A great man once wrote,
“There is an art, it says, or rather a knack to flying.
The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss.
Pick a nice day, it suggests, and try it.
The first part is easy.”
On Monday, I decided to take that advice to heart. I’d been looking for something big I could do to cap off my travels, and jumping out of an airplane seemed to qualify. What follows is a collection of photographs and observations from that experience.
The company I jumped with is called Skydive Rio. They actually weren’t that professional. It took them several days to get around to replying to my initial email; half the time they didn’t answer their phone. When I asked about how to get to the Jacarepaguá Airport where they’re based, they were like “oh, just take a cab,” but eventually agreed to pick me up from a shopping center at the edge of town. I took the bus out to the mall and spent about 30 minutes waiting for them. They finally did come get me in the crappy little red Fiat pictured above. It was stuffed to the gills with skydiving gear.
Unloading all the parachutes. Skydive Rio seems like it’s almost less a money-making business and more just a bunch of guys who like to jump out of planes and figured out how to get other people to pay them to do it.
Me, trying to look really confident about everything.
I’m glad you made it down alright! haha
Not going to lie, your face as you’re falling backwards out of the plane is, priceless. (: