ChoJin’s Quarter

So… It’s saturday afternoon, the weather is f*cking gorgeous (ok… that’s not so unusual in California…), no cloud in the sky, and this is the first weekend for a long time you don’t have anything you have to do. No film to shoot and no super-duper urgent thing to do at work. In other words you’re pretty much free for the weekend. What can you do?
Watching a movie at home? Hell no!
Cooking some french pastries (another hobby of mine)? Hell no!
Cleaning the house? Hell no! (are you nuts or what?)
A big BBQ with friend around a nice pool? Going hicking in the montain…? Better but Hell no!

You go skydiving of course!

As a lot of people, it was on my todo-list. You know, this list of stuff you would like to do but you end up never doing for various reasons? And when the time comes, your sunset almost over, you contemplate this list with some bitterness remembering how you used to be, how “alive” you used to be. Yeah I know, I’m a little bit melodramatic

Well… I’m currently trying to clean this list a little bit. So here we are, at Byron, CA, where my friend Samuel, who has his skydiving license, is always jumping.

(click on the image to see a higher resolution of the image)

Soon Malik, Chri, her sister and sister’s boyfriend (Cecile and Alain if I recall correctly) join us. Malik doesn’t want to jump anymore, but Alain is all in!

Let’s go now…

It was very tight in the plane… but I’ve been told this plane was very luxury… Mmm… Okay…

Ok, time to jump now!

Well… Maybe it was not such a good idea after all…

What was my line for the role? Oh… yes…

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

During the free fall:

And… it’s time to open the parachute…

Ouch, I think I won’t be able to procreate anymore

And finally the landing

What a day…

So… how was it?
Well… really fun of course, but if you are wondering how bad/sickening it feels… it was not that bad. I was expecting something more brutal for the jump and the free fall. When you jump it’s a lot more pleasant that these roller coaster with a tall tour which is supposed to simulate a free fall. On these roller coaster you really feel your stomach going up and down, which is not very pleasant, whereas when you jump out of the plane you don’t feel that at all, it’s pretty much OK. And during the free fall, I was expecting more wind, but it actually feels like you just took your head out of your car’s window on the freeway. Overall, I felt more “sick/dizzy” (without really being sick, just felt “strange”) after the parachute was opened when she was making sharp turns to have fun.

So a very pleasant experience, I’m now wondering whether or not I should pass my skydiving license

And finally… The video!

And if you want to see more photo, just click on the following link: Skydiving gallery

That’s it!