Skydiving has been a long-standing desire for almost everyone around the globe. It is nerve-wrecking but exciting at the same time to wonder about the views one would get while falling freely from the skies. Surrounding views in the context of skydiving are so important that while skydiving can be done at a lot of places, only a few of them are popular. One such popular spot to jump is Interlaken in Switzerland, and while I am here at this beautiful spot, I also wanted to experience the natural wonders that one may never get to experience while walking on Earth.
Arrival in Switzerland
I booked a helicopter to jump from 14000 ft above. In Switzerland, only helicopters are allowed to carry people, as there are too many mountains and planes can't maneuver as fast as a helicopter. However, I did not know how much 14000 ft means practically. Yes, I know aircraft fly at 36000ft, and this is less than half of it, but sitting inside an aircraft, none of us would feel the height as we would when we look from the terrace of a 15-storey building. Interestingly, when my flight was about to land in Zurich and all types of landing announcements were breaking everyone's sleep in the early hours, I looked out the window. This time, my perspective of seeing outside the window towards the land was much different than my earlier flights. I knew I was going to jump two days from now, and all I can imagine is that I would see something like this that day from the helicopter. 10 minutes after the announcements, the sun is shining enough to let us see how this beautiful country looks from the sky. I see everyone's faces. I know everyone is thinking something different while looking out the window. Somebody must be happy to be visiting their family. Somebody would be stressed about the meeting they will have in two days. As for me, all I am calculating is the height above the land.
"It's way more than 14000 feet, probably 20000 feet or something", I thought as the land looked too distant from where I was. I quickly opened the screen in front of me to check the altitude in the "Map" panel. "7000 feet" popped up on the screen. This was a scary moment. I have to jump from twice as above in a couple of days! I should have kept track of the altitude earlier. Damn! I don't even know how the land looks from there. I felt something in my gut. Maybe excitement or nervousness. At this point, it was hard to distinguish.
I woke up the next day, and skydiving was the only thing on my mind. I got out of bed and slid the curtains to check the weather. I was staying at a beautiful property in Interlaken, Switzerland. A beautiful mountain was just outside my window, and honestly, this was not rare in this country. However, the weather did not seem to be favorable. Clearly, the rain had fallen some time back, and the intentions of the cloud seemed to be throwing some more water in an hour or two. I checked my mobile and an email from the Skydive Interlaken company is there. "Skydiving Cancelled Due to Bad Weather", said the subject, and the content was more or less on the same lines. The company rescheduled the skydiving session a day later and asked for acknowledgment and availability. Since I was prepared for this and had booked the stay for four days, I emailed back with my positive intentions.
The day of Skydiving with Skydive Interlaken
The weather was a little cooler the next day, and clouds were all around floating in the sky, painting the sky white from blue. But as the road and the grass were my witnesses, it had not rained. There was another email from Skydive Interlaken, to which I thought, today too, we would not be jumping from the skies. However, the email requested my address and asked me to be outside the property at 10. The sky was all white with clouds, and I had my doubts about this skydiving session. I had my breakfast and stood outside the property at10 minutes to 10. At around 9:55, a grey van (similar to Maruti's Omni in India and also popularly seen while travelling to Vietnam) came, and a woman was waving her hand from at least 20 meters ahead of me. The van had SKYDIVE INTERLAKEN printed on both sides and on all the gates. This skipped the trouble of asking whether this was the car I had to be in.
"Hellooooo Harish", the excited lady driver greeted me. A blonde lady with visible wrinkles on her cheeks and a bit of folded skin on her neck. She wore a blue T-shirt and had curly, long hair. Two more girls were already sitting in the van. I greeted her back. "Are you excited?" she asked, looking at me with her blue eyes. I was sitting on the passenger seat beside the driver, and therefore she had the luxury of directly looking at my face while communicating rather than constantly moving her face up to the rear view mirror as she would do to talk to the girls. "Yeah", I said. "You know, today we have an expert from South Africa, and he has made more than 6000 jumps."
"Really? Sounds great!"
"Yeah. So you can be assured that your chances of dying today are not that much like regular days".
"Ehhh," I heard a gasp from the girls behind. Their constant chatter stopped as they listened to this sentence.
"I am just joking. Sorry. I am from Canada, and we Canadians joke like this all the time."
"Let's joke like this after the dive", one of the girls said.
"Of course, my friend. But only if you make it out alive.", the driver said, looking outside the window.
