Vacations with my dad began like ritual; the ceremonial collecting of every brochure and pamphlet in sight and the eventual sacrifice of our down time by meticulous scheduling that filled every second of our trip with some or the other activity. Our trip to Cape Town, South Africa was no different. Seconds struggled by as I found myself, once again, waiting for my parents to finish talking to the tourist relations agent in our hotel. They had laid out every single brochure on the counter, and were asking for complete details on each attraction in the area. Knowing I had some time to play with, I started counting floor tiles until something caught my eye towards the back of the room. It was a poster of a lunatic, gleefully falling from an airplane. I got closer and read the caption, “Want the thrill of a life time? Skydive Mosel Bay! First Timers Welcome!” Against my better judgment, I turned to my dad and, pointing to the poster, begged him, “Hey Dad, I don’t care what else we do while we’re here, but I have to do this!” To my pleasant surprise he turned around and grinned, “Okay! As long as I get to go first. If I see you go first, I think I will lose my nerve.” We decided to go the next day. It took us forty minutes to drive out to a tiny airstrip in the outskirts of a city named Mosel Bay. The weather was fantastic when we arrived, with a cool breeze in the air that smelled so faintly of insanity. We were greeted warmly by a gentleman named Hank, a freefall tandem master, whom my dad had talked to the day before to schedule us for the freefall. Hank would be in charge of the freefall. “Welcome to Mosel Bay Gents,” Hank beckoned. As I had recently returned from a deployment to Afghanistan, Hank joked, “Y... ... middle of paper ... ... it open. Hank and I began gliding through the air. It took about ten minutes for us to complete the remaining five thousand feet. We touched down on the airfield very softly and were quickly met by my parents. For the rest of the vacation, my Dad and I could not stop talking about our experience. Every joke somehow ended up tying back into jumping out of an airplane. Skydiving was truly one of the most liberating and thrilling experiences of my life. It brought my Dad and I even closer as we shared the occasion and the emotional rollercoaster that it spawned. But the moral of the story is not the general ‘once in a lifetime’ must do activity to open your eyes. Its lesson is more practical and simple: In order to best enjoy a ten thousand foot freefall at one hundred and sixty miles an hour, make sure you wear your parachute! Works Cited Original Work
suspense of skydiving as you are hoisted 153 feet in the air then pull a ripcord that plunges you into a 50-feet free fall at 60 m.p.h. The atmosphere of Carowinds is very live
Surprisingly, our parents had beaten us to the top and we all stopped in awe, mesmerized by the great waterfall in front of us. My mouth felt like the Sahara desert. I vividly remember reaching for the chilling water bottle that hid underneath the tons of clothes stuffed in my father’s black backpack to quench my thirst. I took off my beaten down shoes and stinky socks covered in dirt from the trail and blood from the blisters on my feet and dove into the refreshing lake. After swimming through the lake for a few seconds, I abruptly jumped out of the freezing water. My toes turned into a blue that reminded me of the blueberry muffins from breakfast that morning. My body shivered as I exited the lake and threw on a warm towel over my shoulders. Gradually my body heat increased, escaping the risk of hypothermia. At that point, I just wanted to go home. My family and I gathered all our belongings and I dragged my energyless body into the large, gray shuttle. The shuttle smelled of sweat from previous passengers. It drove us down a rough, bumpy trail, causing my tall father to constantly slam his head on the roof of the car. After we finally got back to our hotel, we all let off a sigh of
I never predicted this beautiful trip ending up as a nightmare in my existence. I drove for approximately 40 minutes and my partner shared the driving for an additional 40 minutes. We were driving my friend mom’s brand new Toyota Camry XLE; one of the most comfortable cars I had ever been in. We enjoyed the elongated ride with new hit music, and air conditioning set to an exact temperature that met our necessities. On the way to the beach some doubts about going there started to circle around our minds, but the fact that we were about half way there made them a...
Dann Koeppel, non-fiction, “Taking a Fall” (2010); establishes that survival after free-falling from an airplane is possible and offers various tips and pieces of advice should once choose to do so. Koeppel uses scientifically-proven statistics to support his advice and furthermore illustrates specific survival stories to give credibility to his arguments. Koeppel’s purpose is to explain that survival from free-falling is possible in order to educate his audience on how to survive, as well as reassuring them that airplane accidents are not common events. Koeppel creates a confident and informed, yet humorous tone to explain pertinent survival information and quiet concerns of anxious travelers.
