Skydiving on her 21st birthday was just what my eldest stepdaughter Shana did on the 14th of May 2008, treating herself to the coolest birthday present ever! That dream of human flight temporarily realized! What a rush that must have been for her! As she put it in the end of the video, "that was the most amazing experience of my life!" If that were me, I don't think you would have been able to get me out those airplane doors, as there is absolutely no way I am going to be jumping out of any perfectly good working airplane, now that I'm in my 40's, not to mention the fact that I've got this thing about heights. 
The company that Shana went tandem skydiving with is called Atlanta Skydiving Center. The ASC crew filmed the following footage which shows her being interviewed prior to take off and it follows all the way through the take off, the nerve racking ascent and final preparation, the jump out of the airplane itself, the free fall for a ways till the shoot is pulled open at which point the camera man takes it from there down to the ground where he quickly prepares to capture Shana's safe and very smooth landing back on solid ground. The 2 music tracks used in the video are Pearl Jam - "Alive"
This particular video arrived by mail the other day, addressed to my husband, Shana's father, and the minute he realized that his eldest daughter's 21st birthday skydive jump was on the disc, it immediately got played and shared with the family. He was quite excited and proud, as he shared the video over and over.
Here is the 5 minute skydive video:
If you are interested in doing a tandem jump or are wanting to get the perfect awesome gift for that someone special, you should check out this Ultimate Tandem Skydive Aadventure Gift Package from Buyagift.co.uk.
Here are a couple of awesome examples of what customers from Buyagift.co.uk had to say about their tandem jump:
"I got this for my 50th birthday and it was bloody brilliant! The instructors were all very good and made me feel incredibly safe. It was all so interesting, not one dull moment. The dive was amazing, as soon as I hit the ground I wanted to do it again! I'm going to do the 2 day parachute course next, I can't wait!"
"I got this for my 21st birthday after seeing how much my Mum enjoyed it. I absolutely loved it! I'm deaf and found the staff to be incredibly helpful and considerate. They expelained everything very well. I would definitely do this again and I think everyone should give it a go."
It takes a lot of training before you are allowed to jump from 13,000 feet, however if you are strapped to a pro skydiver, like my step daughter Shana did just a few weeks ago, you don't need any sky diving experience and after just a 30 minute briefing before you jump, you're on your way to one of the most amazing experiences of your life.
My husband has already warned me that he might just have to give it a go now that his eldest daughter has done it. One thing you can be sure of though, is that I will NOT be doing this, unless my husbands begging and pleading gets the better of me.... wow I think I must be coming down with something, anyone else just get a rush of nausea overcome them???
Keep watching this space!
Katrina
