As most of the Gheorghies know, I jumped out of an airplane yesterday with FOGTB Kevin Reynolds, veteran of more than 4,000 jumps of his own. It's a bit of a copout to say that words can't describe the experience, but it's also mostly true. It was a cocktail of adrenaline, nausea, fear, euphoria and release. And it was completely, utterly, entirely a blast.I've uploaded raw footage from Reynolds' GoPro to my Google Drive for your viewing pleasure/mocking fun. I'll do the same with the professionally produced HD video, as well, but I don't have that with me. (Note that I can't share anything in Google Drive publicly, so I've only shared with the email addresses I have for FOGTB. If you can't view it, shoot me a note.)
Before you watch, a couple of observations:
- It's really damn hard to look cool wearing the egg-shaped leather beanie/helmet required of all tandem jumpers.
- I didn't feel terribly nervous at any point, but you sure wouldn't know that by the look on my face in the first few moments of this video. My face looks frozen.
- Zman and Mark may catch a few glimpses of my Rod Lavers, one of which came untied mid-jump.
- Careful observers will also enjoy the t-shirt I chose for the adventure.
- The video is about 8 minutes long. Feel free to skip through the middle section, unless you'd like to hear the conversation I have with Reynolds.
The whole thing, from boarding the plane to landing, lasted maybe 20 minutes. Much of it, as you might imagine, is a blur. I remember saying 'holy shit!' a lot.
Which is completely inadequate to the moment.
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