Skydiving in Baldwin, Wisconsin


In August of 1999, a group of IBM co-ops trekked to Baldwin, WI and paid good money to hurl our bodies toward the ground at 120 mph.
We all jumped tandem, which is when a jumpmaster wearing a chute is strapped to your back and they do all the work. Our 'training' lasted about three minutes- we all laid down on the floor and practiced arching our backs and kicking our heels up. And we also signed a seven page waiver that said we agreed we wouldn't sue Skydive Twin Cities even in the event of obvious negligence. Erika and I smile anyway because our jumpmasters share our fate, so we figure we can trust them. (The little puffy things on our shoulders are the handholds for when groups of jumpers grab onto each other to make formations.)


This warning was on the back of my harness. Basically it says that even if the parachute is properly packed and your equipment is well-maintained and you do everything you're supposed to do, the parachute still might not open, so every time you use it you could die. Mmmm.
These are the tiny little planes that would take us 10,000 feet up in the air to experience a freefall with maximum speeds around 120 mph.
Just as Erika and I were packing ourselves into the plane, storm clouds that had been hovering on the horizon decided to roll in and we were grounded. After 45 minutes and a few sprinkles, we climbed back in. As the pilot brought the engine to life, though, it made a loud boom and started to sputterÖ I was a little unnerved by the look on my jumpmaster's face. We all piled out again and several guys poked around in the engine for a while. Erika and I had passed a hearse on the way to Wisconsin, and we were beginning to wonder how many signs we could ignore and still come out of this alive.
After finally making it up and tumbling out, we floated above the patchwork farmland for about 45 seconds. Surprisingly enough, I never really got scared up there. During the freefall I remember thinking, "So this is what it's like to fly..."
When John (my jumpmaster) pulled the ripcord, we decelerated from 120 mph to 5 mph in about 4 seconds. The tandem harnesses aren't terribly comfortable, so almost all of that force is exerted on the straps on your inner thighs. While we were floating down, John also did some spirals so that we were spinning around our chute and parallel to the ground, but again, it was hard to ignore the G force on my legs.


Two safe (although not entirely graceful) landings ended our decent.
$160 Perma-grins!!!