Have you ever considered skydiving?

Usually when we go travelling, we go in order to see a new place, encounter a new culture and simply to explore the destination. From time to time we even go somewhere just to lay down on that beautiful sand beach to relax – far away from our everyday life.

However, once in a while we also find ourselves doing something completely crazy or that’s at least what I do.

As you might have guess already, I once was brave enough to overcome my fear of heights – I went skydiving. One day, before my trip to Mauritius, I just thought “Well, why not?! Let’s do it.”

How did I come up with the idea?

Before I go on holiday I always do plenty of research about the destination and as for many others, GOOGLE sure is my best friend during this research. So I asked my friend what one should do while staying in Mauritius and I got plenty of good advice, among these “SkyDive Austral Mauritius”. First I thought “Naaah, that’s definitely not something we’re gonna do. Not gonna read that one!”. However, this headline was stuck in my head and I had to go back and read it and so I did.

The comments were many but generally everyone was thrilled with this one experience as the view from above should be absolutely amazing so I suggested it to my friend who luckily enough was hooked on the idea. The next thing we were doing was doing some research on skydiving – I had to look for all the statistics about accidents and read plenty about security. By doing so I actually got very comfortable with the thought of skydiving as I found out that there are not many accidents (I always confront myself that the chance of being involved in a car accident is much higher than anything else as these unfortunately occur on daily basis).

… and then the big day came

We had stayed in Mauritius for about a week were we had spend some time on exploring the island and relaxing on the beach. And then came the day. Our taxi came to pick us up at the hotel and we had a one hour drive ahead of us and sure we did have butterflies going all crazy in our tummies but we were also very excited.

When we came to the skydiving school we were introduced to the most awesome instructors! Hereafter, we had to sign the waiver stating that:

I know and understand the scope, nature, and extent of the risks involved in the activities covered by this Agreement. I understand these risks include, but are not limited to: equipment malfunction and/or failure to function; defective and/or negligent design and/or manufacture of equipment; improper and/or negligent parachute packing and/or
assembly; improper and/or negligent operation and/or use of the equipment; aircraft malfunction and/or negligent aircraft operation; carelessness and/or negligent instruction and/or supervision. I voluntarily, freely and expressly choose to incur all risks associated with the activities covered by this Agreement, understanding that those risks may include personal injury, damage to property, and/or death.

Signing a paper like this always makes you a bit more nervous and to some point it makes you rethink but I’m that kind of person who accomplishes what I have set out to do, so there were no way back.

Next step: getting dressed up

and then take off!