Skydive Dubai and Full Dubai Adventure

As many of you may have known, I went to Dubai and Skydive Dubai in April this year. I planned to write a blog about it but I completely forgot and didn't actually have a proper blog, so here it is and I apologise in advance for grammar mistakes! I came across a video by CED Movie's YouTube Channel called Skydive Dubai May 2011 and it was amazing! The video now have over 12 million views and is so stunning and beautifully captures the skydiving experience on a pretty immense scale.

I was in contact with Skydive Dubai's twitter months in advance and they were all so nice and told me everything I needed to know about them and what they did. I was even talking to Red Bull Athlete and French Base Jumper Matthias Giraud, also known as Super Frenchie, who did the amazing Avalanche base cliff jump in a GoPro Commercial.

So I left to go to Dubai on the 2nd of April, in the early morning and I didn't really tell many people I was going there and when I did, no one really believed me, because it was on the 1st April AKA April Fools day! I wrote a bucket list note to myself in February to try and do something new and exciting every year and since I turned 18, what better thing to do than to skydive? I also told my mum to come along with me for moral support. I was going to go alone since I've been to Dubai many times and know people there but she agreed to come and then said she too wanted to jump!

Note I wrote in February that Skydive Dubai posted on their website and social media sites.

Plane Ticket

We left early morning to London's Gatwick airport and we got there so early, that we were actually the first to check in. Also to our surprise, we got bumped up to first class, because of rewards and sky miles. Emirates First Class was a great experience and it was the second time I flew with the airline this way, the food was also really good and especially the whole service! At the airport we spent our time roaming around the shops from Harrods, Duty Free and of course the popular WHSmith.

Getting Ray Bans Fitted

Luckily since there was a Sunglasses Hut there, I was able to also get my sunglasses fitted because my Ray Bans had stretched and become way too big! We then sat down to a pancake breakfast which was delicious! It really reminded me of iHop and the service was so quick!

After roaming around, it came time for our flight and away we went! We later arrived in Dubai 6 hours later, at night and then took a Cab to the Sheraton Hotel in Dubai. We were originally going to stay at the Atlantis, since it was on the Palm and closer to Skydive Dubai, but we decided on the Sheraton because we had stayed there before, they have great service and surprisingly remembered us!

After checking in, we went into one of the stunning restaurants and I caught up with Twitter and Facebook and the really nice comments that were left on my YouTube videos before I went away. After all of this we checked the weather for the Skydive the following day, set alarms and wakeup calls and finally went to bed at 2am! The next day we woke up extremely early at 6am to have breakfast and it was really nice to later finally have a shower!

After getting ready we left the hotel and the sun was full blazing and our jump was the first load and starting promptly on time at 10am. They even had an African Grey parrot in the entrance which we also have at home!
It was so adorable, my mum said we should have taken it home (joking obviously), but he bites!

We checked into the registration at Skydive Dubai and they took our height and BMI, to make sure we could jump. I actually requested a skydiver by the name of Rene Terstegen who is a French/ Dutch Skydiver, tandem master and videographer at the drop zone, but sadly he was working in the Skydive Desert Campus. The main reason I wanted to jump with him was because I saw some of his amazing jumps on YouTube and some tandems that he also did with a girl named Gloria.

I was talking to Gloria and she was so sweet and lovely. She was also from Perth, Australia where I spent 4 years of my childhood growing up. Also another one of my favourite vloggers by the name of Kay jumped with him and she also worked at the drop zone as a videographer.
Anyways, since he wasn't there and available to jump, I was assigned female Skydive tandem master Sandrine Timmermans. She taught me what I had to do in a small class before the jump and of course things not to do... of which I actually did one in my jump without realising... (Putting my arms out during the exit/jump). Anyways, after this I waited a little while and watched my mum get filmed by her cameraman who was Italian Tandem master and Videographer; Mas Di Sienna and he has jumped with Ellie Goulding and her friend!

After that, my American Cameraman Kenny Jaworski came and filmed me, you may have recognised him from Flo Rida's Wild Ones music video which was also filmed at the dropzone.

Talking to Kenny

He was awesome and funny and then we were away! A lot of the skydivers loved my painted flag nails and Skydive Dubai is very well known for being an international drop zone.