This time, we laughed instead.
The jumping station was around 20 minutes from where I was staying. It was like a warehouse with tin roofs and SKYDIVE INTERLAKEN written all over it with blue paint. The driver parked the car and asked us to come out. She transformed herself from the position of a driver to the manager. Actually, she was all that Skydive Interlaken had except for the divers. She was the inventory manager, the regular manager, looked over operations, and everything else.
We moved towards the building and I saw two guys sitting at the entrance. One of them was smoking as he blew smoke when we walked past them. I did not talk to them and went straight with the lady and the girls. Inside, I met 6 more people. A couple from Australia and two couples from Malaysia. They had already arrived on their own and were signing some papers. As I sat down, I got my paper as well. The manager started briefing us about the risks involved and the reason why we were signing the papers. She told us to "Make sure you guys put down your nominee's contact number and email ID correctly. Last time, we could not connect when one person died, as the number was wrong."
"Really?" The Australian girl said.
"Nooooo, I am joking". This time, only the manager laughed.
Today, 10 people will be jumping from the sky. 9 for the first time and 1 Australian guy for the 8th time. Therefore, only 9 of us opted for the recorded footage of the jump.
"In a moment, you all will be trained for the jump once the divers arrive. Till then, you can take your suit and roam around the property."
I went outside after wearing the suit and putting my bag in the locker. The two guys that I saw while entering the property were still present.
"Hey!" I said. One of the guys was sitting, and one was smoking a vape beside him. The sitting guy was shivering.
"Hey!" the smoking guy said. "Where are you from?" he asked.
"India. You?"
"Malaysia"
"Ah! 4 more people are inside from Malaysia", I said.
"Yeah, I met them. They are stupid. Acting like kids......So you are traveling alone?"
"Yes", I said.
"I can never travel alone. Need a lot of guts."
I did not say anything.
"We are both travelling to Europe for 2 months. Today evening, we are leaving for Spain."
"Yeah? That's awesome. You guys took leave from work?"
"No, No. We are working. In fact, we are in a meeting right now.", he said and winked at me.
It was a work-from-home travel. I was glad they were enjoying Europe this season.
"What happened to him?" I asked the smoking guy.
"He shit his pants while signing the papers", he said and looked at him like a father looking down on his son. I laughed instantly. I knew this was metaphoric.
"What does that mean?" I asked.
"He came here for skydiving. He was super excited in Malaysia. Since we were on the flight, he started panicking due to the height. I told him it is alright. I am also jumping, ain't I? Still, he was okay for 3 days we were in Switzerland. In fact, yesterday night also he did not say anything. But he has been shitting all over the place since he woke up. He is scared. Finally, he backed off while signing the paper, seeing reality so close to him".
"I am not scared. You guys are stupid. Who jumps from the sky just for nothing? This is just stupid." He said in a lighter mood, looking towards the left side, not trying to make eye contact with either of us.
"There are 10 more people here. All are jumping. 5 of them are girls. Nobody is shitting their pants. Only you are scared."
"It's okay. I won't regret it. This was a stupid idea anyway.", he said.
The manager arrived outside to receive the divers. There were four divers, one from South Africa, one from Spain, one from Italy, and one from South America (I do not remember his country).
The Spanish guy took the lead and started training us on the basics of jumping, how to jump, what to do when, how to signal, etc., etc. He also asked us to give him a demo while lying down on the carpet as if we were diving. He kept asking questions like, "Okay, signal for emergency." We did. "Okay, now how do you put your hand?" we showed him. "Okay, how do we put our head?" and this went on for thirty minutes. The rest of the divers were packing their parachutes, which did scare me because before seeing this, I always thought that parachutes come packed up from the factory, or some machine does that because of the high risks involved. But no! Here they are, decluttering the threads and packing their parachutes!
"Okay, let's goooo", he shouted with excitement. There were four divers, and only two people would jump together because the Swiss government only allows helicopters for skydiving due to maneuverability and environmental challenges. Apparently, planes are not safe to be cruising around the Alps at such a low altitude. The Malaysian couple went first. They were hugging each other and got super excited before entering the van that takes us to the helipad. Four people would go together to the helipad, and once their jumps were over, the cycle would repeat.
