My First Skydiving Jump!

For a larger photograph, click on the small picture below.

Over Labor Day weekend 2004 (see Whitewater rafting photos), my buddy Andres and I decided to do our first skydiving jump! So on October 17, we trekked out to Skydive Orange in Orange, Virginia, to take a flying leap...! The photos below are captured from the video of my tandem jump so they are not very clear. My "jumpmaster" was Nick who loved to mug for the camera. We did freefall for about a minute and then Nick let me control the parachute for a perfect landing. After four tandem jumps, students are allowed to go solo with either a static line jump or accelerated free fall. Andres is determined to become a "jumpmaster" which required at least 500 jumps... So I'll be jumping a few more times... Awesome!