{"id":17743,"date":"2017-07-10T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2017-07-10T23:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/skydivemag.com\/new\/?p=17743"},"modified":"2017-07-10T23:00:00","modified_gmt":"2017-07-10T23:00:00","slug":"2017-07-11-wtf-am-i-doing-here","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/2017-07-11-wtf-am-i-doing-here\/","title":{"rendered":"WTF am I doing HERE?!"},"content":{"rendered":"


\"Jess,<\/p>\n

Holy Crap!<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

I’m SURROUNDED by BADASSES!<\/em><\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

The nerves have already set in. It\u2019s Day 1 of the Power Play \u2013 7:30am \u2013 and I’m looking for a place to set down my rig and gear bag before we meet to start the long weekend. The sun above Skydive Perris, California, has graced us with decent temperatures (at least for now). Around me are some of the most talented skydivers in the sport, here from all over the U.S. and the world to complete some of the most challenging big-way formations of the year.<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It is my first time at the Power Play. I\u2019m no stranger to Skydive Perris (my all-female 8-way team, Blocksmiths, has trained here before), and I have experience doing smaller big-ways \u2013 but the Power Play is completely different. I feel like I\u2019ve jumped from varsity baseball straight into the major leagues. While I\u2019ve flown with incredible flyers before, I\u2019ve never experienced something like this event. I check my gear and get ready.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Dan B.C. summons our group together and introduces everyone to the other top-notch organizers: Doug Forth, Martial Ferr\u00e9, and Tom Jenkins. He lays out the framework for the weekend: 20-ways for the first 3 days, followed by a grand finale 80-way on the last day. He breaks us up into our groups for the first day and away we go… Each person who walks pasts me here has a stacked resume. It\u2019s a bit intimidating. It seems a full third of the participants speak another language. We have multiple world champion competitors, international – and national – big-way record holders, pilots, doctors, an astronaut (!!), college professors, many with tens of thousands of skydives \u2013 the impressive list goes on for a while.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s me. I\u2019ve put in TONS of hours training at the Paraclete XP wind tunnel and trained with some of the best, but my logbook gives me away: this next load will be Jump #562. I play it cool; I hope that years of Army training will conceal my jitters from those around me. I haven\u2019t been this nervous since the USPA Nationals last fall. Doug Forth is talking about the exit order. My racing thoughts are competing with him for my attention – I force myself to focus. On everything. Grip sequences, where I\u2019m cross-referencing, jumpsuit colors. It’s an uphill battle: Oh man I don\u2019t belong here \u2013 I\u2019m way in over my head \u2013 how long until they quit answering my questions and tell me to leave?!<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

I am confident that this first jump will be my last jump for the weekend, that they\u2019ll realize their mistake and I\u2019ll be finding things to do in L.A. for 3 days before my flight back to Raleigh.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Someone is watching; apparently my tough guy fa\u00e7ade has betrayed me. Dan B.C. finds me as I\u2019m putting on my gear and puts his hand on my shoulder. He looks me in the face. \u201cTry to enjoy this weekend, okay?\u201d He walks away. I hope I don\u2019t let him down.<\/p>\n


<\/p>\n

Thirty minutes later I check my handles one last time and stand up. Our Twin Otter has evened out at 13,000 feet and the pilot is ready to dump us into the sky. The green light blinks on and I\u2019m leaning into the pack tray of the guy ahead of me as we scramble out into glorious freefall. In an instant my mind snaps into the game \u2013 I am focused and on fire and the only thing that matters is the split second in front of me…<\/p>\n


\"Dan<\/p>\n

…Green helmet \u2013 DON\u2019T LOSE HIM!! Follow \u2013 go go go! Where\u2019s the white jumpsuit? \u2026 there it is \u2013 okay I\u2019m level with the formation\u2026 wait for the center to build \u2013 take grips \u2013 watch for the key\u2026 wow, we\u2019ve already built the first point!<\/em> … I don\u2019t get lost. I don\u2019t go low. We turn 3 points. I track away from the formation, tension melting off my shoulders. Finally, peace\u2026<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve stowed my brakes, collected my canopy, and I\u2019m walking back in from the landing area. I\u2019m dripping sweat, but I don\u2019t care. Dan B.C. trots up besides me, his canopy slung over the shoulder of his blue jumpsuit. We are crossing the runway back toward the packing pavilion. \u201cHow did it go?\u201d<\/em> \u201cGood,\u201d<\/em> I answer. \u201cI\u2019m glad the first one is over!\u201d<\/em> He laughs easily, the way all the greats do. \u201cI wouldn\u2019t have invited you if I didn\u2019t know you could do this.\u201d<\/em> He smiles at me and he\u2019s off again to the next thing. I am floored by how only a few words make such an impact.<\/p>\n

\"Sadly
\"Happy<\/p>\n

The rest of the weekend flies by. Our organizers keep us on our toes, the pace of the jumps is perfectly synchronized, and we beat the sun at the end of each day with dips in the pool and cold beer. We complete 18 challenging skydives by Saturday, and we culminate on Sunday with attempts to create an intricate 78-way formation. I talk with incredible people from around the world and learn a lot about this sport.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But most important to me, I have dominated the Mental Game. It is an all-familiar foe, now slightly less formidable. I never enjoy being nervous about anything, but I respect apprehension because it forces me to parse away distractions and focus. I broke the mental barrier \u2013 I can relax a bit and focus on the skydive. If I can do it at the Power Play, I can do it anywhere – once is all it takes!<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Holy Crap! I’m SURROUNDED by BADASSES! The nerves have already set in. It\u2019s Day 1 of the Power Play \u2013 7:30am \u2013 and I’m looking for a place to set down my rig and gear bag before we meet to start the long weekend. The sun above Skydive Perris, California, has graced us with decent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"sfsi_plus_gutenberg_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_show_text_before_share":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_type":"","sfsi_plus_gutenberg_icon_alignemt":"","sfsi_plus_gutenburg_max_per_row":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"pmpro_default_level":"","_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","pmpro-has-access"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nWTF am I doing HERE?! - Skydivemag<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/2017-07-11-wtf-am-i-doing-here\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"WTF am I doing HERE?!\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Holy Crap! 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She is a multiple world and national record holder and a coach on 20 successful record events worldwide. She has over 100 competition medals spanning more than 25 years and has been on the British 8-way National team at World events. She started Skydive Mag to spread knowledge, information and passion about our amazing sport. Lesley is delighted to be sponsored by Performance Designs, Sun Path, Cypres, Cookie, Symbiosis suits and Larsen & Brusgaard","sameAs":["http:\/\/skydivemag.com\/new","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/lesley.gale.942","https:\/\/x.com\/skydivemag"],"url":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/author\/lesley\/"}]}},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"homepage-slider":false,"single-post-picker":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Lesley Gale","author_link":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/author\/lesley\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Holy Crap! I’m SURROUNDED by BADASSES! The nerves have already set in. It\u2019s Day 1 of the Power Play \u2013 7:30am \u2013 and I’m looking for a place to set down my rig and gear bag before we meet to start the long weekend. The sun above Skydive Perris, California, has graced us with decent…","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17743\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skydivemag.com\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}