Puffy

[FreeFlyFreaky 0]

***** PUFFY ******
Diana is to be first. She is at the door looking a little nervous. I know how she feels, neither she nor I wants to screw this up. I will be second and John will be third. John organized the dive and rode with the pilot to altitude discussing what we wanted to accomplish here. We’re at 14,000 feet and the last people on the plane. The tandems have all exited. The pilot, has graciously agreed to take us about three miles east of the drop zone and drop us near a huge cloud head.
Today these large Florida cumulus clouds look like huge wads of white cotton candy. Their tops are close to 11,000 feet and the bottoms extend down to 4,000 feet. They’re globular and fuzzy and quite beautiful to look at from above. They completely line Lake Okeechobee but immediately above the lake it is cloud free. The cool air rising from the lake disperses the clouds to hug just the edges of the lake. The locals call this area the cloud’s edge. Above us the sky is a crisp dark blue. To the east is the big lake and to our west we can see the coast of West Palm Beach. It looks like a green carpet of laced with fluffy white cushions all the way to the coast. The sun is shining brightly from above. It’s an absolutely beautiful day. We’re about to jump.
Normally, the jump run is just above the drop zone, we drop from an altitude of 13,500 feet, we free fall for about a minute, pull at 3,000 and float under canopy for a few minutes and land. That is a horrible over simplification and the skydivers that read this are probably cringing, but in 40 words or less you get the idea. Today we’ve decided to fly a few miles away from the drop zone, immediately pull our chutes upon exit (hop’n’pop) and ‘fly’ our canopies back to the landing area. The fun part is we get to literally ride next to the clouds.
I haven’t done a hop’n’pop since my A license jump. No big deal really. The idea this time is for us each to gain a little separation for safety but stay close enough that we can fly together about 100 to 300 feet between us. The trick is we each have different size canopies and weight ratios that can make the fall rates and speeds we generate widely disparate. John will be fastest, therefore in front, I will be faster than Diana so I go second, Diana will be flying behind me. The jump order is therefore Diana first, I go second and John last. After Diana jumps, she is to wait for my exit then pull her chute. I will do the same.
She goes. I am right at the door with my head out the door watching her fall away. I motion that I’m exiting. John stops me. I’m not leaving enough separation. Diana is 7 or 8 seconds into her fall before John signals me to exit. I leave. I look up at the plane, falling the entire way in a pull position with my right hand ready to pull when I see him leave. It seems an unusually long time. John leaves, I pull and have a very soft opening because I haven’t gathered that much speed yet. John pulls a second later and we’re now all three in the saddle. I look behind me and see Diana a few hundred feet back. John is close ahead.
It is so beautiful up here. I look around and I have a perfectly unobstructed view in 360 degrees. It’s so quiet your voice seems like it only travels for 10 feet before it is absorbed. It’s also very cold. I’m wearing only underwear beneath my jump suit. What is almost intolerably hot on the ground is not nearly adequate up here. Oh well, its for just a few minutes. I’m already feeling this dive is going to be so worth it. We’re still way above the clouds. I check my altimeter and see we’re at 12,000 feet.
John takes a sweeping turn to the left. I wait until I’m near where he began and initiate the same turn. Diana follows and we’re still together. I’m losing a little on John and start doing front riser turns to gain speed to keep up. John is riding his brakes to stay back. Diana is still safely close by. We’re doing pretty well all things considered.
We’re getting to ‘tree top level’ and John is picking our path through these giant sky monsters that are starting to surround us. We’re skirting the edge of this huge cloud and trying to follow its jagged periphery. What a total rip. John finds this hole that looks like the deformed eye of a hurricane and dives down two spin rotations before leveling off on a new edge. I follow suit. This is so totally cool. Diana follows behind and we’re now chasing the tail of whole new part of this cloud. We dance with the cloud’s casing, pulling left then right. I see John’s silhouette through the translucence of the vapors. We pop in and out of the cloud’s edge. We find another hole to dive through. This time four really hard spins to get down to John. We level off again and find a new glide path through the sun rays.
The lights and shadows and sun rays fill your vision in all directions. This is so totally beautiful it can’t be described. I’m flying a small piece of fabric, my very own synthetic feathers right through the clouds thinking of what all my ground-mortal friends are missing. As I fly around so totally elated I realize that when I get on the ground any attempt I make at conveying this experience to others is going to fall way short of the actual experience. I want so badly for everyone I know to be able to do this just once in their lives. As I fly I think to myself that I need to go purchase Jonathan Livingston Seagull and reread the part talks about conquering his fears so that he can soar through the clouds. Wow, if there was ever a greater payoff for getting past a such a little fear I don’t know what it is.
We’re close to 5,000 feet. I can now see the ground in almost all directions. We’re just about to leave the clouds and make the last approach to landing. I’m hooting and hollering trying to get John’s attention. I know he can’t hear me but it doesn’t matter, I just need to scream. Now is canopy play time. We’re doing spins left, spins right, anything to scratch off altitude and have a little fun in the process. I do 8 to 10 rotations in a wickedly hard spin. I can feel the centrifugal forces pulling my blood and muscles away from center. Whuffos have no idea what they’re missing.
I’m now close to 2,000 feet, what is normally the beginning of my canopy ride to the landing area. I see the Otter on the runway and watch the next load take off. I look back to see Diana safely on her way back.
We land in the empty landing area. Every sentence is now laced with the word ‘awesome’. Diana and I are especially thrilled with our first ‘puffy’ dive. I mention that this will be a memorable one. For Diana, this dive was her 98th, she did her 100th this same day got a pie in the face for it. Today, April 7, was also her 34th birthday. I know that she had a memorable day.
Whit Baker
Jumping with Diana Lowe and John Hobart
April 7, 2001

[MC208B 0]

good jump! My favorite jump at last years Lost Prairie boogie was the Sunset load on the last Saturday of the event. Hop n pop from about 14 grand. I was in the Skyvan leading two twin Otters, 72 jumpers out there on the cross country Glacier Nat'l Park to the east, Idaho mountains to the west, fuckin awesomes! Mike

[BarrettJ99 0]

Speaking of Lost Praire,
Anyone planning on going this summer?
-T1
C-30757

[skySue 0]

wow, thanks for sharing, sounds too fabulous for words.

[Deleted 0]

To all who have responded or written me personally, I want to thank you for the positive feedback. I hastily posted the essay without edits and Sangiro is graciously correcting the mistakes on the Feature Column as they're discovered.
For those of you who haven't done a cloud dive, do yourself a favor and do one. Once you do you will see why I was so inspired to write. It is truly AWESOME!
Again Thanks,
Whit

[Dirtsucks 0]

That was the coolest story! I remember riding the Cessna to altitude and just staring out the window at the huge towering cumulus and thinking how awesome it would be to go play out there around the clouds. I really loved what you said about conveying the experience to others. Even with my limited experience I’ve always wished I could put into words what I felt, but you just can’t. There has been so many things I’ve wanted to do, and you just added another to my list. Thanks!
Josh