Skydive Newport ‘awesome, but scary’

July 15, 2012

Photo courtesy Skydive Newport

Narragansett Times Reporter, Maria Shanahan went skydiving in Newport June 29.

NEWPORT - I’m afraid of heights. I’ve never been on a roller coaster in my nearly 22 years of existence. So, I went skydiving Friday, June 29.

Skydiving was not necessarily on my bucket list, though I figured it might be something I could work up to. Unfortunately for me, I happen to be dating the world’s biggest adrenaline junkie, perhaps only rivaled by Felix Baumgartner, who is scheduled to make the world’s highest skydive from 120,000 feet. If he’s successful, Baumgartner will be the first human to go supersonic outside of a vehicle.

In order to fuel my boyfriend Chris’ need for extreme adventure, I bought him a gift certificate to Skydive Newport for Christmas.

My mistake. I did not anticipate that I would be enlisted for this adventure. I only imagined myself taking photos of his flight with both of my feet firmly planted on the ground.

But, Christopher “Careful” Cappello, who has been canyoning (where you essentially jump across rocks and slide down waterfalls) and done a canyon swing (like a bungee jump, minus the elastic rope), loves risky adventures, so he booked a jump for me as well.

Chris gave me little notice, scheduling our flight the Wednesday before we went, figuring that I would have less time to fret over the pending jump. At least I could find comfort in the fact that Skydive Newport only allows tandem jumps, meaning we would be strapped to qualified instructors.

When we arrived in Newport we watched an instructional video and were secured in our harnesses.

Soon after we took off in the Cessna 182. For those who aren’t airplane experts, this plane is quite small. In fact, there aren’t even any seats, except for the pilot’s chair. I was instructed to sit facing forward next to the pilot with my back resting against the instructor to whom I would be strapped to for the jump.

I’m not one for small planes, but after flying from Accra, Ghana to Kumasi, Ghana, during a heinous African thunderstorm, I’m ready for just about any flight.

Did I mention that Chris is an aerospace engineer? Needless to say, he loves planes and couldn’t wait to somersault (literally) out of this one.

After a lovely flight over Newport, though I only managed to look out the window a couple of times, we reached 10,000 feet.
Time to jump.

Now strapped to our partners, I unfortunately had to jump first. The side door of the tiny plane swings up and the wind smacks you in the face.

At my instructor’s command, I jumped. Chris and his instructor jumped second, performing a triple front flip for their exit.

I barely had time to process how far away the ground was before we were free falling for 40 seconds, quite a long 40 seconds, before my instructor pulled our parachute.

The falling part was scary, awesome, but scary. I wanted to scream, but couldn’t. Once the parachute was pulled though, we were able to sway in the wind and enjoy a view of the bridges, the ocean and Newport. The view made it worth every penny and all the fear.

When we landed Chris asked, “If it was buy one, get one free, would you go again?”

“Not right now,” I said, as my stomach was still a bit unsettled from the fall and fear. “You can take my turn.” He was ready to jump again.

I may skydive again eventually, but for now, I’m perfectly happy being on the ground.