The fear of heights, the fear of speed, and the fear of not being in control. Sounds like a perfect combination for a skydiving experience! Well it was exactly the reason I decided to go. I wanted to overcome my fears.

I met a woman, who on her 50th birthday, got a tattoo to signify her 5-year cancer free post undergoing surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy for breast cancer. She also happened to go skydiving on this day with her 30 year old son. She exclaimed that it was the most incredible experience. She became fearless. She felt free from all the fear that had clouded her life for over 6 years since her cancer diagnosis.

She described her experience clearly. She felt completely weightless, in zen, during free-fall. Falling at terminal velocity, there was no way for your mind and body to gage how fast you are falling, or even that you are falling at all. However, it was extremely windy which made her feel self-conscious about her aged skin flapping in this giant wind turbine. Big note: Think about how much you really want a video of yourself skydiving before you spent the extra cash. That was one video-graphic evidence that she could have easily lived without.

So during my adventures in Africa, I found myself in Swakopmund, Namibia on New Years Eve 2011. Swakopmund is a well-known skydiving spot, and undoubtedly, NYE is always a great day to mark a first experience, hopefully an unregrettable one, unlike other common disinhibited NYE experiences. I got myself mentally ready. We booked our tandem jump last minute with GroundRushAdventures, and ended up being the last to jump on NYE. I found going up in the plane the hardest part.

The ground seems so far already at just 1,000 feet and we still had another 9,000 feet to climb.

I coughed.

Apparently, coughing is a common occurrence when the body notices the reduction in atmospheric pressure and drop in oxygen concentration. Who knew? But this sets off a sequence of events which made the climbing fear far in the back of my mind.

One of the instructors begins a mime. He attempts to roll, what we all suspect to be an imaginary joint. He lights it up, take a few puffs and passes it around. We all start acting as forgotten love-children of Bob Marley and partake in this imaginary joint. Though imaginary, this whole scenario actually relaxes all of us. The pilot cracks a joke by rejecting said imaginary joint, and begin his own mime, carving a line of what I suspect to be imaginary cocaine and inhales it in one big snort. Before I can even feel the fear of the pilot using both his hands to mime instead of piloting the plane, it is time to jump.

No arguments, you just give yourself a big hug and out you go.

The free-fall is exactly like being in a wind tunnel. Your stomach stays firmly in place for 30 seconds. You get over the wind and the fact that you are falling at terminal velocity and begin to enjoy the view. Seeing the Earth, so uninterrupted. Wow, she is really beautiful. Then your parachute opens and before you know it, your stomach is in your mouth. But another split second later, it’s sitting comfortably back in your body. You do a few manoeuvres, left to right. It feels like a mild roller-coaster. And you glide like this, slowly back down to planet Earth. And before you know it, you have taken your first skydive! High-fives and beers all round.