The alarm went off at 5.00am Sunday 4th September I opted for just the beep incase by coincidence I was woken by Tom Petty blasting out “Free Falling” or anything similar. My first reaction was not fear of what the day had in store but regret at attending another charity event only a few hours before and not sticking to water as decided. A quick shower and into my attempt at a fancy dress costume (Bananaman Boxers) I was heading down to Northampton to do my first ever Skydive with Caudwell Children.
A few coffees later as well as walking around in the rain I was feeling much more awake but at this point I was in a mental battle with my Met Office app as the weather was looking dreadful and from research it seemed that a simple gust of wind stopped these jumps let alone torrential rain! I must admit rain hitting my face at 125 mph didn’t sound like Sunday morning fun to me.
We were actually one of the first people there and all signed in started watching other jumper’s videos. At this point I was very relaxed possibly because I thought that there was bop hope I was jumping today. At 10.00 we were lead through an induction by our friend Dave who would become my best friend later and get closer to me than any man ever has! After our comical, light heart yet very professional induction I was actually ready to jump!
What I didn’t know was while locked away getting our induction the weather had turned. Suddenly over the tannoy I heard a crackling announcement that the first jumpers would be going up in 15 minutes and then I heard my name called!
Flash backs of the fear of being called into the headmaster office as a child then a bellowing voice from the room called “who’s Hubbard then??” That right my tandem guy was Dave! And the jokes that ‘This was his second week here” ‘That he was late this morning so just stuffed his parachute into his bag” were funny when told to the group but not so much now he had my life in his hands!! But before I could ask questions I was in all the gear and heading to the plane. As we walked to the plane Dave said “Matt mate we are going first today just so you know, it’s a bit doggy up their and I am the most disposable member of staff” I wont minute my response!!
So we began the climb to 12,00 feet and to be honest once over the clouds it was beautiful, before really I could think about it I was strapped to Dave so close you could slide a piece of paper between us and in a heart beat I was flying through the air at about 125 mph. Your mind tries to absorb the information as quick as possible but it is tough! You can’t hear anything until you get a tab and the shoot (thankfully) flies open.
At that point you can hear again. I hear Dave telling me that we have got to get down quickly as we are the first. Not really sure what that meant until I realised that to achieve this instead of nice wide circles while parachuting we had to do extremely tight ones. The best description is if you have ever popped a penny in the circle dome collection potsat supermarket the coin circles slow and wide to begin with, then before it drops is going so fast you can see it! I was the latter.
Once on the ground to say I felt slightly ropy would be an understatement. As everyone else high-fived I was nearly falling over. I spent the next hour trying to hold myself together. After lots of fresh air, my ears popping and an amusing chat with my very emotional mother I was feeling good again. I then had the most enjoyable part of the day as I met all the children and families that I was raising money for.
Due to the adrenalin and (hangover) I was in full big kid mode and spent hours just messing about and even managed to teach a couple of the children how to play their hands as a flute (which is a very tough skill)
At about 4.00pm unfortunately it was time to go but we most definitely had fun, as three of the children wouldn’t leave the car I was in and wanted to come home with me. As the cars rolled away and I could hear high pitched (slightly annoying) hand noises and knew I had made some new friends, alas I maybe wasn’t the parents favorite for teaching the new trick but hey you cant please everyone.
If you would still like to sponsor me www.justgiving.com/Matthew-Hubbard2 or email me m.hubbard@reelsinmotion.co.uk. Anyone for Base Jumping??
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