A cart then took us to the plane and then slowly team by team, we went into the plane. As soon as we got in, the plane took off. All together there were four jumpers; me, mum and two other guys. We also had fun/ solo jumpers in the plane with us. Slowly one by one our camera men filmed us by asking us final questions and after that we undid the seat belts and made it to the exit of the plane.

The stunning view of the Arabian Gulf,
the Palm Jumeriah with the incredibly
Atlantis hotel on the end. It was so
breathtaking to see a man made island on
such an iconic level and to see everything
from an ariel view. I felt like I was looking
at Google Maps or something but in HD.

I looked at the camera to stop
myself looking down and it all happened so quickly! All I remember seeing was a flash of white and then suddenly falling and seeing my cameraman in front of me, I couldn't actually breathe with the wind, but it was such an amazing feeling, I forgot about everything and just enjoyed the breathtaking moment (literally).

The exit

 After about 3 minutes, the main parachute went up and from there everything went extremely quite and peaceful with the stunning scenic view of Dubai and the Skyline. My cameraman had had landed so he could film us coming down. Sandrine then asked me if I wanted to pilot and it was incredible to control a parachute and to think I was kind of in charge of our lives! I then gave it back to her and she was able to land us softly onto the grass, where Kenny was ready to film me!

After the Jump

Parachute Opening

Hands down the best experience money can buy! It's very strange to think you're throwing yourself out of a plane and then saving yourself with a parachute but the whole experience and the people are so amazing, and there is no turning back!

My mum then landed after me and she was the last to jump, after that we went inside, took off the harnesses and got our key for the lockers where all our stuff was. We had to wait for around 40 minutes for our DVD's to be made.

Our DVD's

 In this time, I put my name on the waiting list to jump again and went outside to see the other jumpers land.
I also met the inspirational Chris Colwell who is a motivational speaker and works at the drop zone! He used to be a Skydive instructor but he had an accident and is now quadriplegic, he has a huge following on YouTube and social media and an amazing person.

Me and Chris

With him, I also spotted a girl who was with him and she was also from the UK and talking to Chris, we began to talk and she was also a Patel! Her name was Nasim and she finished studying and was always back and fourth from the UK and Dubai.

Nasim and Chris

Since my camera died, Chris took our picture on his phone an put it on his Facebook and told me to add him as a friend, when I added him as a friend, I also added Rene by mistake as it came in the suggestions. Anyways we began talking and I told him I was going to do AFF in summer and how I wanted to jump with him. He was super awesome talking to and maybe one day I might be able to jump with him.
Shortly after talking to Chris and Nasim, Nasim went to jump and me and my mum went into their newly built cafe!

 It was really nice and we ordered some yummy slushys to keep us cool in the blazing weather. After this she picked up the DVD's whilst I went to talk to Chris again. We took some more pictures and then started talking about YouTube. I then went back into the Cafe and started to watch their videos on their big screen in there. After this I was on the waiting list and was waiting all day in hope to jump again, but the chances were very little! After Nasim's jump she came to talk to us and we talked for a really long time about University, business, school, the UK and basically everything. Later on since we knew I wasn't going to be able to jump again, we went to the merchandise store and bought some stuff and left.

Funnily we came back the next day to the drop zone and since we were slightly late, the wait list was crazy and I couldn't jump, so we went to Dubai Mall. The following day we came back super early and although my name was first on the list, there was a sandstorm and they announced no jumps for the next two days, I bought my GoPro there, ready for Ferrari world and on that day we went to Emirates Mall and the following day we went to Ferrari World!
I didn't book my jump twice online because I didn't know how the first one would go, anyways if you plan to go, book in advance! I booked my jump 3 months in advance. It was an amazing experience and just a week later The Prince and Michael Schumacher were at the drop zone, little did I know he was a keen skydiver until Skydive Dubai on twitter sent me articles!

Full experience video:

My Jump video:

Mother daughter jump:

My draw my life experience where I mentioned the jump:

My dream now is definitely to complete AFF and do this someday!

Ferrari World Tour:

Blue Skies and Soft Landings, I will see you again soon!