The rush from Skydiving isn’t what I was expecting. At least in my case, I wasn’t panicking at that the moment in the photo above. I felt like I was at the starting gate to a race where everyone is just itching for the signal. I thought I might be hesitant to jump, but in fact, my mind felt supremely focused, as if someone had just cleaned the house up there.
I went to Chicagoland Skydiving Center (CSC) in Rochelle, IL just off I-88 for my first jump out of a perfectly good airplane, a phrase painted on the side of the airplane. At CSC they fly you up to 14,000 ft. elevation at which point you jump out. At this height, you have 60 seconds of exhilarating, uninterrupted free fall, until you reach 6,000 ft. At which point, if your tandem jumping, it is time to pull the shoot and fall another 1,000 ft. before you’re under a full canopy. Once that canopy opens, everything slows down and the world becomes very tranquil. I felt like everything just slowed down at this moment until at about 6 minutes later I touch the ground, and time picked-up it’s normal pace again.
Right now I’m addicted. There is this huge community behind it that I never realized existed. Something to the tune of an adult summer camp, but without it being corny. People from all over the world, literally, come to Chicago, buy a mobile-home and park it right next to CSC and jump as many times a day as they can from April to October. CSC provides the skydivers with hot showers, washing machines, TV/Lounging room, free tent camping, free WiFi, Bar/Restaurant, and even parties too.
Now, considering my last post, “The Small House Book,” you might realize some dreams of mine. Stretching the free tent camping situation a bit, I think it would be great to just camp out there and jump every day. Which means I need to get an “A License” at CSC’s cleverly titled Freefall University Skydiving School, of course, this would be dependent being able to afford the Pro Pass and having my own parachute.
*Afterthought… I only want to Skydive at Chicagoland Skydiving Center, because the facility, the airplane (they won awards for the thing), and the employs are just that awesome.*
Leave a Reply