Skydiving was always something I’d been drawn to but had never took the proverbial (and physical) leap to do. And then an inciting incident happened – a chance conversation with my childhood friend Sean at a wedding  – “Do you want to go Skydiving?” He Said. “Yes” I replied. And with those iconic words, a pact was formed. A pact to jump from a plane, attached to another human.

And where was this nerve-wracking feat going to happen? Lancaster, England, of course. Now, I know what you’re thinking – “This is a travel blog. Why are you writing about skydiving above Lancaster?” – well, I think you’ll find that skydiving counts as a form of travel (from a plane towards the ground), and the air far and immediately above Lancaster, as you’ll see, is a destination well worth the visit.

It was March of 2023. We booked the skydive for September. It was time to mentally prepare…

The months leading up to the dive did not bode well. On a visit to the island of Cebu in the Philippines, I signed up to go Canyoneering at a place called Kawasan Falls– a mountainous waterfall complex where you could jump from cliffs and plunge into pools of water below – a good litmus test to how I’d tackle an eventual tumble from 11,000 feet. It started off well with a few short, exciting drops into some refreshing lagoons – a welcome treat to cool down in the baking August heat – with my guide, Jovit, and a member of staff from the falls there to show me where to jump.  And then we arrived at the big one…

In reality it wasn’t THAT big, but that didn’t stop my brain constantly playing images of my head cracking open on hidden rocks, or my legs from locking into place any time I took a step forward towards the edge of the cliff. Jovit and the Kawasan Falls staff member waited patiently at the bottom as I proceeded to step towards the ledge and then backed away…again…and again…and again. I just couldn’t do it. Fear had set in and whilst my brain was telling me to jump, my body was not listening, stopping each time I went towards the edge. The guides below were getting bored. They’d run out of topics for small-talk and my own guide’s arms were aching from holding up my phone to film my plunge. I thought that I’d better hurry up. I had people waiting on me…

A whole hour later…I was still up at the top of that cliff. For one hour this existential back and forth continued whilst I carried out various coping mechanisms – tapping the rocks and branches around me, doing a countdown, saying “come on you Fuck” to myself- all classic stress responses. The blue waters staring up at me from below, almost taunting me. And then, without any reason, I stepped off the edge. And fell.

Before I had any time to register what was happening, I was already under water. For a moment the world was muted in blue. I reached the surface and took in a huge gasp of air. I turned, smiling to Jovit, like a toddler looking for instant approval from his proud father after jumping into the shallow end of the baby pool….He was looking the other way. He turned to see me, an awkward expression on his face. “I didn’t get it on film” he uttered….

I processed what he was saying for a moment. Did I really need a video of this moment? I had a record of my own memory and that was enough right? I didn’t need a little video of every single vaguely notable thing I did in my life did I? I wasn’t THAT corrupted by a need to document everything on my phone was I?….But it WOULD be nice to have a little video on my phone wouldn’t it? Yes it would. Back to the top of the cliff!

I marched back to the top of the cliff. I had already faced my fear. I had done it once and survived and now I’d seen just how easy it was. I stepped towards the edge…and froze again. “But I’ve just done it and survived!” I told my feet. “We have no memory of that!” They yelled. It was time for another 40 minutes of going back and forth between the edge and carrying out various stress responses.

Night was beginning to fall. It was getting dark and I wasn’t anywhere near done yelling at myself to jump off a cliff and then not jumping off a cliff. Jovit, still recording with my phone (I felt incredibly sorry for this man), eventually coaxed me down. I had failed…well, I’d succeeded once…but there was no evidence of this and in trying again I’d completely psyched myself out. With a skydive on the horizon this didn’t look good. All I’d come away with was a feature film of a man having a breakdown on the edge of a big rock (1 hour, 40 mins worth!).

A month later, the day had finally arrived. We’d recruited Sean’s younger brother, Ryan and were headed towards the landing strip. For the journey we were in good spirits, laughing and joking – Freud would have a field day with the intense use of defence mechanisms to deal with the dread that was simmering in our unconscious.

On arrival we were given a safety talk. Preparing to be strapped to someone who was going to be doing most of the work, I had anticipated I would merely be a passenger with no responsibilities for this activity, which made me feel more at ease compared to the canyoneering where I had to take the action of jumping off an edge. Unfortunately, the talk highlighted many areas where I’d be required take certain actions in the moment to avoid danger – “If you don’t hold your body in this position, you will spin out of control”. We were informed. “If you don’t land properly you can shatter your legs”.

We told there was two possible positions for landing we would have to adopt but we wouldn’t know which one it’d be until we were ready to land. They liked to keep it a surprise.

After getting into our harnesses and helmets and meeting our dive instructors, we were assigned videographers who would be filming the dive. It crossed my mind that they might be filming a sequel to “Man has a nervous breakdown on the edge of a cliff” today – “Man has a nervous breakdown on the edge of a plane”.

From the ground we watched the previous time-slot’s participants complete their own sky-dives, ramping up the anticipation further. Then, we were ushered towards the small aircraft, parked close-by. We piled into the back of the plane and then it began to climb.

I kept glancing out of the window. We looked pretty high. “We’re at 2000 feet” someone said.

 Sean’s videographer pointed their camera at him. “Do you think we could go a bit higher Sean?” “Yeah we could go a bit higher!” He replied.

My videographer turned to me “Do you think we could go a bit higher Liam?” “Uh….yeah I think we could go a bit higher”.

From behind me I heard “So Ryan, do you think we could go a bit higher?” “Yeah”.

Suddenly the plane stopped. The door opened. Sean’s videographer stepped out into the sky. Sean was shuffled to the exit by the man attached to him, and then disappeared.

And then it was my turn. I was being shuffled towards the door. I was draped out of the plane. I adopted the expected position, arching myself and looking up, the wind beating on my face. I was strangely calm. I still felt like I was on a nice little plane ride, with the air-con turned way up.

From behind me I heard “Bye Liam” and then we were falling.

It was only about 50 seconds of free-fall but it felt much longer. It didn’t feel like we were moving.  My instructor, Mark’s, hand appeared in front of me to signal to move my legs further back and then suddenly my videographer appeared in front of me, also free-falling but wearing what looked like a flying-squirrel suit. She signalled to me to play up to the camera and I cycled through various hand signals (all the classics- thumbs up, peace sign, a wave to the people at home), before she flew off somewhere else.

Mark pulled his cord and we jolted upwards and backwards as the parachute opened. Now was the time to “relax” and take everything in. We could see for miles – fields, marsh land, the ocean in the near-distance. I’d had this sort of view from an airplane before but this all felt so real and tangible.

It also felt….painful. My harness was pulling up right into my groin. I informed Mark who started to loosen my harness. I felt too awkward telling him the last thing I wanted was to be loosened from him and his parachute, but thankfully I stayed attached to the man that was keeping me alive.

We floated over the Earth. Besides Ryan and Sean and their instructors who I could see in the distance, there was no-one else around. The solitude was strangely peaceful.

After a short while I could make out the landing area ahead. Whilst we glided towards there, Mark gave the signal for my landing position- both legs out straight out ahead.

As I worried about shattering my legs, the Earth appeared beneath me and welcomed me back.

I booked my Skydive with Black Knights Skydiving Centre in Lancaster: https://bkpc.co.uk/

And I went canyoneering (and snorkelling with sardines) with Jovit at Moalboal Snorkelling Activities: Moalboal Snorkelling Activities Facebook