"Skydiving huh?"  "Mmmm..... OK!" That was my response to my buddy Darrell when confronted with the idea over eight years ago. I didn't even know there was a dropzone (Oklahoma Skydiving Center) in my small hometown, Cushing OK - a whopping population of 7,218. We kicked the idea around for years after that, never being able to conjure up the logic of paying so much for a three to four minute ride (pathetic huh?). We were both pretty crazy, & we loved anything to do with the extreme. So, there was no doubt that we'd love every consumable second of the jump!

Well, before we ever got a chance to choke back the cash & make that first jump Darrell moved away, then I graduated college & moved away myself, and we never took the plunge. "For the love of God, I grew up 3 minutes from a dropzone & never jumped!" I only moved about 75 miles away so the drive back home wasn't bad, so I made my way back down to Cushing quite often. Still keeping the notion of jumping in the back of my mind but still not acting on it. However, over the past year or so, I found myself really regretting not having tried it, at least once, "but who would go with me" ...all my other friends were wholehearted WHUFFOS. Then it started to get really bad, I would drive out to the dropzone & sit just beyond the fence watching the canopies gently make their way to the ground, still wondering what it must feel like..... and wondering why the cool looking canopies were so much faster than the big yellow ones. In about November of 99' I met the most incredible woman, she was beautiful, smart, fun, and best of all.... she was crazy as hell! :o) One day we began discussing this torrid desire of mine, and what do ya' know??? She's been wanting to try it too! In fact she had just cancelled an appointment, at a DZ in Kingman KS, for her first jump course. I told her about the skydiving center in Cushing, and she nearly flipped, "so when are we going!" I laughed and said that I'd make us an appointment sometime, so I set up our first jump course for March 18th..... she just said, "I'll believe it when I see it!" Like she didn't believe me or something.

Skydiving stuff.....

Well, after an excruciating wait of about 3 weeks, the day was finally here! we showed up at the DZ at about 9:00 am, it was overcast & drizzling. When we finally got into the classroom we were asked what method of jump we wanted to do. "WHAT! We have options?" I was pretty ignorant at this point, I thought all first jumps had to be tandem. Mike (the owner) explained the options to us, and since there was two of us we chose the cheaper route - IAD. He handed us a packet of legal material, which included a complementary key-chain & bumper-sticker (WoooHoo! LOL). We spent the next 15 minutes signing our lives away.... literally! We spent the next 5 or 6 hours learning all kinds of foreign concepts, "ARCH THOUSAND, 2000, 3000, 4000, 5000, CHECK," and "ARCH, LOOK, REACH, GRAB, PULL RIGHT, PULL LEFT." We learned about the winds, airspeed, ground speed, good canopies, & bad canopies. Then we went out to the plane to practice our exits, "put your feet out, climb out & hang!" "Uh, excuse me, what did you say? I have to leisurely climb out on to that tiny platform, & hang - HANG - from this plane at over 3,500 ft?....well OK, hold my sign!" Then we were strapped into some parachute harnesses that were suspended from the ceiling, and they took us through our emergency procedures once again. After we had completed all our ground training, we waited around for about an hour & a half for the clouds to clear, we knew there wasn't really any chance, so we went to my mom's house & spent one more sleepless night praying that it would be clear Sunday. Sunday came, and what do ya' know, not a cloud in the sky.... hop in the car & drive like hell! Once we arrived at the DZ we had to wait for about another hour for a jumpmaster to get there - it was March madness, everyone was home watching the games.

