I can’t even begin to articulate the insanity of this day, so please bear with me while I attempt to recreate everything for you all.

After our night out, I did one of my typical “wake up 5 minutes before I need to go somewhere” act, and I had a decent headache from the night before, so there was DEFINITELY a moment where I almost decided to climb back into bed and skip sandboarding.

I am SO glad I didn’t.

We got picked up by a local guide and were transported out of the city and into the desert in a matter of minutes… we met up with a few other people who would be joining in our morning, got handed boards and boots and started our first hike up the dune.

Since we’d already done a dune hike, we were prepared for the intensity of it, but that doesn’t negate the fact that we were all likely just a BIT dehydrated from the night before, so I’m sure that didn’t quite help us very much either. There was plenty of water along the way though, so we easily rehydrated ourselves on the first hike. Once we reached the top, we all sat down and the guides gave us instructions for sandboarding, helped us wax our boards (apparently with floor polish, who knew!), and then started us off.

Now, I’ve never done snowboarding because I’m TERRIBLE at skateboarding and I’ve always figured having my feet STRAPPED to the board would be much worse. Plus, with my ACL reconstruction, I just figured it was a bad idea…. So CLEARLY sandboarding was a brilliant plan, right?

Right.

Needless to say, I was kind of apprehensive about the first run. However, when in Africa, right? When would I really have a chance to do something like this again?

So I strapped the board on and just went for it.

It was SO much fun!

Apparently all of my derby has paid off, because the guides were super impressed when I came back up and they were freaking out about how “great” my balance was for my first run. Effing awesome. After the first run, the head guide asked if any of us wanted to try the jump.

Truth be told, what ran through my head was, “well, I’m jumping out of an airplane this afternoon, so why not do a one meter jump on my sandboard?” Annnnnd that’s how I became the first one in our group to go off the jump.

As with the theme for the day, SO glad I did it!

On average people get in 6 runs down the dune, so going off the jump on the second run meant that I would get 4 more shots on the standing up board to do the jump. Hellll yeah. Practice makes perfect, right?

The jump was SO easy – essentially you just go straight forward and gravity pulls you over the jump, and once you hit the sand, you turn into your strong side and board down the dune. By the time you even REALIZE you’re doing the jump, it’s over and you’re turning and feeling like a total badass.

I did another run doing the jump and then we swapped to the laying down board. That one was “easier” technically, but I actually ended up hating it! If you pull the board too high (and you have to pull it with youru hands to keep the sand out of your face to begin with), you’ll catch air going over the dunes, and you SLAM back into the ground and it kind of knocks the wind out of you. Yuck.

It was pretty neat though, and some of the others really liked it, so they did another run and some of us went back to the stand up board. The coolest part of the laydown board was that they speed gunned us as we flew by – Lauren had the fastest time at 75k, but I hit 73k which was quite fast enough for me.

I hit the standing up jump run 2 more times before we had to turn in for the day – on the last one I actually went off the jump and straight into my board route down. Can’t tell you how spectacular that felt after thinking I would be awful at boarding in general.

We had lunch at the bottom of the dune and then we trooped back to the Amanpuri Lodge where we were staying, which conveniently also houses the Skydive Swakopmund office, so we could get ready for our afternoon Skydive.

We rolled in and were shown upstairs to the Skydive office, where we picked if we wanted video or anything, and then paid for our choices and our skydives. We also signed the indemnity paperwork, gave our emergency contact info, and then we hopped in ANOTHER van to head to the jump site.

When we arrived, they told us that we’d be jumping in groups of two based on our weight and type of video we were getting (i.e. if we had a videographer jumping with us as well), and that we could NOT pick the color of our suits because the colors are size based so we needed to suck it up for all of those things and not complain. We all figured that was fair.

Silia and Jane were first, so they got suited up and hopped into the plane and they were off!

About 10 minutes after they left, the next team came out to call the next jumpers, and it was Amaury and myself.

Phew.

I hate, HATE waiting and I knew if I had to wait all afternoon I was going to totally psych myself out. Amaury and I got our jumpsuits and harnesses and met our tandem guides. Basically in order to tandem you need to get a bunch of certifications and have a MINIMUM of 400 jumps (videographers only need a minimum of 80, for comparison’s sake). We both wear harnesses and the tourist’s has 4 connection points where huge caribeeners are clipped into the guide’s harness. The guide has 2 chutes and a bunch of other gear – the only other thing I got was a pair of goggles.

You can see in this photo that I’m SUPER nervous and trying to hide it – but when we got on the plane I was shaking like a little leaf. It was so bad that the guide was constantly patting my arm… hah. The plane actually scared me more than the jump, when I look back on it. First of all, there’s NO DOOR. So you’re just chillin on this plane with a big open side to it…. And then the insides are all taped up with duct tape… so when you look out the missing side or the window you can see straight down into nothingness. And the flight before the jump is 20 minutes… so you’re up there for QUITE a while. It’s really nice when you’re not panicking about jumping out of a plane (Silia actually said that she debated whether it would be worse to die by hitting the ocean or by hitting the ground, if that gives you any indication of how nervous we all were), since the guide is actually telling you what you’re looking at and seeing as you’re flying over. Apparently we were right over the site where Mad Max was filmed!

Annnnnd then the moment of truth. One of the guides jumped first to snap photos and video for Amaury, and then Amaury was out. I watched the first photographer jump and almost died inside. Then my videographer was off the plane and I didn’t have a choice. Time to jump.

What’s actually nice is that you sit on the lap of your guide and THEY do the jump, so you just do nothing and you’re off. You can see HOW TERRIFIED I am when you watch the video – I basically make the sexiest face known to humankind right before we jump out. Trust me, it’s epic.

And then all of a sudden you’re in freefall. It’s SUCH a rush – you’re just falling through nothingness in the air for 35 seconds.

Then the chute pops and you kick in the air and you’re floating.

Just you and the air and your guide and silence and scenery and pure nothingness.

Like I said, I can’t even begin to explain the feeling.

After a few minutes of glide, the guide handed me the steering handles and I got to spin us around before having to hand them back so he could land us safely back at the office.

Landing was pretty easy – you just tuck up your feet and the guide lands and tells you when to drop down your legs to stand.

And then you’re back on the ground, wanting to go back up and do it again.

Amaury and I joined Jane and Silia so we could obsess about the experience while everyone else waited for their turns to head up. I ended up taking a nap in the sunshine because I was SO wiped out still from the night before!

You can also check out the 6 minute video of the entire thing if you want to experience some of the rush:

Once everyone jumped, we got the USB bracelets with our videos, and we got to watch them all before we piled back in the van to head back to Amanpuri and get ready for dinner and drinks again.

We ended up heading to an Italian restaurant where we had HUGE meals (think entire pizzas for single human beings) and then seven of the Perfect 10 headed back to Napolitana for another night out, and Silia, Amaury and I headed back to Amanpuri with everyone’s leftovers so we could pass out from sheer exhaustion.