My Adventures Part 1 - Skydiving in Canada

Skydive Montreal South Shore is a Harvest Host location south of Montreal in Farnham, QC. I made a reservation for a night and planned on watching the skydivers while I was there. Before I arrived I decided, what the heck, I might as well jump.

I had a few days to think about it and even though I’m am a little afraid of heights, I wasn’t scared of jumping. I watched a YouTube video of Will Smith talking about his first jump. He shared that he was crippled with fear the week leading up to his jump. He said he couldn’t sleep or eat because of that fear. The day of the jump he realized how foolish he had been to be afraid of something that wasn’t going to happen for a week and he had nothing to relate it too so why all the fear. The day of the jump and just before jumping he had no fear. 

I didn’t let any fear enter my head and was excited about the jump. I showed up early to the jump site and was prepared mentally for the adventure ahead. I met my instructor and we joked around a bit while getting ready. 

Jumpsuit - check

Googles - check

Harness - check and double check

Prayer - check

We went through some jump procedures/landing procedures and headed to the plane. On the way up to 13,500 feet I was still surprisingly calm and relaxed. 

We were the first tandem to jump. As we sort of duckwalked to the door, the videographer stepped out the door and hung onto the plane from the outside waiting for us to jump.The instructor tapped me on the shoulder and I gave a thumbs up, and we basically rolled out the door.

WOW!

Next thing I knew we were in free fall, heads straight down towards the ground going about 120mph. During the free fall, that lasted about 60 seconds, we did several crazy spins while the videographer got her shots, and then the instructor tapped me on the shoulder again letting me know he was pulling the rip cord. Prayer answered, we were under a good clean chute.

The ride down lasted another 5-6 minutes and the feeling and views were amazing. I don’t remember much of that part of the jump because my adrenaline was pumping and I was in awe of my surroundings! (or lacked of surroundings)

We circled over the jump zone a few times and came in for our landing. We slid softly in on the grass on our bottoms.  SUCCESS!

What an amazing day. After a short debriefing, I went back to my rig, had some lunch and wanted to lay down for a bit. I was still super hyped so I went outside and talked to the ground manager for a while and learned a lot from her. Parachute Montreal has a great professional team and fun to be around. If you are up that way and want an amazing experience, check them out https://parachutemontreal.ca/

Overall an absolutely amazing day!

I made another reservation to stay and jump again after my 2 month stay in Maine but the weather didn’t cooperate and the jumps were scrubbed for the day…no problem, I have enough memories for a lifetime! (or until I decide to jump again)