Dive into your dreams!

HERE we go again........'you only live once! Make the most of it!'

FOLLOW your DREAMS!

WE all know this is a sort of a mantra of mine, and it may get boring for you, but being this way is helping me live my best life.

I think you can tell by the photos that already this blog is all about the 15,000 foot tandem skydive I did at the weekend. That's the highest you can go without needing oxygen by the way!

Ryan (my wonderful husband) gave me a skydive present for my 50th Birthday and I did the same for him. We have been waiting a few months for this to happen, the thing with doing things in the sky is that the weather affects it, and so we had already had three disappointing postponements. 

 

THE day, Sunday 11th May 2025, this was the day, although we weren't sure even then that it would actually happen.

We got to Dunkeswell early on Sunday morning ready for an 8am check in. There were a few skydivers and novices like us kicking about, nervous-excited, lots of visits to the toilet! On one of these visits I got talking to a lovely lady, it was her Birthday that day and her first skydive, she was 70 years old! What a legend of a lady! Her family were there to watch her, the most brave and outstanding lady I have met in a long time. She said to me that her friends had been saying that she was silly to do it, and I could tell that she felt bad about what they thought, until I explained to her that they were really just jealous that she had the balls to do it, and they didn't. Jealousy makes people horrible don't you think?

We waited, watched some go off and do their skydives, watching these dots re-appear from the sky and come back with super grins on their faces as they complete their challenge.

We also watched the wing-walking participants too, that looks like expensive fun! It's on the list if we win the lottery.

Then we were called to get suited up, lovely yellow suits! In the briefing we were told to 'be a banana' as we exited the plane, so why not make us look like bananas? I felt like Anneka Rice for a brief moment. Stop the clock!

We had just got the harness secured and we had an announcement that the plane had a puncture and so we would have to wait for it to be fixed until we could go up! Over an hour of pacing and watching and waiting, more people arrived for their challenge but we were at a standstill!

The plane was fixed, suits and harnesses back on, we were off!

I love flying, I wish I could do it more, I dream of having helicopter flying lessons, one day maybe? And so I was super excited to be in the plane. We were tightly crammed in like sardines and I was then attached to Lex, who was responsible for me that day, pulled in so he was like a big Lex-shaped rucksack, he went through the drill of what we were doing and when, we got higher and higher, almost ready to leave, and we were told that we wouldn't be jumping, the weather up there was too bad, we had to land.

Deflated is not a good enough word to describe how I felt, but obviously safety had to come first.

Down we went, super landing and we were left again to wait to see if the weather would change.

Another 40 minutes or so, Ryan ate a sandwich and a mars bar, I was running on empty at this point, it was nearly 2pm and I hadn't eaten and I was hungry. 

Then we heard, it was back on, rushing to get suited and harnessed again, back to the plane, up in the air, again........and this time it was ON!

We decided that I would be going before Ryan, I think to be honest I wanted to go first because I think I would have been nervous watching him go and me having to follow, deep down that was behind my thoughts I am sure. I sort of wanted to get it done, because although I did it, I was nervous, Ryan didn't appear to be, but I can say it now, I really was nervous about doing it, but I don't think that's a surprise eh? 15,000 foot is flipping high up!

So we scooted along the seat, got to the door, the air was freezing and fast, cloud and excitement, and then I made a banana of myself and we were out in the clouds.

I know, I've not made it sound that exciting, but I have been struggling to find the right words to describe exactly how I felt, they may come later, it was only 2 days ago, and I'm still trying to comprehend just what I've done to be honest. But it was breathtaking and beautiful, scary and wonderful, I didn't doubt Lex once, I felt completely safe in his hands and he made the whole experience totally brilliant.

The free-fall was absolutely the best bit and in the video if you can lip read you may think otherwise, but adrenaline turns me into a fishwife! As I said, no words, it was the best thing I had ever done as a challenge, and I've done a lot of them!

England is beautiful from the air, the patchwork of fields, the patterns and colours, from the air it's like another world, being in the sky is something I will never ever forget, its exhilarating, and then the free-fall was over, the parachute was up and Lex even let me have the controls for a bit! Time really slowed down there at that point, although the whole experience went too fast, the glide and gentle descent was magical, but, we were a bit off course and Lex took over, had to make a few fast spinney adjustments and suddenly I was nauseous! I always pride myself in never getting sea sick, car sick or fairground sick, but for the first time in my life the spins brought sickness! My fault entirely for not eating anything ahead of a massive adrenaline rush, well, in fact 3 because of the false starts, so I was running on empty!

We eventually got close to the ground, legs up in a seated position for landing and we gracefully slid across the grass to a stop, solid ground, that seemed to be spinning! 

Lex made sure I was okay, a few people laughed at me for feeling sick, Ryan had landed safely down and came to see me, I think he found it funny too! But seriously, the experience of a lifetime, one never to be forgotten, and yes, I would do it again, most definitely!

I thought that being in the air, looking down on the small world would make me feel somehow insignificant, that was how I had thought it would go anyway, turns out that it's quite the opposite. The privilege of seeing the earth from that high, 15,000 feet, that made me special, the fact that I had the balls to do it, that doesn't make me insignificant at all, quite the opposite, it's made me badass!

Being part of the team in that plane that day, the camaraderie of everyone skydiving, high fives, fist bumps, smiles, confident speak, wonderful ballsy people who all wanted to help you experience your best life that day, it's special. I feel special now, I've conquered something great, special, wonderful and brave, I'm not the insignificant person I thought I was before Sunday, it's made me feel like I can take on anything now. It did change my life, but not how I expected it to, quite the opposite.

I want to thank Ryan for being the bravest and most wonderful husband ever for doing this with me, and more challenges to come I am sure, thanks to Lex at Skydivebuzz for keeping me safe and happy, a true legend of a man, and thanks to the rest of the Skydivebuzz team for making our dreams come true, even around flat tyres and bad weather! And I want to thank my Mum too, for always believing in me.

What are you waiting for? Book yours now........you only live once!