“Driving a motorcycle is like flying. All your senses are alive. Being House is like flying, too. He’s free of the gravity of what people think.”
Hugh Laurie
I love this quote but House was wrong! Driving a motorcycle is nothing like true flying. I have experienced them both and I have to tell you flying is so much better! Indeed both activities do wake all your senses up and make you feel alive but unaided flying puts a totally new spin on the whole concept of feeling alive!
The team at Alive! the multi-vitamin and mineral range from Nature’s Way invited me to try indoor skydiving. At first I had no fear at all, all I felt was excitement but once I actually booked the experience the fear started to crawl into my head… I was scared… a fear of the unknown took over… there wasn’t really any logical reason for it… it is not like I was about to launch myself from an aeroplane and hurtle towards the earth… I was about to fly upwards in a sealed tube with a safety net below me… what could possibly go wrong? Yet there it is, I was still afraid.
On the day of my “wanna be a bird” experience I even developed a “pseudo” twisted ankle. At the end of the day, I couldn’t go flying if I am unable to walk, could I? Mark wasn’t having any of it and put me straight and the fear volume subsided….a bit.
We drove to the wind tunnel, I got changed, I took part in the briefing, I practiced the perfect free-fall position on the dusty floor in a room full of strangers, I fastened on my goggles and helmet and I was ready! Let the fun begin… but it still wasn’t fun… I was scared again, really scared… knees unable to hold me up steady scared again, standing in that extremely noisy, unbelievably windy doorway awaiting my turn… my heart was pounding, the beads of sweat forming, cotton mouth, eyes wide… and then my name popped at the top of the list… the next flyer was me… there was no escape I was required to be ready… I was ready!
I entered the tunnel, I immediately put myself into the basic skydiving position and I was up… and then down… and up again. It was truly amazing! I’ve never experience anything like it. I thought long and hard on how to describe the sensation but I simply can’t find the words to convey the moment. The feeling of freedom, weightlessness and total surrender to the elements can’t be described with words, they have to be experienced!
I can only imagine how wonderful the real skydiving must be. Who knows maybe one day I will experience it too.
In the grand scheme of adrenalin thrills, indoor skydiving is a fairly cheap one, for just under £40 you can have a true “time of your life”, but if you really want to feel alive why not try real skydiving?
There are a lot of companies out there like Into The Blue offering all sorts of thrills. Yes, they might not be so budget friendly but I bet they are worth every penny! I have started a piggybank just for this next level of fun.
Have you ever had the chance to fly unaided?
What do you do to feel truly alive?
*This is a collaborative post.
I’ve always wanted to do this, and this post as got me even more excited. I’m going to look at booking it soon
This I would try. Jumping out of a plane I would not.
I have never been skydiving but as an adrenaline junkie I would enjoy it immensely and will look into starting off indoors first!
My boys have been indoor skydiving a few times and really enjoyed it – I might have to give it a go sometime!
Living for this post! I would love to do this but I’d be too scared. Well done you though!
I so much want to have a go at that, the idea of jumping out of a plane just terrifies me but this looks like all the fun with much less of the fear factor.
I’ve thought about trying this before but never really got round to it. I never knew it was that cheap! It looks so fun!
I can’t believe you’ve done this it looks terrifying – I’d be so scared the jumpsuit would be full of wee 🙁
Wow. I haven’t and I’m not sure I ever would! But I enjoyed reading about it 🙂
I have always wanted to try this but not really had the opportunity.
This looks like so much fun. I’d love to try skydiving but not sure if I would be able to go through with it once I got in the aeroplane.
You are so brave, I can’t even stand on a chair before I cry! Looks like fun x
Oh now this does sound absolutely amazing, how fab x
Oh wow this sounds amazing – once upon a time I would have loved to have tried this myself. x
Oh my god I’m petrified of heights and the thought of sky diving just doesn’t even feature on my radar.. but this actually sounds quite fun. Don’t get me wrong if I was to try it I have no doubt the full range of emotions you felt would be similar to what my experience might be!
OMG I would love to try that, looks amazing!