I was standing on the landing ground with the Malaysian guys, among whom one had backed out. We discussed the beauty of Europe and how this country has been so welcoming, even though we do not know the language. Twenty minutes later, the manager came and looked at the cloudy sky. She squinted her eyes and kept staring at the area she knew she would see something. Suddenly, she saw a red cloth indicating that somebody had opened up the parachute. In two minutes, a blue cloth was visible. Our first jumpers had their freefall already. "Do you guys see that?"
"Yeah! Is that those guys?"
"Yes," she said, looking towards the sky with one hand on her forehead. "It's such a lucky day that both the parachutes opened up today. That's rare!"
"What?" the guy who hadn't backed out said in surprise.
"Haha, I am just kidding," and the guy who backed out started laughing. He had finally settled with his choice and was at peace now.
The Malaysian couple landed safely, and then the Australian couple a few minutes after them. I was to go last with the Malaysian guy. When the Australian girl landed on the ground, her legs were shaking so much that it almost looked like she was acting. She had tears in her eyes. "Thank you," she said to her boyfriend, acknowledging how it has been a life-changing experience for her without saying those actual words. She hugged him and told him that this was the best thing she had ever done and how proud she was of herself. "I never knew I was so strong".
Once you land in the Skydive Interlaken landing ground, you have to see your video on the big TV located at the assembly area. We saw the Australian girl's video there. We could see that she shouted some words just before the jump. We asked her what that was. She reminded us of the fact that the diver told us during the training that it is unprofessional (and maybe illegal) to jump without consent. Hence, we can say no to the jump at any point, but the money won't be refunded. She told us she was extremely scared while going up, and when the helicopter door opened, her heart sank to her stomach. She couldn't gather up the courage, and in those two seconds, she decided not to jump. With the wind blowing at full speed on her face, she shouted to the diver, "No! No! No!", but the diver heard "Go! Go! Go!" and he pushed her out of the helicopter at that very instant, thinking she was ready. It was a hilarious experience. However, I took note of it and thought I would act with my hands rather than shouting if that becomes my case.
"Hey Harish! I am Lorenzo! I will be your diver. You know why?"
"Why?"
"Because you seem like a courageous guy, and since I am scared of diving, I think you can support me out there." This definitely made me laugh. I did not know how the divers chose their partners, but I had heard someone say that they take the body weight into account. Obviously, it cannot be a romantic choice based on attraction.
The Dive
We went to the helipad, and Lorenzo and I got to talking. I asked him about his experience, his hometown in Italy, and his experiences in Switzerland. He told me he had been a diver in Dubai, Cape Town, Oman, and Singapore. But, there is nothing as beautiful as Switzerland. The views from above are unmatched, and since then I have never gone to other place, even if it meant more money. He told me how much he loves his profession and how each jump is as scary and a new experience.
"Each jump is different, you know. The view we will get today, we both would have never seen exactly that ".
He had made more than 3000 jumps overall and was happy that he worked only 2 hours a day. "2 hours a day and a salary like 8 hours. You gotta love that". He also told me that since the jump time does not exceed 1 or 2 PM, he often hikes around the Swiss trails once they are over. "You know, you eat cheese and you burn calories. That's all you gotta do here." He sounded extremely satisfied with his life, and this was a good sign as a diver. Nobody wants a depressed overthinker to jump with them from 14000 feet. My trust in him intensified, and the helicopter went up to the jumping altitude.
Lorenzo told me a few signs in case of emergencies and cues for me to perform actions. "I will tap you on your shoulder like this, and then only you take your hands forward", he told me this three or four times. I had often feared slipping away from the diver in my dreams and thoughts for a long time. What if something breaks or something gets unlocked? But this fear quickly went away when I saw Lorenzo had me tied up from six different points, and he checked all the locks at least five times. He wanted me not to slip more than I wanted for myself. Alright, at least if we go down, we go down together, and that's a relief.
The pilot looked back at us and signed with a thumbs-up. Lorenzo opened the helicopter door within 1 second. The other diver wished me luck. Lorenzo had told me to step on the platform just beneath the door. I did and looked down. I could only see the clouds and nothing else. This had a positive impact because I couldn't see the ground directly. The wind was blowing at the fastest I had ever felt. It was hard to keep the lips shut due to the force. It was a dream come true. I always wanted to cruise through the clouds, cutting them down and feeling their cold temperature whenever I looked at the birds doing the same. I looked out and the view of the Alps took me away. Within a second, Lorenzo asked me if I was alright. I said yes. He pushed both of us out of the helicopter and shouted, "Let's Goooo!".
