“But I just booked the bungee. Let’s just do skydiving in Cape Town. I’m not gonna do bungee one day and skydive the next. That’s kinda nuts.

It’s going to be more expensive in Cape Town. We have to do our skydiving in Plettenberg.

That’s a good point.

That was the conversation I had with Daniela when we met again in Buccaneer’s Lodge in Chintsa. So you see, I’m not really the crazy adrenaline junkie people thought I was by doing a back to back jump and then dive. I was talked into it.

Skydiving is something I wanted to do for a long time. It just never crossed path with me during my past travels. But with over 20 operators offering solo and tandem dives, from Johannesburg to Cape Town, I know I’ll have the chance to do it in South Africa. I chose to skydive Plettenberg Bay South Africa because it’s still a few stops away from Coffee Bay, and because I have other plans for other stops.

I mentioned about my plan to skydive to Daniela in Coffee Bay. She said she’s also thinking about it. And so we said maybe we do it together. But nothing was carved in stone. We’re both traveling solo, and in such travel, all plans can change in a moment. It is possible that we don’t run into each another again during this trip even if we’re going on the same direction. So,

When Face Adrenalin offered me a complimentary bungee jump, naturally I jumped at the chance. I decided to postpone my skydiving to Cape Town, because Bloukrans Bridge is in the same area as Plettenberg, only 40 minutes drive away.

But then, the discussion above happened. And so

Strapped and ready to go
Headed to our Plane
View from below. Photo taken by Eric.
jump for joy after the skydiving
Skydiving Certificate
www.skydiveplett.com shack

My Skydiving Experience

I was really excited to do it, and was not nervous at all. Perhaps because I just did bungee jump the day before. But even the time I said I will never bungee jump, I knew I could do tandem skydiving. Even if the jump off point is 15x higher (3,000m vs 200m), I’m confident because I would have a professional skydiver in full control. I reckon the experience is similar to tandem paragliding, which I did a couple of years ago

The whole process is basically like this.  We got there. We sign a waiver. An instructor comes out and introduced himself with a camera. I don’t know if they’re instructors, but for the purpose of this blog, I mean the professional whom you just paid 200$ to take full control of your life.  You go out and he helped you get strapped explaining what to expect. Everyone walks to the small airplane. I’m really glad I did it together with Daniela. The plane takes 2 instructors and 2 passengers at a time. You are attached to your instructor the minute you sat in the plane. It take about 20 minutes to fly to the elevation of the dive. And then,

The Moment of Truth

The plane sort of hovered at a steady elevation and the instructor opened the door. At this moment, my palm started to sweat. I was trying to remember if I was instructed to do anything. And he started to give more instruction on where to put my feet and how to position my hands. Amidst the loud roaring of the propeller, I was desperately trying to take it all in, and then he jumped!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

 

Skydiving Plettenberg Bay

We went with Skydiving Plettenberg because their advertising is everywhere. It was very easy to book. You can do it online or just call them up. So for the same reasons, you have to call ahead because they get filled up fast. When I made the call 4 days before, they only have 1 time slot left, on a Monday. I’m glad though that the slot is at 10 a.m. but we had to be there at 8 a.m.

They fetched us from the hostel at no extra cost. It is 15 minutes by car so we could have easily taken a cab. But I guess because we didn’t pay in advance, it ensures that we won’t be a no-show. But it was a nice gesture especially that they’re pretty short-staffed. The guy who fetched us is the same guy who edits the video.

First we witnessed a couple of skydivers who did a beach landing. We wanted to do that but due to their full schedule, we were not asked which type of landing we prefer. As beach landing will need a car to bring the instructors and parachutes back to the airport. But anyway, I’m sure the scene from 10,000ft is not that different.

 

What is the cost of skydiving Plettenberg Bay South Africa?

From at 10,000 ft with airport landing. This is the most basic that you can do, we paid 2,300 ZAR  USD215, PHP9550) including the DVD.  I paid with credit card so I bet it costs so much more than exchange rate. There are other options like skydiving from 12,000Ft or have a beach landing, or if you are certified and want to do solo jump, it is also possible. The complete list of pricing HERE.

Like I mentioned there are over 20 operators of skydiving in South Africa. South Africa is beautiful country, I’m sure doing it anywhere is spectacular. I met people who skydive in Cape Town and Mossel Bay.

 

How is Skydiving compared to Bungee Jumping?

If I have to compare bungee jumping and tandem skydiving, I’d say you get more rush with bungee jumping despite it only lasted 3 sec compared to the free fall of 32 sec with skydiving. I’m sure it’s going to be a lot, lot more exciting with solo jumping. That, however, I never even thought about doing. I find it really expensive for something that lasts only 7 minutes. But then again, if I got offered to do it free…

Anyway, it is still very exciting. Check out my video in youtube.

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