Today is the day that Antetokounmpo and I booked skydiving! We woke up early to get to Dillingham Airfield where SkyDive Hawaii is based. We booked with them prior to the trip (for an early booking discount) and had a preset jump time.
Skydiving
Upon arrival, we had to sign waivers and watch two safety videos. While watching skydiving safety videos are a must and I appreciate the focus on safety. It’s pretty amusing that the videos look like they were made in the 80’s and hadn’t been updated since. If this is a conscious choice, its a genius way to put people nervous about skydiving at ease. If not though… Update your videos guys!
After getting our details sorted and signing our lives away, we waited. And waited. Our scheduled flight time was 9:30 AM. The call to get “suited up” didn’t get come until 11 AM. I appreciate scheduling flights and skydiving jumps isn’t a science, so this isn’t a complaint. But, it’s an interesting experience having that time. You start the day eager and excited. As you drive towards the airport, see planes take off with small silhouettes of jumpers floating down to earth, anxiousness builds. “That’s going to be me soon!” you think. Then you park and see the grass field with jumpers gracefully landing accompanied by screams of elation. It reinforces the realness of what you’re about to do! Then as you make it through the paper work, you’re made to wait. And its a unique time to see others go ahead and tempering your own anxiousness, excitement, eagerness and fear. I remember checking with Antetokounmpo every now and then, and at one point she was excited, and another she was sleepy! Eventually our names appeared on the flight board!
Here we Go!
We were strapped into harnesses and met our tandem dive instructors. We also met our photographers who would be jumping with us to document the adventure. Soon after, we made the short walk across the field to the waiting plane, climbed the stairs and straddled one of two benches that run the length of the aircraft. Once everyone is loaded, the plane taxis and takes off right away. Within minutes, we’re in the air and climbing. It takes around 10 minutes for the plane to get to jumping altitude. From there one of the staff opens the door and all you see is clear blue sky, deep blue ocean, and the silhouette of another Hawaiian island on the horizon.
One of the things I love about flying is that you get to see the world from a different perspective. Normally this is through a small circular window as an airline passenger, but in this case the entire side of the plane is wide open and there is an unobstructed view of the islands and ocean below. Its a sight I won’t soon forget!
The Jump
Once we reached jumping altitude, there was only one thing left to do. “Luckily”, I was the last to board, meaning I was the first one out. My tandem instructor gave me one last thumbs up, which I confirmed back to him. After a few “shimmy’s” we were out of the plane and free falling. It’s pretty difficult to describe what it’s like to jump out of an airplane, and it truly is one of those experiences you can not easily recreate on the ground. All I can say is that the free fall portion is a HUGE rush, and went by too quickly! After my parachute deployed the gentle glide down to Earth is probably the best view of Hawaii you can get. I savoured every moment of this experience and honestly, wouldn’t be adverse to doing it again! A huge thank you to Ed and Molly of Skydive Hawaii for making this such an amazing and memorable experience!
After our skydiving adventure, Antetokounmpo, Lebron and I picked up Acai bowls at Island Vintage before heading home to meet up with the rest of our group.
By the time we got back to our AirBnB, Vino was the only one still there. FunkyCat and Cactoose had left to go on a hike and would join us for lunch. We rested a little after the adrenaline rush that was sky diving and then decided to head out for lunch.
Ted’s bakery
Our lunch destination was Ted’s Bakery. This is a spot that was recommended to a few of us by various people so we had to give it a try. We arrived just in time to link up with FunkyCat and Cactoose so we could all order and eat together. There is so much selection at Ted’s that I found it difficult to pick something. In the end I ordered Ted’s bento box and a Malasada (kind of like a Hawaiian donut). I went with the Bento box because it seemed to offer the most variety, with pork katsu, short ribs, spam, eggs and rice. In retrospect, it was probably the wrong choice. Not that any of it was bad. On the contrary everything was amazing! BUT there was just WAY TOO MUCH food and I ended up getting through half of it before having to call it quits and taking it to go.
Famers Market
Our next stop was the Haleiwa Farmer’s Market. Earlier in our trip we saw a sign advertising this market every Thursday. So we decided to drop by today (Thursday) to check it out. It was cool to check out the Waimea Valley visitors centre and the surrounding area along with the cool stands they set up for the farmer’s market. The park itself is quite nice and would be a great place to chill, if lying on the beach isn’t your thing.
Lanei Kei Turtles
From the Farmer’s Market we headed to Lanei Kei beach to see if we could spot any sea turtles. We read that this is a popular place for them to hang out, and wanted to check it out. Luckily, there were several chilling on the beach. We spent some time watching them, do nothing. Nonetheless its quite cool to see these amazing creatures, and also good to see that there are volunteers that rope off the area to ensure no one disturbs these endangered spices.
Halawei Town
Since we didn’t have solid plans for the evening, we decided to head into Halawei Town. We wanted to do a little shopping to see if there was anything of interest. While you have your collection of surf shops and apparel stores, none of us were really in shopping moods, so our next thought turned to dinner. Within Halawei town is a number of food trucks serving a myriad of different fares.
A few of us ended up at No 7 Japanese Food Truck. I ordered the Udon with Crispy Fried Chicken, which was delicious! It really hit the spot!
Sunset at the Beach
After dinner all of us wanted to heat out to the beach to catch the sunset. As we walked towards the beach, some of the lighting and views were breathtaking. I’ve had the opportunity to witness some pretty spectacular sunsets around the world, and I can safely say that Hawaii ranks up there with the best of them!
We spent a few hours here simply enjoying the quiet, seeing the tide come in and the sun drop below the horizon. It was a very nice and calm way to end the day after such an exhilarating beginning skydiving. Soon after sunset, we returned to our Airbnb. Tomorrow would be another day of adventure. While I jumped out of a plane today, a few of us would be swimming with the sharks tomorrow.