Bill Orvis Goes Sky Diving
Bill Orvis
I remember that day. I was a poor sophomore being lead astray by his
older and wiser brothers who were supposed to be taking care of him and
making sure he did not get into any trouble. You really took care of me
that day. I have this image of Jolly etched in my mind. He is streaking
for the ground feet first, with his head down watching the ground come
up at him. He wasn't in "The Position" with his back arched and his arms
out which would have limited his speed to around 100 mph. No, with his
feet straight down, he was probably going over 200 mph before the main
decided to come out on its own. Maybe that is what saved him. He got
enough wind blowing passed him to suck the main out of his rig.
Actually, I didn't get to jump that day. Not because I didn't want to
but because of my age, I had to get my dad to sign a waver. I am still
not sure how I convinced him to sign it, but it took another couple of
weeks before I could go out and do my initial jump. I got to watch all
of you splat into the ground, then I got to think bout it for another
couple of weeks. Needless to say, I didn't get a lot of sleep for the
next couple of weeks as I went over all the emergency procedures in my
head, over, and over, and over again.
After watching you guys land, I figured that the "splat" landing
technique you invented was not the way to go and maybe the instructor
was right after all. I made sure I got that hit and roll stuff down pat,
No milk cartons for me, I did it off the top bunk in my room. Of course,
you couldn't stand up on the bunk without hitting the ceiling and it was
a little hard to get your feet pointing down before you hit the floor
but I got a reasonable roll in before crashing into Shapiro's bed
(Anyone seen Steve Shapiro?). Maybe the bar in the Horse's Ass would
have been better. I asked my girl friend at the time to help me out by
being an X shaped target on the floor for me to land on but she didn't
think much of that idea.
Two weeks later, I did my thing and had a perfect jump. That is, I made
it to the ground in one piece and was able to walk away. As Al said, it
was an incredible head rush so I did it again. Actually, the second time
was harder than the first. The first jump, you are fat, dumb, and happy,
and don't have a clue what is really going to happen. The second jump,
there are no illusions. You know exactly what is going to happen and
have to push yourself out by force of will. I actually kept it up for
about a year and managed 13 jumps before I ran out of money. By the time
I had money again, I got smart and retired my rig. I still have it
though, out in the garage in a box. Every once in a while I pull it out
and think about those days and then quietly pack it away before I start
shaking.
