Indoor Skydiving

I was a small child, I wished that I could fly, just like so many other people. I watched a documentary of flamingos once and found myself wishing that I could be just like that flamingo. Just fly wherever I wanted to go. As a got older I learned that humans can not fly as we don’t When have the bone structure for it anyway. The natural way that is! There are many other ways that humans play, every day. From hot air ballooning, aerobatic planes, helicopters, gliders, and passenger planes. Those are some of the many ways in which people fly, daily. There is one way that I have flown that not too many people have, and that is through wind tunneling (indoor skydiving).

A few years ago, my husband got me one of the best Christmas gifts that I have ever received, and that was a Groupon deal for two people to go to our local (Las Vegas) indoor skydiving facility. He had even scheduled our reservations for it to be on our anniversary, which is the day right before Valentines Day. I spent the next two months looking so forward to it. Finally, the day had arrived. My husband took me out to dinner first at a nice Italian restaurant on the Las Vegas strip. I was so looking forward to getting to be going wind tunneling though, that I had a hard time touching my food. We eventually finished dinner and headed straight over to the facility.

When we got there, we had to fill out our waivers and sign more paperwork, of course. Then watch a safety video. Then watch a video on the history of wind tunneling. Then we had to put our safety gear on. Eventually, we made it into the tunnel area, where we met our instructors. They went over all procedures that needed to be followed and all the things that needed to be avoided. Finally, time for me to go in the tunnel. When I stepped inside, the air came on quickly after, and my instructor helped lift me up in the air. At that moment I felt so free. I felt the way I had imaged those flamingos had felt, when they opened their wings and flew. Just being up in the air and looking down at the people who are still on the ground is a truly remarkable experience. I was just flying around in that wind tunnel for a few minutes. Nothing else mattered! Soon, it was time to come back down and let my husband take his turn, so the air started slowing down, and then down some more. Soon, it was all over. At least for that trip anyway.

I wanted to experience that again that I went back, just myself the following week, one day after work. Then I went again a time after that. I enjoyed it so much and wanted to see if others felt the same way I did, so I invited a friend of mine to go with me one day after work. To my surprise, she did enjoy it, and was grateful to me that I had invited her.

That was when I realized how fun it would be to get to do that all the time with a group of people. So, I did some research and found out that there is an actual wind tunnel organization. It is called International Body flight Association. That is a group where you can join online and get access to everything there is to know about wind tunneling, track your body flight times, and learn about competitions all over the world. That would be a dream come true. To get goon enough, where I can compete in actual competitions. The thing that I like about wind tunneling is,age, is not an issue, like there is in so many other sports. They have had competitors as young as fourteen, to people in their sixties compete, and it really is a remarkable experience.

If you are someone that has never tried wind tunneling, then you should try it. At least once in your life. You never know! That could make you see things differently being up in the air, the same way it did me. It might also make you decide that some people should just keep their feet on the ground. It is an experience that I think a person should experience at some point though, as it is very wonderful.