Skydive San Francisco

If you’re a adrenaline junkie, you’ve probably already been or have considered jumping out of an airplane at one point in your life.
.so, morning comes, I cook some really nice steaks for me and a friend, just in case something went wrong, at least we would have died knowing that the last thing we ate was amazing.
an hour and a half later and after a ton of paperwork we were sitting on a wooden deck in front of the lovely office, a trailer, hearing the psycho video guy (thank god he wasn’t on the plane i took up, i would have gotten my money back. he was just a walking bad-​luck liability) tell a bunch of dumb skydiving-​related stories while watching an indian family taking their youngest son to jump out a plane. like some kind of rite-​of-​passage. the woman actually looked worried and the went off to the side to actually pray.
The plane they took us up in was literally held together in places by duck tape but nothing compares to freefalling for close to a minute on a nice sunny day.
1.5 extra stars for the duct taped plane and the fact that the place was so ghetto. It just made my feel so much closer to death.

Whooohooo! We packed up some Extreme Mountain Dew and headed up Brody style north of the city to GET EXTREME!!!
Actually, we were drunk at the Gold Cane one night talking shit and someone had gone skydiving at this place with his dad. So as the drinks flowed, so did our machismo (and machisma?). Next morning I awoke to find a evite to take the plunge the following week. The evite went out to 30, 12 of those replied yes, of those only 7 showed.
Typical.
Long drive up north past Santa Rosa, easy to get to via freeway, got to see some nice vineyards. Arrived early, they gave us the ‘instructions’ (10 minutes of some insane German guy gesticulating wildly about «vat ve should do and not do») and we sat back and waited our turn. They provide the awesome teal and red jumpsuits, so you can leave yours at home. The building is a trailer on the edge of a small airport (small=no control tower) in a really nice, scenic valley.
Our experienced friend and another went first so I got to sit on the patio at the trailer and watch them walk over to the silver single prop plane wondering if I would ever see them again. I did about 20 minutes later as the came floating down smiling and laughing.
Then it was my turn, I went tandem (guy attached to me doing all the work), with my friend Kateri who now had the lunatic German as her tandem guide. The whole way up we planned to be ‘extreme and crazy’ but instead just stared at each other with nervous smiles and clenched hands. (and buttholes)
The plane can hold 5, but you are squished in sitting on the floor because they had to remove the seats to accommodate our bodies and parachutes. So it’s really really tight if you’re going tandem with another person that is going tandem as well.
Another really neat thing about the plane was the way I could see the earth shrink away as I peered down through the many holes in the planes floor. Who knew duct tape used excessively on a planes interior could hold it together? The most notable fact was that our pilot (who likes to smoke during the flight), wore a parachute.
Why would he need a parachute? Unless…
Anyway, I was the first one out with my guy (actually a really cool, confidence inspiring instructor if you didn’t mind chronic alcoholics) and it was as great as they say it is. I fell, I floated, I got to ‘steer’ the parachute, and it was amazing. One of the most intense things I’ve ever done with my life.
I don’t regret a thing, and I would do it again if they had a better airplane. Oh yeah, they have videos and pictures available for extra… my basic package of jumping and living was about $ 200.