduation :)

I changed my mind to stay for another weekend to continue my course, but as they tell me in Switzerland, doesn´t make sense to make the A-License here.. just have to figure out how to conserve my skydive-booklet as a proof that I made the AFF course. But it´s a really good dropzone, good planes and above all, really skilled people that help you out with whatever you need and can answer every question you have.. so I really try to get back on the week-end and have some more fun in the air :)

I had then on Sunday another six jumps.. number one was my first solo-jump.. step out of the plane and feel free, just you and the sky :D haha ;) it´s not that you´d be flying, but falling with style! ;) haha :D
I´m telling you, it still freaks me kinda out to stand up in the plane and walk to the door (it´s the back of the plane, that´s completely open, showing you how high up you are or how far down it goes, if you fall over the edge ;) and my brain instinctively wants to protect me from falling to death ;) hihi :) then walking to the edge, looking down and jumping out into the element of air :D
had then three couch jumps, where I learned to fall faster and slower (to adjust your relative position to other skydivers to make figures later on in the air) and to move forward (by stretching out your legs and taking your hands a little bit back). after this I made one jump that´s called: Hop´n´Pop, where you jump at 5000ft and pull your chute immediately after being stabilized. For once, I was the first guy leaving the plane ;) passed this level as well and had a last "fun-dive" where I jumped out of the plane with a tripple front-flip, stabilezed, then backflip, the some spinnings and a delta in the end, pulling the chute later at 4500ft (with some more jumps, I lower the hight to 3500ft, the normal hight for pulling a chute.. but as newbie, it´s a little bit higher, so you got more time in there´s an emergency.. well.. I know the drill to liberate the primary chute and pull the secondary chute if it has to be (and they always work :).
I actually had a low-speed incidenct on my 3rd jump :P a little line twist (the strings are twisted up above your head.. so the chute is not controllable, but it´s easy resolvable. You pull the strings apart with your hand and turn your body to untwist the lines and then you make the standard check if your chute is maneuvrable. Glad they told me how to do that before my first jump on my own ;) hihi :)
but even in this situation, I remained calm and solved the problem :)

then another reason to go back on the weekend was the good treat I had from the people of the dropzone.. one guy made a little movie for me and burned it on a DVD, another invited me at his place (a really luxury, super stylish appartment he has ;) and had good times there! then I got a ride to Caracas on Sunday night and spent yesterday with a girl that I met at the drop zone.. gonna call her later on and let´s see what we´re doing today :) unfortunately she lifes with other people and can´t have me staying at her place, but she showed me the center of the city yesterday and it was good fun! :D learned something about Simon Bolivar, their liberator and national hero and ended up in a luxury hotel that costs me 25 bucks the night ;)

I will try to find somebody who can fix my dreads today and got some more strong pesticide to kill remaining bugs on my head (I really hate such strong stuff, but gonna make a last effort to get rid of them.. itchy feeling on your head sucks ;) hehe :)
then I have to call a friend to sell him my dollars (changing in a bank sucks) and have to think about how many more jumps I gonna make at the week-end. It´s all pretty costly (for not being accepted in Switzerland anyway) but on the other hand, really don´t like the idea to not being registered anywhere :-/

so yes.. one more time being totally undecided ;) and just going with the flow.. let´s see what the day holds for me (and worst case, there is a bike waiting for me in Colombia ;) hihi :) :D ahhhhh.. LIFE IS JUST GREAT!!!!
hope can upload my movie to facebook, so you guys can have a look at it how I´m falling downward with 220km/h ;)

be well and be happy! over and out :)