The first three seconds of the fall took me back. I was never nervous till we made the jump. But I realised that the jump had tricked the mind. Even though I knew and was prepared to do that, the mind cannot differentiate between a fall done knowingly and one that happens by accident. Hence, in the first three seconds, it went into survival mode. My heartbeat increased, my stomach felt weird, and the feeling of weightlessness rushed all the adrenaline in my body. But it happened for only a couple of seconds. After that, it was bliss. A moment to enjoy. It was like being in the middle of the sea, where you see just the water. In this case, I was in the middle of the sky, with the clouds, and the Alps were all around me. Each second feels like heaven. The people beneath me must be going to their offices, tourists must be purchasing souvenirs, but they have no idea a person is falling towards them from 14000 feet.
Lorenzo kept asking me to look in the camera, but all my attention was on the Alps. While we see the Alps from the ground, seeing them from above at eye level in a 180-degree view is something I would never miss for a camera shot. It was a moment of silence, a moment that nobody can describe in words. Not even I, who experienced it. One can only feel it. I could feel the speed of my fall, and even though I wanted to stay at that place for some time, the moment kept slipping away like sand with each passing second.
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| Lorenzo and I after the jump |
45 seconds of freefall ended with the parachute opening up with Lorenzo shouting "Fuck the world" into the camera. I was silent. In my skydiving experience from the moment I took the van to the helipad till I landed, a lot of the time I felt that I was the diver and Lorenzo was making his first jump. He was more excited than I was. He asked me to hold the parachute from both ends and said, "Okay, I will take some rest and you take us down now." Both his hands were free, and I started driving us into the air. We were in Interlaken, which has two lakes. I could see only one right now. I pulled the right hanger down, and the parachute turned right. We could see both the lakes now. I then turned left, then right, and played with it for a little while until we could see the landing ground. Lorenzo kept moving his hand that had the camera tied up to different angles with a smile to get the perfect shot of the city.
The Landing
The landing ground has a flag installed for the divers to check the wind direction and land oppositely so that there is enough air resistance that acts like brakes. We were close enough to see the ground, the Skydive Interlaken building, and the flag. Lorenzo asked me if I wanted to get a thrill while landing. I was up for it. He said, "Show me once what you have to do while landing." I showed him the expected leg, hand, and head positions. He was happy to see and said, "Let's land in the wind direction. It will be fun." I thought, why not? I don't know the risks of it, but if someone with 3000 jumps is ready, tagging along doesn't feel like a bad choice. We hovered over the ground until Lorenzo found a decent spot to start the landing. As the attitude decreased, we started to cruise faster and faster. It was a windy day, and the cold wind pushed us like our parents did when we were on a swing. We landed at a very high speed. I knew it because I had seen previous landings. Those landings were so slow that the divers could stand directly. But we were too fast to touch our legs first. The only way was to land in a sitting position.
It was smooth, at least for me, and we dragged on the grass for a few meters easily. Both of our suits had deep grass marks as if someone had painted them with a broad brush. Lorenzo recorded our post-landing thoughts on camera, and I saw the South African diver running towards us. He said to Lorenzo, "What were you thinking? You never do that, that's the basic rule!! It can hurt you and him." The facial expression of Lorenzo told me that he expected this on landing. The South African diver had done more than 6000 jumps and was known to be extra professional, serious, and the one who always stuck by the rules. "Ah, it's alright. I told him before landing.", Lorenzo said to him, but he was not satisfied. He did not talk to him from that point until he left the building for the day.
A few minutes later, we were all inside the same van and were dropped at the same spot from where we were picked up by the same lady. She did not make any jokes this time.
I might have come down from the skies, but I remained in that moment for a long, long time. Still, I can feel the same feeling that I got when my feet left the helicopter's pedestal. In movies and newspapers, I would see people jumping or being pushed from the top of the buildings. Skydiving may have given me the same experience, but with a safe landing. It makes me think about how death is often a silent event. When someone jumps from a building, he doesn't hear any noise while in the air. A jet could be flying in the air, but all he would hear is his heartbeat, or maybe not even that. Someone lying ill on the bed, knowing it is his last minutes on earth, dies in silence as well. There is no laughter, no memory recalls by the people surrounding him. It's just so silent. I was silent in the air as well. I did not speak till the parachute opened. I silently watched the mountains, the clouds, and the earth. However, I did not bid goodbye to these elements but came closer to them in that silence. The only difference is that my silence helped lift my life rather than end it.
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