My Charity Sky Dive, by Luke Warner, I Dan
For as long as I can remember I have always wanted to do a skydive and late November last year I heard of a charity skydive which was taking place in January 2008. Although I thought it was going to be tough to raise the minimum sponsorship of £395 in such a short time, I decided to sign myself up. At first I was finding it hard to raise any money at all, but as soon as the word went around our Taekwon-Do classes that I was doing the jump, it came in very fast.
On the day of the jump it dawned on me that I would actually be jumping out of a plane. I did my basic training and then met my tandem instructor. At first I was a bit cautious but then I heard that to become a tandem instructor you must complete a minimum of 800 flawless jumps.
I got on the plane and was amazed by the great view under and above the clouds that had appeared. Just before the jump all cloud cover had disappeared and I had a perfectly clear sky. As I jumped out of the plane I felt very free and then a sudden rush of adrenaline as I was freefalling at speeds of over 100mph. As the parachute opened my legs flicked forward and as I'd requested earlier, my instructor obliged me by doing a few spins on the parachute. We did a nice bend near the bottom and landed perfectly facing into the wind. My legs felt like jelly! I was glad I was back on the ground but then wished I could do it again. This won't be the last time I do this.
By the time I did my jump I had raised £605 in total, (£350 going to the White Lodge Centre to cover the cost of running the event, the rest for charity). A lot of the money raised came from Learn-TKD students from many of the classes.
To see a video from the ground go to
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfpLHtux9pM