SKYDIVING - Adrenaline rush sends reporter back for more

Don't expect any of the skydivers at the national championships to tell you jumping out of a plane from 11,000 feet is a completely unnatural thing to do.
Talking about jumping out of a plane is pretty straightforward - at ground level. Doing the deed is anything but.
When I decided to try out skydiving in preparation for covering this weekend's event at Whangarei Airport, it didn't seem such a big deal.
I had always wanted to try skydiving, particularly the freefall, so happily turned up at Whangarei academy Ballistic Blondes for training.
Cue to Tuesday afternoon, sitting in the front of the Cessna 182, fast approaching the drop height and things were beginning to lose focus.
I'd been repeating my drills under my breath since take-off, so when the door opened and I reluctantly swung my feet out on to the step, I got the thumbs up and we were off.
At this stage, it is worth mentioning I had Davy Hogg strapped to me because without him there is a good chance I wouldn't be writing this - training or no training.
I was flying through the air a second or two before I remembered to arc my body, but it must have been a lousy arc because we started to lose stability and Davy had to clamp his legs around mine to stop us tumbling end over end.
The rest of the freefall is a bit vague. As we hurtled towards terra firma at around 200km/h, I went through the next drill, designed to locate the parachute release. The results were hardly encouraging. I failed to find the handle - on my hip - two out of three times.
The next stage is loosely regarded as "free-time" freefall, where I would check the altimeter every three or four seconds while enjoying the ride, before reaching 6000ft and pulling the release.
I didn't remember my altimeter until Davy signalled to check it. Talking is useless because of wind noise. We were already below 6000ft, so fighting off panic I reached for the handle and what a relief as I found it and pulled.
You don't realise just how splendid a perfectly full parachute canopy is until it arrests your fall to certain death. I was stoked to see mine open and I got to try out the controls as we went into a holding pattern southwest of the airport.
The rest of the jump proceeded at a less terrifying pace so I was able to notice my surroundings and enjoy the jump. The landing was tougher than usual because of strong winds but with Davy taking over, we landed without a bump and I enjoyed the rush of adrenaline pumping through my system.
Fantastic fun - in hindsight of course. It was more of a challenge than I ever expected before the jump so I decided to sign up for a course of jumping until I can at least do the same 11,000ft freefall jump - this time all by myself.