After showering and mentally preparing himself for a 10:00 meet, he woke up Staggie who was his taxi for the morning. Staggie got dressed and drove Chino to the Airport for 10:00 before going to Eleanor's for lunch and the free sports updates on tv!
Chino checked in and had a briefing, surprisingly still with no nerves, he got to know some of the guys jumping with him. He met a Kiwi who was jumping with his American girlfriend as well as an Isralean. So a nice mix of people. Chino waited till 11:00 for his turn to jump, he got geared up before meeting his tandem skydiver (the bloke he will soon be harnessed to throughout the jump). With today's jump Chino went for the full package and bought a video of the jump too, so as well as the tandem skydiver he met his Cameraman who would film the whole jump, sticking pretty close to do so.Before he knew it, it was time to jump on the plane, was pretty cosy once in, there was the Kiwi with his Girlfriend, the Isralean and Chino, all with their tandem skydivers as well as two Cameramen. Chino was still buzzing and as the plane got to 13,000 feet, he watched the Kiwi and the American as they jumped out, what a weird sight it was!
Just a few minutes later and the plane was at 16,500 feet...Jump time for Chino and the Isralean. Both so up for it! Chino went first as he watched the Cameraman go out before him gripping onto the side of the plane to get a shot. The first step was to hang out the plane and to look up at the camera before the tandem skydiver jumps out, Chino couldn't believe what he was about to do. Seconds later and bam, the most incredible feeling I have ever experienced, any nerves that may have been there were shot out as I plummeted towards the ground at 200kph. The whole jump was around 70 seconds long yet it felt like so much longer during the skydive. It was amazing, I didn't know where to look, my first intentions were to scream out "HOLY S**T", yet I found watching the cameraman was pretty wicked too as I did this. Watching him drop down and come up closer to get some good shots, at one point I grabbed hold of his hand as we linked up for a few seconds. 
The parachute soon shot out, this became quite a short, painful nuisance around the groin area where the harness was strapped in tight (I'm sure most of you can imagine). The cameraman was left skydiving down a few thousand feet more so that he could get onto the ground earlier to record my landing. Throughout the slow decline thanks to the parachute, a sudden change from speeds of 200kph to a nice, calm gentle fall had taken some effect. I had to wipe away the dribble to one side of my face. ABSOLUTELY INSANE.
The skydive was always going to be the exciting part of the skydive but the parachute part was good giving me a chance to check out the amazing scenery of the whole South Island pretty much. The only problem I found was with my ears popping towards the end. A small price to pay for such an experience. I would reccommend anyone and everyone to do this if they can.Looking back at it all, it was over way too soon. The landing was a good one landing on my feet. I took one last glance at the camera before shaking the hand of my tandem skydiver. 16,500 feet skydive..DONE
Would I do another one? Anytime.
Chino x
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