Today, my mom planned a “family adventure” that took us to iFly at Universal City Walk.  I had never heard of “indoor skydiving” before, but I guess there are several facilities around the country (see this WSJ article).   iFly is a vertical wind tunnel that simulates the free fall experience. 

I’ve gone actual skydiving once.  It was tandem, and for me, the biggest thrill was jumping out of the airplane and backflipping through the initial acceleration.  That’s when your stomach flips and you have the “oh geez, am I actually doing this??” moment.

Once you hit terminal velocity, you feel like you’re floating.  However, since I went tandem, some of the sensation was lost:  you don’t feel like you’re completely “free falling” since you’re anchored to the instructor above you. 

The cool thing about iFly was that you got to move around and, well, fly.  Not to boast or anything, but I was a bit of a natural.  :)  The instructor showed off at the end – it’s really quite amazing the acrobatics they can do in the tunnel.

p.s.  This post is in both “life” and “work” because I used Silverlight Streaming, Expression Encoder, and Windows Live Writer.  Check out these posts on how to do it:  Ian Moulster’s and Angus Logan’s.

all suited up!

 starting to float

look, no hands!

the video streaming in silverlight!  the instructor (his name was Radio) let me “take off” my second time….