Work on your bucket list: Skydiving
It’s a bird, it’s a plane ... nope, but it is someone jumping out of one!
It’s classic bucket-list fodder. The sheer thrill and excitement of skydiving has been all the rage for adrenaline junkies for decades, but what is it about the sport that makes people put aside their fears and take the plunge, literally? While skydiving may seem ideal for octogenarians, some college students -- with their whole lives ahead of them -- might not be into the idea of throwing themselves out of a plane.
Ali Raza is not one of them.
Raza is a self-described military brat. Undeterred by fear, Raza said he knew he wanted to skydive since he was 12 years old. Recently, the 23-year-old Baruch College student completed his first jump, and now he can’t get enough.
“My instructor opened the door 14,000 feet up in the sky. The rush of air was incomparable,” Raza said. “I truly felt like being a bird.”
The modern day history of skydiving goes back to 1797 with Andre-Jacques Garnerin, who performed display jumps from balloons flying over Europe. However, the development of skydiving in its current form did not blossom until after World War II, when a surplus of leftover parachutes from the war lead to many former soldiers taking up a new hobby. By 1957, the first commercial skydiving facility opened.
Skydiving has been immensely popular ever since. Reports state that about 330,000 people go skydiving in the United States every year and it’s not hard to see why. Imagine plummeting to earth at 120 miles per hour, surveying the quilt-like structure of the fields below while cutting through the clouds like a superhero. It’s enough to make any pallid person blush.
Emily Abi-Kheirs remembered the feeling when she stepped out of the plane. For the Emerson College student, it was such an intense rush that she barely had time to react. “Before I knew it I was out that plane free falling,” she said. “I couldn't even scream, it was so unreal.”
The 19-year-old is planning to go again this summer and now considers skydiving part of her life.
“I would love to get certified and make skydiving a hobby. I'm so certain it will happen in my lifetime, I loved it that much.”
However, the most fascinating facet of the entire skydiving experience may not be the speedy descent at all. At first you are locked in an intense battle with gravity, flying down to earth. Next the chute pulls (well, hopefully!) and the experience goes from 100 mph to seemingly zero in the flash of a second. At that moment, it becomes more about the serenity of it all as you float down to the earth.
Abi-Kheirs noted that this feeling was completely enthralling.
“You want to experience silence? Go skydiving and float down as slow as you can," she said. "The view, the noise of the world, everything was surreal.”
Despite the glowing reviews of skydiving, there is the daunting prospect of accident and chute failure. The Federal Aviation Administration has an extensive checklist that must be completed by skydiving instructors that includes: at least three years of experience, as well as 500 jumps and a certification course completed. But sometimes, even with preparation, fate gets in the way.
Just before Father’s Day a week ago, 49-year-old David Winoker and his 25-year-old instructor Alex Chulsky died from impact after their parachute spiraled out of control. Winoker was celebrating his 50th birthday.
Abi-Kheirs said she has exhibited caution in her experiences, only opting to skydive at facilities that offer three backup chutes.
“I honestly try not to think about it," she said. "If you start thinking too much, you freak yourself out.”
Raza also noted that the prospect of death lingered but he didn’t allow it to change his mind.
“Chute failure is always in the back of your mind, but then that is a risk I was willing to take,” he said. “If two chutes do not open midair, then it's just fate.”
Terrance Ross is a Summer 2012 USA TODAY Collegiate Correspondent. Learn more about him here.
This story originally appeared on the USA TODAY College blog, a news source produced for college students by student journalists. The blog closed in September of 2017.