Our JM (Dave) arrived, took us into the equipment room, picked out a couple rigs, and began to gear us up. After we were checked, then re-checked, & then checked again, we were ready to go. We walked out of the hanger to be greeted by our 1st jump-ship.... a little old C-182 that I was literally scared of, now - that plane gets more & more beautiful every time I see it! As we taxied out to the runway I know my face must have been pale white, "what if I forget something? What if I slip off that little step?" and the ever famous, "what if my chute doesn't open?" No problem, that's why I have a reserve. I can feel my heart pounding deep in my chest as the plane throttles up the runway. I watch as the oil tanks to our right turn into quarters, and soon we're coming around to pick up altitude. At this point I've actually managed to calm down a little, I look over at Pam and give her an uneasy smile, squeeze her hand, and simply say, "be careful - I love you!" I sit back and begin to go over everything in my head, "arch thousand, two thousand.... check!" I must have touched my cut-away & reserve handles a hundred times. One more turn & we were on the wind line, "what's a wind line?" Dave yells right in the pilots face.... "DOOR!!" He turns the handle & the door, the one I'm sitting two inches from, swings open. A rush of wind enters the fuselage, and my heart bails before I even get a chance to. I try my hardest to choke this lump in my throat down.... and to NOT look out the door! Dave is hanging his head half-way out the plane looking at the ground, he pops back in & tells the pilot to hit his flaps. He then looks at me, smiles, and says, "put your feet out and stop!" I stick my feet out the door & they're immediately blown off the platform, I didn't expect the wind to be so strong. I quickly get my feet stable, turn to Dave, and ask him if he has turned my radio on, he then shows me my pilot-chute, I nod, and he says, "now climb out and hang!" Back to the whole 'hanging' thing again. So, I turn my feet & climb out, Inch my way out to the end of the strut & let my feet drop off the platform. "Hey wait a minute, this ain't' so bad..... this ain't' bad at all!" The wind was quiet & fairly gentle out past the prop blast. I look over my shoulder at Dave & he's right in my face, he yells, "ARE YOU READY?" I know I probably look terrified, but I manage to nod my head anyway. "GO!" I let go, and throw my arms & legs back into a very exaggerated arch. As soon as I let go of the strut Dave said that look of terror instantly turned into sheer joy, and a big smile came sweeping across my face! Then, "Oh crap, COUNT!.... Uhh, ..... CHECK!" Well I blew that part, but no big deal. I watch this mushroom sniveling out into a perfectly square canopy. A voice comes over the radio, "OK Merrick, do your SOP's." So I pump the toggles down to my chest four times, do a right 360, then a left 360, and then one big flare. Everything seems to be in working order. The voice tells me to do some turns, then simply says, "Have fun for a little while!" I look down at the quarters (now dimes) below me, at the horizon, the few clouds in the sky, I notice that it's peaceful up here, the flapping of my slider being the only sound I can hear. Complete serenity, What's this? I'd found it!!! I'd found my hiding place, that one place you can go to get away from it all, the place to take all your worries & inhibitions and turn them into utter tranquility. I floated there for a while longer, loving every moment, & taking in every inch of that wonderful blue sky.... then, I buried the right toggle to my hip. The canopy dove into a right turn, & I held it there. It spun slowly at first, but then started going faster & faster & faster.... I stopped when my feet literally began hurting from the blood rushing toward them, "OK Merrick remember, no fast turns below 1,500." "Doh! Oh yeah, almost forgot about that." Since I was at about 2,000 ft I eased it back a little & just played with the risers a bit. Then the voice came back, "OK Merrick, I want you to turn right, right, right.... let it fly." He talked me through my downwind, my base leg, & into my final approach. I turned into the wind getting ready for my landing, "relax, let it fly, put your feet together..... noooow, flare!" I slowly pulled the toggles to my knees, the brakes came on & softly placed me on my feet back on the ground. I couldn't believe it, I'd done it, I just did my first skydive. "Wait, what'd I just do.... crap, I can't remember anything!" and then the sensory overload set in. I daisy-chained my suspension lines & gathered up my canopy (the big yellow slow one), then watched Pam come in for her landing. I casually walked over to her & we walked back up to the hanger together... Walking, seeming such an unnatural phenomenon now... now that I've tasted flight, and will soon return to this torrid desire that's now, within just a few minutes, transformed into a complex love affair!!!