Lessons in Skydiving: Facing Fears and Freefalling
By: Sydney Koetter
At the beginning of the year, I made a bucket list for myself of things I wanted to do in order to challenge myself and live life to the fullest. At the top of my bucket list for the year is skydiving. As a naturally fearful person, I’m not exactly sure what captivated me to skydive, but fears aside, I did, and I’m going to tell you if you should try skydiving too.
Before actually skydiving, I did some research on a good location. In Oklahoma, there are four skydiving locations. The one I chose is called Skydive Airtight and is located in Skiatook. It came highly recommended and had great reviews on safety. It was also conveniently located only 45 minutes from Jenks, much closer than the other skydiving locations in Oklahoma.
In the week leading up to skydiving, I tried not to think about it a lot, as the thought of it made me very nervous. As you can imagine, the weather conditions have a large impact on whether or not you can skydive. The first booking I made was canceled due to weather conditions, but luckily, they were able to quickly reschedule for only a few days later.
The actual experience of skydiving was very easy and did not feel stressful or nerve-racking. When I arrived, I filled out a waiver and watched a video explaining the contents of the waiver and safety information. After that, I went through a brief training and explanation of what the experience was going to be like and I was almost ready to dive!
After all of the training and information, I put on a harness, and we walked out to the plane. One of the most unexpected parts of this experience for me was the plane ride. Six people climbed into the plane and sat on the ground, squished inside the small space. The entry and exit point was covered by a roll-down door that they closed after we had hit about 1,000 feet.
After climbing to 10,000 feet, the plane stopped moving, and we were ready to go. My instructor and I were accompanied by 4 solo jumpers who jumped out before us. For me, watching the other people in the plane jump out before me was by far the scariest part of the entire experience.
Once they had all jumped, it was my turn. As I had expected, this was the time I was the most nervous throughout the entire experience. We moved to the edge of the plane, and more than anything, I was feeling shocked that I had signed myself up to jump out of a plane for fun.
My instructor Tippy and I seconds before diving out of the plane.
Seconds after the photo above, I was in freefall, traveling at approximately 120 MPH. The feeling of falling from the plane was nothing like I thought it would be. Naturally, I expected it to feel similar to a rollercoaster drop, but it was nothing like that. In freefall, I remember feeling relieved almost immediately because all of the fear was gone for me. This part was the most fun for me, and it felt very freeing to be in the open air and see so far out.
Photo taken of Tippy and I right after the parachute was released in the air.
After about 45 seconds of free-fall, the parachute was released, and our speed slowed down significantly and very quickly. This part of the skydiving experience was very cool and relaxing. The location we jumped from allowed views of the sun setting over Skiatook Lake as well as downtown Tulsa and the ORU campus.
A selfie of Tippy and I right after we landed.
After landing, I was surprised at how fast the entire experience went by, as well as shocked that I had just gone skydiving. Even now, this is an experience that simply didn’t feel real.
If there was anything I learned from doing this experience, it would be that sometimes our fears are bigger than the thing we are fearing. I spent significantly more time thinking about and fearing the skydive than I spent actually doing it. It sounds cliché, but so many times, we stand in our own way of getting where we want to go.
If you are in search of an adrenaline rush or maybe a perspective change, I would highly recommend you give skydiving a try. It was an eye-opening and unforgettable experience.
To learn more about the skydiving experience and see where I did my skydive, visit
