A Lesson in Flying

Or maybe it should be a lesson in falling.  I suppose it depends on how you look at it. 

I had the opportunity to try the indoor skydiving place in OKC, iFly, and it was so much fun!!! A friend of mine took me up there on New Year’s Eve and I got to try my hand at skydiving for the first time.  I honestly expected to be a little underwhelmed with the whole thing, but I wasn’t! You have to arrive an hour before your actual skydiving time, which I think is mostly so you can watch the other groups and pay more money.  However, it was incredibly entertaining to watch the other groups, especially the little kids.  It was like watching swim lessons in a lot of ways, especially with the way that they flail around, practically kicking the instructors in the back of the head every five seconds. 

Anyway, after watching the other people fly for half an hour, we went through a short little video “training” session, which teaches the proper form for skydiving and the hand signals that the instructors use in the tunnel since they can’t exactly talk. Next, we got dressed in our “flight suits,” complete with earplugs, helmets, and some awesome goggles. And then we stood around some more.  Honestly, I think they make time so that you can watch all the fun things you can do if you spend more money.  However, once we were finally allowed into the seating area inside the tunnel, it was great. 

I went into the tunnel with a trust fall, quite literally.  You put your hands up and then just fall forward so the instructor can catch you and kind of balance you while you adjust to hovering over the ground/giant fan. Once I adjusted to the weightlessness and balancing, it was actually a lot like swimming! It was rather difficult since I had to keep my hips forward, my legs out and spread, but not too straight or too bent, and my arms out and slightly bent as well.  And I had to keep my head up because if you put it down, you start going up higher since there’s more surface area for the wind.  Anyway, during my few turns, I had an incredible time! Once I kind of got the hang of it, the instructor had me doing turns and moving back and forth across the tunnel, which I wasn't fantastic at, but at least I tried! And had a blast doing it!

While the whole thing is rather pricey to do, I would definitely recommend doing it at least once. If you have ever wished that you could fly or have ever wanted to go skydiving without the threat of smashing into the ground, you should definitely try some indoor skydiving!