By one of those coincidences of life, around 1994, I accompanied a good friend to make his first skydive at the Costa Brava Skydiving Center in Empuriabrava (Girona, Spain). It was a tandem jump (tied to an instructor), and I was just accompanying him to watch the spectacle, but with no intention of jumping out of an airplane... in fact, I had always said that the experience must be beautiful, but don’t ask me to do it!!!

Once my friends had completed all the official paperwork before jumping, Anna Dalmau, who was in charge of the Skydiving Center’s office at the time, asked me... Why don’t you jump? The minutes following that question were terrible... I was torn between reason and recklessness... eventually, I was convinced, and within minutes I was on a beautiful white airplane... a Pilatus Porter PC6, one of the best airplanes for practicing this sport.

I will never forget that first flight on the small plane... during the ascent, the views of the Empordà, the Costa Brava, and the Canigó welcoming the entire Pyrenees Mountain Range were a spectacle for my eyes, until the pilot broke the spell and signaled that it was two minutes to jump...

Up there, at 4000 meters, I thought I had gone crazy, until suddenly the door opened and the emptiness was in front of me...

Then everything happened very quickly... the instructor (Laurent Lobjoit, “Lob” to friends) had me get into position, we approached the door, and... what a first moment! We were in freefall, with nothing under our feet, in the void in the most literal sense of the word, but the sensation I had was of floating... there was no panic, just peace of mind... a feeling I had never experienced before, an experience that only birds could describe...

At 1500 meters, after falling for almost a minute, the parachute opened, and before me was another spectacle: the canals of Empuriabrava and the Bay of Roses in all its splendor. At that moment, I turned to the instructor and said almost crying with emotion... This won’t be the last time I jump!!!!

That day my life took a turn... this sport changed my life and helped me appreciate the smaller things. This sport has taught me to work as a team. This sport has taught me not to get overwhelmed at the first obstacle and to always try to see the glass half full, relativizing the most seemingly unsolvable problems “a priori.” This sport... or perhaps this life philosophy has taught me to overcome life’s fears, but above all, it has given me great moments and happiness, which I have tried to pass on to everyone around me.

Today, with more than 4000 jumps, and almost 15 years since that first jump into the void, I am happy to say that I have had the great fortune of participating and achieving 2 world records in Large Formation Freefall, a Guinness World Record for Mass Parachuting, several national titles, and many very, very special jumps.

It is for all of this, and for everything that Skydiving has given me in my journey through life, that I want to pay a small tribute to it in this weblog and the reason why I want to share it with all of you...

... and just as Anna did with me back in that far-off year of 1994, I ask you... Why don’t you jump?