Skydiving in Umeå, now I know why birds are singing

In Umeå, Sweden, I have experienced the ultimate feeling of freedom during skydiving with Johan. For all the doubters: just do it, no thinking, just go! That’s how I did it, in this article I tell you how I’ve experienced it…

Johan, the most enthusiastic jumper ever

Honestly, I could not have asked for a nicer tandem. What an awesome person, that Johan. He is full of enthusiasm. When we arrived he gave us a big hug and was already very excited to jump: “are you as excited as I am?! He asked me. To be honest: I was kind of nervous, but his smile helped a lot. So he and his team quickly lifted me in a sky suit with a nice hat.

The atmosphere at the club was delightful, it felt like coming home. Everyone is so friendly and super (!) enthusiastic. They are there because they want to, it’s on a voluntary basis. So they speak about “the club” (Umeå Fallskärmsklubb), not an organisation.

Then all of a sudden, you jump out of a freaking plane!

There I was, in the airplane, checking the height on Johan’s “watch”. 1000 meters, 2000 meters, 2500 meters, the tension also went higher and higher… Suddenly, everyone gave each other a special handshake. The handshake meant: “have a nice jump, I’ll see you when you land”. Even though it was just a handshake, it made me feel really connected with the others.

3025 meters, time to jump! Suddenly I am sitting in the (kind of unnatural) position to get out of the plane. It all happened very fast and before I knew it, we were falling down with 192 km/h. A really heavy moment, I mean dude, you jump out of a freaking plane!

Nevertheless, the feeling in my stomach was more okay and shorter than I expected it to be. Rollercoasters are worse… After a great free fall of 36 seconds the parachute pops out.

“Now you know why the birds sing”

No, the view is not comparable to that of a plane window. This is serious about ten times better than that! I saw Finland and at a given moment I got the parachute in my own hands to turn towards what I wanted to see.

The feeling in the sky, in the parachute, was fantastic… I took the safety glasses off and I’ve never felt any closer to the ultimate feeling of freedom. I’m a real planner with always some stress inside of me, but this was one of the few moments that I could really let go of everything. No stress, no thoughts, no worries, only to enjoy. As Johan said: “Now you know why the birds sing”.