A Parrothead's Journeys

A way cool experience. Skydiving over the keys. I've done this twice now, and keep promising myself that I'm going to take skydiving lessons so I can free fall solo. I still haven't followed up with that promise to myself.

You can get info on where to do this at the following link: Sky Dive Key West. They do an incredible job. You can even spring for the option of having photographs and a video made of your jump. They'll edit the video in less than an hour after your jump, mixing some pretty cool special effects, fades, etc. into the video plus dubbing a cool soundtrack of music behind it, your choice of tunes. These pictures were taken from the first jump I made. A tiny little whiff of a woman, she couldn't have weighed more than 100 lbs. soaking wet, took the pictures. She was wearing a helmet with both a small video camera and a still camera attached (duct tape) to her helmet. She snapped the photos using a tube that ran from the still camera to her mouth.

It took about 1/2 hour for the small plane to climb to 10,000 feet. You circle seemingly endlessly until you are at jump altitude. The plane held only the myself, the pilot, my tandem jump instructor and the woman who took the photos. At 10,000 feet they opened the door. Even in July in the Florida Keys, it is quite chilly at 10,000 feet. You don't even notice it. The noise of the wind rushing by was what I noticed most.

The young woman with the cameras climbed out onto the wing struts first, so she could capture the still photos and the video of us exiting the plane. Once you start free falling, she circles around you taking the video and still pictures. Free fall lasted only about 30 seconds or so, it varies depending your size and weight, then you pull the ripcords. The woman photographer continues free falling for several seconds longer so she can reach the ground first to capture photos and video of your approach and landing.

Once the chute opens, you then can relax your heartbeat a little. The instructor will allow you to take control of the chute, so you can make some bank turns. The view is spectacular. You get about 5-6 minutes of gliding on the chute before the instructor takes controls back and guides you into a landing. Pop open a cold one. You did it!

The first time I did this my wife and then 7 month old daughter were waiting on the ground for me. The film crew of a James Bond movie were also using the airport to film a skydive stunt where Bond dropped in full wetsuit into the seas. I believe it was the Timothy Dalton Bond flick that had a significant number of scenes set in the Florida Keys. I talked with the crew and the stunt man (we were all waiting out a summer storm delay before any of us could jump) .... they had spent 3 weeks there filming and had made dozens and dozens of jumps to get what ultimately was only about 10 seconds of movie scene. Amazing.

My wife spent the time during the rain delay oggling the bare chested stuntman. I guess it took her mind off worrying about my impending jump. At least that's what I told myself.