“Come on, guys,” I yelled at my family, which consists of my mom Madonna, my father John, and my two sisters Alissa and Kara, as I ran frantically across the jam-packed parking lot to the opening gate that led to a world of adventure. As wide as the world around, my eyes pierced at the doorway to a world of fun. Families, of all sizes, were enjoying all the possibilities of fun. Hearing laughter and frightening screams, warned me of the experience waiting for me within the doorway to everlasting amazement. The sweet baked smell of funnel cakes swarmed into the fresh morning air. Before I knew it, my family and I were ready to enter Valleyfair, an amusement park that offers summertime fun to the maximum.
The views were spectacular, and the speed much faster. I had a lot of fun soaring through the air, and judging from the screams and laughter, my fellow zippers were having a great time as well.
As we walked to our car, we realized just how much the day had taken out of us physically. We were both bruised and sore from our practice jumps into the gravel pit and very tired. But, at the same time, our souls felt warm and satisfied at discovering that we could overcome our fears and experience the joy and freedom of skydiving.
In hopes to get to the hotel quickly, we left the airport scared to death and hopped onto a h...
The instructors brought us to the airplane which was a KingAir plane. That airplane didn't have and independent seats like the civil aircrafts. We all had to sat very close to each other one by one. After fastening me tightly with him, Daniel give a pair of goggles. "you have to put it firmly on your face, otherwise it will be blow away by the super high speed caused by freefall.", He said. While the plane started to climb, I could feel that my heart was beating out. Daniel asked me some questions, and let me smile to the GoPro on his arm. That was for the video which they record the whole process. The only words I could say at that time were "yes, no". I was focusing on the people who jumped before me. They looked like they had been disappeared from this world. Finally, it was my turn to jump. Daniel pushed me to the opened door. The only thing I could see at that moment was the clouds looked like a big cozy bed. When I opened my eyes again, I had been out of the cabin door. After a few seconds of weightlessness, I had finally experienced the feeling of fly. I felt the unprecedented freedom, it seems that the entire sky belongs to me. The only thing in my view was the white, the blue, and the GoPro. Daniel released the parachute after we came under the clouds. A huge colorful parachute opened. I was able to see the green land and cars. Everything was so beautiful. He made us spin around in the air like playing in
...e became more and more overcome with suspense and anticipation. Before we plunged to the bottom, we noticed a kayak broken in two pieces. It had been caused by a collision with a boulder, at the bottom of the fall. We were scared to death, because we thought we would hit it and flip over. However, with the help of our fast-thinking and skillful guide, we were able to make it down the fall safely. All the action was over, so we let out a sigh of relief and allowed our nerves to relax.
Skydiving has been around since ancient Chinese times as a form of aerial stunts. Leonardo da Vinci and the Chinese are both credited for creating the parachute, but it was really in the 18th century when France both created it and used it by basically throwing themselves out of planes. Little did anyone know that skydiving would be one of the craziest sports today. Jumping out of a plane two and a half miles up into the sky would not be someone’s idea of a normal day. As bad as two and a half miles up in the sky is, try doing it traveling at a rate of one-hundred and sixty miles per hour with just a parachute to save you. To many people this would be a nightmare; but to some of us, it is the biggest thrill of our lives.
My favorite summer vacation was when my Father took me to Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida. It was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. What made it even more memorable was the fact that it was my very first time on an airplane. I cannot recall another time in my life when I experienced so much joy. That trip to Universal Studios was the first time my Father and I actually did something together, just the two of us and was something brought me close to my Father. In this essay I will tell you about my plane ride over there, what I did right when I got there, and about my time at Universal Studios.
We had to score 100% in order to pass the test. Everybody passed after taking the test at least twice. the minute I got on that plane I started shaking from fear ,then the plane starts rising slowly till suddenly I felt air hitting me in the face I looked and the doors started sliding slowly and a green lights goes on , everybody on the plane started jogging towards the door and they took me with them , I jumped ,I jumped from a plane 15000 ft high in the sky , the feeling was amazing the wind blowing every muscle in my face , and the power of the wind pressure holding me I the sky swimming in between the clouds and most exciting is seeing birds flying pass me ,the minute we started slowing down while landing , Althpugh it was fun ,exciting and heart beating but I will never think of doing it again in any place else besides Dubai, the stunning view of the palm island and the water passing between the island leafs was so gorgeous that it is carved in my memory till this day and I am imagining it in front of my eyes the while I am typing this memoir essay.
Taking that flight was nothing like the flights I’ve taken before. I had just recently celebrated my fourteenth birthday a week before being told that we were taking a trip. My dad wanted to surprise me for keeping up good grades in school. With my father working in the military and knowing a lot about other countries, I couldn’t have asked for a better gift. Went
is not just a free fall and a parachute ride, but an extreme thrill of