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Firestorm Went Skydiving With Me

Last week I went skydiving and Firestorm came with me! Skydiving is something I’ve wanted to do my whole life. Since I was turning 40, I figured now was a good time to scratch this off the bucket list!  My wonderful wife was kind enough to arrange this for my birthday!  Thank you, Gena!

We booked the event with Skydive Jacksonville. Several of my family members made the trip to help celebrate the occasion — or collect my remains if it went horribly wrong! Those making the trek included my wife, daughter, stepson, father, stepmother, sister, and brother-in-law.  It was so nice of them to travel just to see me jump!  I wore my Superman t-shirt for the occasion.  I considered wearing my Firestorm shirt, but if you are flying you gotta go with Superman, right?  I did carry a small Firestorm action figure in my pocket (the DC Universe Action League Firestorm, based upon the Brightest Day costume design), just so I could say Firestorm made the jump with me.  Check him out below!

DC Universe Action League Firestorm joins me for my skydive!

I tandem jumped with a great guy named Kevin. Kevin was so pumped and energetic; you’d never guess he had skydived nearly 3,000 times! Also, his son jumped with us and it was fun jump with the father/son duo at the same time.

I thought I’d be nervous before the jump but I wasn’t at all. I felt supercharged and really excited! I was amazed the plane ride was so smooth. Normally when I fly my stomach momentarily drops during takeoff, but this was smooth as could be — probably the smoothest airplane ride I’ve ever had! We climbed to 12,500 feet (a little over two miles in the air)! I was able to see all of Jacksonville — even the coast — in the hazy distance. As we opened the door of the plane and prepared to jump, I felt only excitement – no fear! Below you’ll see a photo take just after we jumped. It may be hard to tell in the photo, but I’m cheering with excitement!

Skydiving!

We free-falled (free-fell?) for about 7,000 feet over the course of 45 seconds. If I’ve done my sums correctly, that means we were falling at over 100 miles an hour! Surprisingly, the jump wasn’t scary at all. It was very smooth and the pressure of the wind made me feel supported instead of out of control. I did a few Superman flying poses — c’mon, you should have expected that.  It was very, very loud and I could barely hear myself cheering.  Then the parachute was deployed; also much smoother than I expected. It suddenly became very quiet and Kevin and I could talk in nearly normal voices. It was absolutely breathtaking! The video and pictures don’t do it justice.  We sailed the remaining distance over about five minutes, doing some fun spirals and spins!  For the landing, we came in fairly slow over the field we started from and slid to a halt on our bottoms.  I will admit I hit the ground at just the wrong angle and bumped my tailbone pretty hard.  It’s still sore a week later, but it’s slowly getting better.  That was the only downside to the jump!

I had an absolute blast and look forward to jumping again! It was a fantastic way to celebrate my 40th birthday! If you’d like to watch the video, check it out below!

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8 Comments

  1. Raul says:

    Happy Birthday! You’re braver than me!

    MASFUEG0

  2. Frank says:

    Two people… thrown together by fate and perilous circumstance… merge to become 300 lbs. of meat on the wind. They are… Fallinstone: The Tandem Men…

    “I considered wearing my Firestorm shirt, but if you are flying you gotta go with Superman, right?”

    No Shag. No. “Owner of Firestorm fan site perishes while wearing Superman shirt. Divides loyalties? What other secrets did he keep? Was his entire life a lie?” After the ‘chute was deployed and you guys were floating in the air, how much more awesome would the entire experience have been with puffy sleeves?

    Another way of looking at it was that you thought you might die for over 150 feet, or 25 duplicates of yourself stacked on top of one another.

    Had there been a comic book adaptation of the true life story of the man who died wearing a Superman shirt when his ‘chute failed to open, would it have been inappropriate if the sound effect upon impact spelled out “SSHHAAGG!” Would it have redefined what it means to get shagged, or reenforced it? It would have been proper Shag, for once.

    I’m sorry your life experiment with a new man-friend ended in a bruised coccyx. “Kevin was so pumped and energetic…”

  3. outburst says:

    very cool. I would have had to wear an adult-sized diaper to do that!

  4. outburst says:

    Also, I completely support your decision to wear that shirt.
    The S-shield is itself the international symbol for courage nowadays. Though I must say, a shirt with red baggy sleeves would have waved really nicely in the wind. 😉

  5. Keith Samra says:

    Shagg Im glad you know the Superhero hierarchy, and you payed the proper tribute to the Lord of all Superheroes!
    However carrying the Firestorm figure is what got your coccyx hurt. Just be glad that you didnt take an action figure of that “Fish Guy”, who knows what you may have broken with a totem of that guy????

  6. Luke says:

    As my wife would say, “Why did you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?”

    I am interested in doing a jump like that but I guarantee you I could never get the rest of my family involved, heh!

  7. Martin Stein RIP says:

    It’s all fun and games until someone breaks a coccyx.

  8. Leenovak16 says:

    Congratulations on the successful jump. You have now flown more than Aquaman.

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