July 5th, 2010 | 6 comments | Skydiving

If you’re reading this through RSS or on the actual website, then you’re probably the half of my audience that hasn’t ever jumped out of a plane. Or if you have, maybe once or twice. If you’re reading this through Facebook (namely the Freefall University page) then you probably have. That being said, my fourth jump on Saturday was one of, if not the most important jumps of my life.

To skydivers, this post will resonate because they’ll remember their first cutaway, their first thoughts after said cutaway, or, if they haven’t had to chop their main canopy yet, they know someone who has, and can relate to it that way. To my colleagues, professional contacts, friends and family members, this will likely terrify you. Do not be alarmed. I’m alive (obviously). All is well. I’m trained on how to handle these things.

For the sake of semantics, this weekend I almost died. I had a parachute malfunction and had to rely on my reserve parachute to save my life.

But in all actuality, I didn’t. This is where the semantics and audience thing kicks in. To all of my non-skydiving friends, yes, quite literally, I almost died. To my skydiving friends, I chopped, I lived, now I need to buy beer.

I mean, I could have died, yes, but I didn’t. I didn’t die because I knew exactly what to do. I didn’t die because I paid attention during ground school. I didn’t die because my instructors are fantastic. I didn’t die because I’m not an asshole in the sky. I didn’t die because I always have my ears and eyes open and my head on a swivel, both on the ground and in the sky. I didn’t die because there are three people who come to mind as being credited with me not dying, besides myself for pulling the proper cables in the proper order.

I owe way more than a case of beer to my AFF instructors Barry and Chris and to the man that packed my reserve parachute, Eric. Beer, no matter how delicious (Half Acre) or how cheap (PBR), doesn’t even start to cover how thankful I am that I have those three men in my life in whatever capacity they are in it. But beer is the tradition, so that’s fine. There are tons of other people who have been instrumental in my training and success so far in skydiving, but when it comes down to life or death situations and how to get out of them alive, these three come to mind. I’ll spare you the gushing about each of them individually because I already have done so to their faces, but, guys, seriously – thanks a million.

I didn’t (and don’t) want to dwell on this too much because at the end of the day, I’m alive, I’m well, and honestly, totally fine with what happened. To my non-skydiving buddies, you can all officially think I’m crazy now. I know it was up in the air before, but go ahead and coin me as nuts.

Here’s the thing: at the DZ, this doesn’t seem like that big of a deal in comparison to some other malfunctions that have happened. I chopped at a relatively high altitude, giving me plenty of time to make it back safely to the drop zone. I was only spinning for a couple of seconds before I deployed my reserve. I knew EXACTLY what to do, which was calming, and I had 1,500 feet of reserve ride down to take deep breaths and realize that everything was indeed okay.

What’s more? I couldn’t wait to get back up in the air. I took an hour-long break, called my folks, explained what happened and that I was okay, took a nap in my car away from the heat and noise of the DZ and then got back up and did it again. I knew that my malfunction was a packing error, I knew what I did right and wrong on that jump, and I was eager to get up again and prove to myself that sometimes shit happens. And I did. And it does.

My key takeaway? There is always a solution. That, and I highly doubt I’ll be freaking out about the small stuff anytime soon. High five to skydiving for calming me down.

So here’s the video. At 1:10 you can see me start to spin. At 1:15 you hear Matt, my instructor, yell “CHOP IT” because he sees that I have a malfunction. The remainder of the video is Matt landing out so he can grab my main canopy. Thanks Matt!