I have a vivid childhood memory of flying in a small charter plane from Benoni to Bulawayo when I caused the sudden onset of grey hair on my mother’s scalp. Fascinated by the world trailing beneath me I readied myself to open the plane door and dangle out for a better view. As my fingers longingly reached for the handle my mother flew into an incoherent panic attack that clearly meant “Are you crazy!? Sit your butt down!” That was the moment that cemented my dream to skydive.
About 20 years and 20 plane trips passed before I finally got my chance. Even my great aunt of 72 got to jump before me. Jokingly, my dad said I couldn’t skydive because my children “need a mom”. (Funny, he didn’t object to my husband doing it.) Nevertheless, after an invitation from friends, we set the date for February 13th – which may have something to do with why we didn’t plan anything for Valentine’s that year.
My adrenaline kicked in about a week before the jump and I buzzed around like a brain dead bee. I couldn’t sit still, but I was rendered utterly useless as my grinning head was firmly floating in space. Eventually the day arrived and we (finally!) drove out to Wonderboom airport, home to the Pretoria Skydiving Club and one of the most beautiful drop zones. Knowing skydiving is a highly addictive and expensive sport, we decided to do the Tandem dive as a “once in a lifetime” experience to stop ourselves from blowing our meagre life savings. That was one of the wisest financial decisions I’ve ever made, because it was insanely addictive and could easily see myself becoming a skydiving diva.
After a quick lesson we paired up with our jump instructors and rallied into the light aircraft for our 10 minute ascent through the clouds. The flight felt like a butt-numbing hour as we soared up to a height of 11,000 ft. Fear didn’t even turn up as I gazed at the world so far below me. I simply thought “Yes!” and plunged into the exhilarating rush of a 40 second freefall. I shrieked in delight and giggled to myself about how funny my lips must look flapping about. The freefall felt as quick as the flight up felt long and we suddenly jerked to an almost complete stop (no one warns you about the bruising!) as the parachute launched at 5,000 ft. During our 10 minute descent I tried steering the chute while marvelling at the incredible view and feeling of flying. One of the weirdest things was seeing the planes on the ground…I had never seen the top of a plane before. But my friend topped this when she saw a falcon fly straight past her!
As soon as my feet found the earth I was ready to jump back into the plane and do it all over again…and again. One day, when I make my millions, I’ll be signing up for the Accelerated Freefall Course to become a more adept skydiver.
Facilities at the Pretoria Sky Diving Club:
The Pretoria Skydiving Club at Wonderboom has reliable skydiving weather and great facilities for divers and spectators, including:
- Braai facilities
- Picnic spots
- Swimming pool
- Green lawns to land and pack on
- A world class swoop pond (75m long x 14m wide x 0.5 m deep)
- Club House with a bar and pool table
- Canteen with superb dinners served every Saturday night
- Bunk House available free of charge to jumpers
- Large fire-pit for cooler evenings
- Classroom facilities (including TV, video machine and large white board) for presentations of any kind.
Whether you’re a teen or a granny, a tourist or a corporate team, skydiving is a highly recommended adrenaline adventure that will leave you soaring in the clouds long after you’ve touched ground! It is simply “wonderbaar”!
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