I’ve never actually had the urge to skydive before, but when I heard a friend of ours wanted to celebrate his birthday by going indoor skydiving at iFLY Toronto, I was in!
I really had no idea what to expect at all. I just knew I was excited!
iFly Toronto is located in the Oakville Entertainment Centrum in Oakville, Ontario. Children aged 4 and up are able to experience the free-fall sensation in the tunnel. Once I heard the minimum age requirement I knew that I shouldn’t be scared since apparently even children can handle it.
Once we arrived at iFLY we were met with a front desk that reminded me of a check-in desk at the airport.
We already had a much needed reservation (the evening was totally booked), we were weighed to assist with the air pressure of our flight, and then we checked-in via their touch screen computers.
Next we headed upstairs to sit in the viewing area. This is where we could watch other groups skydiving! I started to get a little nervous at this point. Were we seriously going to do this? I knew nothing about skydiving. Sure everyone looked like they were having fun, but weren’t they terrified?
We were brought into a training room where we watched a video explaining our skydive, and we met our flight instructor. He allowed us to practice some of the signals we would use during our dive, and ask any questions we had.
We then went to change into our tunnel gear which included a flight suit, goggles, earplugs, and a helmet. The nervousness was increasing!
Finally we were ready to fly! We all had a seat in the waiting area where we could take turns for our flight time. The package we chose included two flights which were 2 minutes each. That may sound short, but it actually felt like a lifetime!
Its hard to explain what it felt like. It’s like there was no way you could stand up straight or fall over – you had no choice but to just fly.
It was really fun. It was like nothing I’d ever experienced, and I felt super safe with our flight instructor right beside us every second of the flight. There was no way I was going to fly off into the sky or, or fall to the ground.
IFLY Toronto also hosts birthday parties which sounds like an amazing and unique idea!
I would really like to go back and try out iFLY again. I realized later I was only breathing through my nose with my mouth nervously pried shut so I felt a little panicky, and I couldn’t fully enjoy myself. I really want to try again and see if I can relax more and enjoy the flight!
for more information visit www.iflytoronto.com.