|
|
Texas, South Padre Beach & Sky DivingNov 07 '01 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line South Padre Beach is a tourist town. Since we were there the bridge collapsed making it more difficult to get to. There should be real bargains now. I recommend it. Comfort Suites S. Padre Island 912 Padre Blvd South Padre Island, TX 78597 956-772-9020 We arrived here in the early afternoon-around one or two PM. Our room wasn’t ready yet so we began asking the desk clerk about seafood restaurants. The Comfort Inn is four stories and is missing a good view of the ocean. There is a larger condo project right between it and the Gulf. There was only a little walkway perhaps three feet wide, but I didn’t measure it, between the north wall of the condo and the fence of the next condo north. The fence is attractive because it is apparently solid vinyl. It was a pretty long walk to the beech. My mother-in-law was just recovering from a hip replacement. She was able to walk but she hobbled quite a bit. The sand was deep which made the walking pretty difficult for her. While looking in the Yellow Pages for restaurants, I stumbled onto a couple of ads for skydiving. On an impulse I called one of them. He wanted $150 for a tandem jump. I called the other and he told me $225, but included a video from takeoff to landing, starring none other than ME, and he could do it this weekend. I was thinking about it and almost decided to not make the jump. My wife and her mother who was with us both encouraged me to do the jump. They said, “You have always wanted to do it. You can do it right now. It is only money.” I said, “Yes one part of me has wanted to it, but another part has said, ‘Why would anyone jump out of a perfectly good airplane.” I also mused about the stewardship angle, wondering whether it was a wise use of our resources to blow $225 on a few minutes of thrills. They all, Bonnie, her Mother, and her Dad all encouraged me to go ahead and do it. So I called William back and asked “Could you do it right now for $200?” He replied that he could. I said come ahead and pick me up. About an hour later William showed up, wearing sandals, shorts and a bright yellow T-shirt with his phone number emblazoned across the front and the back: 1-800-SKY-DIVE. He picked me up, we agreed on a landing site behind the hotel. William said he could land within 10 feet of his target. We drove out to the airport. He had me sign a coupled of versions or releases, one for his company SKY-DIVE SOUTH PADRE. and another for the airport. Basically I had to sign a statement that I understood skydiving was dangerous and I agreed not to sue them if I got killed or injured. It makes me wonder what the likelihood of being just injured is jumping out at 12,000 feet up. Oh well I signed, paid on my credit card met our cameraman who would jump with us. His job was to train the video camera molded into his helmet on the star-me so we would have good video of the whole thing. He also had a little lens on a calibration rod, which was used to calibrate the camera to shoot what he saw through the lens since he couldn’t look through the viewfinder on the camera. After getting buckled into my harness, which would be buckled to William with 4 couplings each tested to hold 5000 pounds. This was to reassure me that I didn’t have to worry about him dropping me in the air. This incidentally was part of William’s introductory sales presentation when I first called. He is smooth and encouraging. After getting strapped in he said in a staged enthusiastic tone as we walked out the door, “Are you ready to skydive?” Our cameraman had gone ahead of us and was filming us walking out of the hanger and I presume getting the audio also. We got in the plane and took off. I told them that I wanted to get a good view and some video of the Rio Grande River stopping before it gets to the Gulf of Mexico. I had heard that it does, but it sure sounded strange, almost earry. But you can see it as clear as a bell from the air. William gave me some last minute instructions, like exactly where to put my feet and hands as we got ready to jump. We climbed to 12,000 flew right over the coast line for a few miles, turned around and flew over the drop zone. I got into position, one foot out on the footpad, one hand on a strut, and one hand on the door. The wind was very loud as were flying at well over a hundred miles an hour. On command I climbed partially our. William was right behind me. I jumped! Then we were free falling. This lasted almost one minute. I stretched out my arms as instructed. Our cameraman was off to my right a little. He glided effortlessly to just a couple of feet in front of me. He told me to smile, then asked, “Are you having fun?” I said, “Yes.” Then in just a few seconds, William opened the parachute and we were hanging in the air at about 3000 feet. This was an exhilarating feeling. A wonderful view! I loved it. The free fall was fun and exciting, but the wind noise was so loud it was also uncomfortable. Kind of like putting your head out the car window at highway speed. It didn’t hurt; it was just uncomfortably loud. Overall, it was an exciting time. I’m glad I did it. Would I do it again? Maybe! It would be an expensive hobby. I asked William how he came to start a skydiving business. He said he had been an air conditioning contractor. He went skydiving once for kicks, kind of like I did. He said then “I was hooked.” He got started by being a cameraman for another school. SkyDive South Padre also has a school to teach people to be regular skydivers. Our hotel, comfort Inn Suites was quite comfortable, and a bargain ($120) compared with other places on the beach. There were two half baths with a tub and shower in between and separating doors. There were also two TVs so each couple could watch what they wanted. They had a free continental breakfast which was better than most. On a scale of motel/hotel breakfast buffets I would rank it about a six or seven. This is with one being weak coffee and day old donuts and ten being a full hot breakfast buffet with omelets, various breakfast meats, eggs, fresh fruit, etc.  |
| Write the first comment on this review! |
by knotheadusc
by artemis8
