It is rightly said ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’…
I had my
dreams of Blue Skies and Deep Blues Seas and I realised my dreams exactly the
way I had imagined. The completion of the 300th skydive flight at Eloy,
Arizona, USA was one of them....I was on cloud nine after the dive....I reached
my epitome of excitement. It is not easy to reach this landmark…the dive was also
special to me since it came after a deadly experience. A few days ago, I had my
first ‘cutaway’ when my main parachute failed to open and I had to deploy my
reserve parachute at 1500 feet and the canopy opened around 800 feet. A couple
of seconds more and I would have been history. However, I emerged a winner as I
am now a ‘C’ Licence holder of the USPA
(United States Parachute Association).
Faith in your dreams can make things possible,
till last year I even did not know swimming in fact I was aqua phobic......but
this year I have attained Master certification in Scuba Dive by PADI
(Professional Association of Diving Instructors), USA. Now, I can whirl the
ocean currents at a depth of 30 meters with ease. Proudly, I have done it more
than 150 times. I do not see any hurdle for newcomers to take up adventure
sports.
I strongly believe the end of one challenge is
just the beginning of the new challenge. I prolifically realised my dreams by
getting professionally trained in mountaineering in Adventure, Basic and
Advance courses from the Nehru Institute of Mountaineering, Uttarkashi and the
Himalayan Mountaineering Institute, Darjeeling. For skydiving I trained with
Perris Valley Skydiving at Los Angeles, USA. For BASE Jumping I trained with
Apex BASE at Salt Lake, Utah, USA and have more than 45 jumps to my credit. To
learn scuba diving I trained at Havelock and Neil Islands, Port Blair and at
Phuket, Thailand.
You start to train - you gain confidence and learn
about endurance. It is an endurance that is an exploration, pushing to find
something new, looking for the edge. At 40 plus I have found opportunities with
my endurance. Frankly, there is no need to get scared of extreme sports. One
can face fears with strength and right training. It’s like a flow chart which
keeps you on the move and connects you with your inner self. After being bedridden
for 6 months and undergoing surgery for back pain I never thought I will do
adventure sports ever again but destiny had something else stored for me. I
never looked back, just focused on my aim and started skydiving 4 years back.
Achievements make you strong; this realization
came to me after the Kuala Lumpur BASE (Building, Antenna, Span, Earth) Jumping
festival in 2010 where I was the only Indian woman among 120 jumpers from 22
countries.
Hope
to climb the mountains, scuba dive the oceans, jump off aircrafts and building
with fellow Indians soon!
Archana Sardana
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