Skydive Chicago
Just about an hour North of the City in Ottawa, rests Skydive Chicago. This family-owned facility has grown from a small, little-known place to an enormous, fun-filled adventure over the course of 10 or so years. There is so much other to do here rather than or besides skydiving. There is a rec room with billiards, a deli/bar, a theater, pro-shop, etc. Canoeing, hiking and horseback riding are also avialable on the 230-acre campus. Just a little to the East of the skydiving hangar lies a pond with decks and volleyball too. You may even just decide to sit around and chat with other skydivers in the hangars or the grounds. It’s almost impossible to get bored even if you chicken out of the skydiving part.
After enrolling in a short course in the early morning on the basics of the sport and then practicing your moves on a simulator, be prepared to fly up about 13,500 feet in a small cargo plane filled with other veterans or first-timers.
The first jump requires, by law, for the jumper to be attached by hooks and cables to an experienced diver, which they call “tandem jumping”. Once you jump from that plane though, you’ll be glad to have that jumper attached to you as sometimes all you learned that morning goes out the window (as it did with me) and the incredible rush of adrenaline is all-encompasing. The man I was attached to pulled my ripcord for me when I had forgotten. Trust me, this is one law that I was glad to abide by.
You can hire a videographer to film the entire jump for you (the videographer jumps with you so he is right there the entire time) which we did and makes for great memories and a perfect conversation starter at parties.
After we landed, which was very smooth, we sat around and chatted with others for a while and then went on home. After all, this whole process takes the entire day. Plan on getting there about 6 or 7 a.m. and staying until long around 5 or 6 p.m.
And, if I were you, I’d go on an empty stomach. But that’s just me.
