The sky’s the limit as E.M.A throws herself out of a plane
| 3rd December 2021
It seems like the UAE is the place to be. With Expo 2020 kicking off last month in Dubai and its surrounding Emirates attracting celebrities from around the globe, including Breaking Bad’s Bryan Cranston and Usain Bolt while Jessica Alba and Zac Efron’s new tourism ad continues a captivating saga that entices just about everyone and anyone to visit.
But it’s not all about Expo, beach clubs and camels, the UAE is also famous for its extreme sports and having all that sand space out in the Arabian desert you can see why it’s a paradise for any adrenaline junky. From dune bashing, fat biking, sand boarding to ski diving, there’s certainly plenty of action for thrill seekers to experience.
So, myself and my ‘mad for it’ friend Lorna Bancroft are test driving some of these extreme experiences just for you, VIVA readers! (You’re welcome!) Starting off with Abu Dhabi Skydive…
E.M.A & Lorna Bancroft
ABU DHABI SKYDIVE
Abu Dhabi Skydive is the home to world class skydivers from around the globe including Spanish champion Carla Taboada Belver and world champion Gleb Kolesnikov.
Situated in the desert of Abu Dhabi just before the Dubai border, Abu Dhabi Skydive is popular with the UAE Royal family plus A listers such as Will Smith and music stars like Rudimental.
It offers packages for first time skydiving as a tandem, and trust me, you don’t want to be doing your first one on your own!
If you get the buzz and you want to take it a step further by jumping out of a plane on your own, you can join their training school and earn your ‘A’ License. Or for the more experienced, you can pursue formation skydiving, free flying, wing suiting, angle flying, and canopy piloting.
Abu Dhabi Skydive Crew
WHAT TO EXPECT ON ARRIVAL
We drove from Dubai to Abu Dhabi, it was a straightforward run and only took 30min to get to Abu Dhabi Skydive. In the middle of the desert, we came across three metal bunkers and a big landing area, which was obviously where you are supposed to land on your skydive.
Excited but slightly nervous we headed into bunker one to fill out some forms, (don’t forget to take some form of identification with you). After signing our lives away, we got dressed in some rather sexy jump suits then met our tandem jumpers who talked us through what was going to happen when we were up in the sky.
We also met our camera guys who film the whole experience for you from start to finish along with some awesome pictures, (Check out the video HERE)
We then got to harness up and waited for the plane to take us up 13,000 feet into the blasting desert wind.
Thumbs up!
HOW I FELT DOING THE JUMP
I wasn’t that nervous just very excited, up until my Russian tandem man, I was attached to, hung me out of the plane door that is. OMG! I’m not going to lie, it was one of the scariest moments of my life but once we had jumped the adrenalin rush was unreal and I couldn’t stop laughing.
We free fell for 50 seconds at a speed of over 200km per hour (which was my favourite bit of the whole experience) whilst making some extremely funny faces and DJ moves at the camera man, then the parachute came up and it was a five-minute relaxing flight down to the ground soaking up the views across Abu Dhabi.
The landing was a lot easier than I thought it would be and I landed on my feet. Result.
Free Falling DJ moves...
THE AFTERMATH
Being a DJ I get a pretty big buzz performing in front of thousands of people, but skydiving is another level, I was still on a high the next day, and yes I’m 100% going to be doing it again and would recommend this experience to anyone wanting the ultimate adrenalin rush!
Great landing!
PRICES
Tandem (including photos and video)
1500AED (£300)
Experience skydivers
100AED per jump (£20)
Teams
80AED per jump (£16)
School (AFF full course package)
8000AED (£1,632)
HOW TO BOOK
Online: http://abudhabiskydive.com/book-now/
Email: info@abudhabiskydive.com
WA: +971 503 133 192
LOCATION
Al Sami – Ext 381
Shk. Maktoom Bin Rashed Str.
Abu Dhabi, UAE