Today, we are at Canada Olympic Park in Alberta, also known as Winsport.
This is where the 1988, Winter Olympics was held. It was at that time the first Jamaican bobsled team, competed in the Olympics. It inspired a movie called “Cool Runnings”. I watched that movie when I was younger, back in the Philippines, but never even dreamt that I would be in the same area. I didn’t even make the connection between movie, and Jamaican bobsled that was on display during my first few visits. I only made the connection when I re-watched the movie on Netflix a few months back.
We are here for one very specific activity, “Free Fall”. At the time of filming this is the latest addition to the Park. You can go for 1 jump or 2 jumps, if you’re doing this to face your fear of heights, one should be enough. If you’re doing this for fun I’d say, do the 2 jumps. It’s 24.99 for one jump, and 34.99 for two jumps.
They have more activities here in the summer like the summer bobsled, zip-line, mini golf and luge.
Looking at the jump platform, it looked really high. 80 foot drop they say. I tried to research on the jump before I went, and came across this video by Danny Austin from the Calgary Herald and Calgary Sun.
He got all his gear hooked up, all that was left was to jump. And after 45 minutes of standing on the ledge, he calls it off. I feel bad for him, because he had to do this for work, at least for me, I choose to be here, I wanted to do this.
It might seem the first thing you want to do, is look down. If you’re already afraid of heights, just don’t, just don’t look down.
The harness and system looks really safe. They had a redundant line as well, that is in parallel with the main line. George explained in detail what I can expect, and what to do, like gripping line for comfort, it doesn’t do anything. It’s more for your mind. For it to think that it’s secure, because you’re holding on to something. He also went over how to take off from the platform, “it’s a step, not a jump”.
If they offer to count down, just say yes, it might not seem much, but if you have a cue to step forward, it helps you to just go for it. Biggest tip of all, look forward, enjoy the view of Calgary.
The free fall in video land is short, but for me, it was definitely longer. The feeling of weightlessness is just great. They said it’s just like skydiving, but I haven’t tried that yet. The most similar experience I can compare it to, is a roller coaster, but without the bulky harness, and coming from a really steep angle, and also that last more than a second. Having no bulky harness at all, I feel so free. You can just get immerse in the experience.
Time for a second jump. To be transparent, I think this was easier for me to do, because, I did something like this before. When I visited the Philippines a few years back, I went cliff diving. Although the height of the diving boards is not even half of this.
When I got down from my second free fall, someone said to me that my lips were so white. They asked me if it was windy up there, and I said yes. I’ll just go with that, it was windy and Calgary so dry, that’s why my lips were white. I did forget my lip balm after all. Yah, I’ll just go with that, it’s not that I was so scared that my lips turned white, it was just windy.
Let me know in the comments below if you’re considering doing this. And if you did it, did you step off right away or, did take you a few minutes, to gather courage to step off.
Thanks for watching please like and share. Plus, don’t forget to subscribe for more adventure like this on my bucket.
Music: https://www.bensound.com
Cool Runnings: http://movies.disney.com/cool-runnings
Danny Austin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UaKwqBOUNMw
Calgary Olympic Park: https://www.winsport.ca/
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