It was one of those chance occurrences that happen in life, somewhere around 1994 when I went with a good friend to make his first jump at the Costa Brava Skydiving Center of Empuriabrava (Girona - Spain). It was to be a tandem jump (tied with a harness to an instructor) and I was just going along with my friend to check out the scene and watch the show, but I didn't have the slightest intention of throwing myself into the blue from a plane...in fact I had always said that it must be a beautiful experience, but they could count me out!!! 

Once all the official paperwork had been completed before the jump, Anna Dalmau, who at that time managed the office at the Skydiving Center, asked me...and you, why don't you jump? The minutes following that question were terrible...I debated between sanity and excitement...finally they convinced me to do it and in a few minutes I found myself flying in a handsome white plane...a PC6 Pilatus Porter, one of the most superb aircrafts for practicing this beautiful sport. 

I'll never forget that first climb up in that plane...during the ascent the views of l'Empordà, the Costa Brava and the Canigó with the Pyrenees Mountain Range beyond provided a glorious feast for my eyes until the pilot broke this enchantment by announcing only two minutes left before the jump... 

Up there in the sky, at an altitude of 4000 meters, I thought I surely must have gone mad, and then suddenly the door opened and the whole vast space was there at my feet... 

Then it all happened very fast...the instructor (Laurent Lobjolt, "Lob" to his friends) made me get into the jump position, we approached the door and...what first moments those were...we found ourselves 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, without panic, only a peacefulness of spirit... a sensation unlike anything I had ever experienced until that moment, an experience only the birds could describe... 

At 1500 meters, after almost a minute of freefall, the parachute opened and my eyes were greeted by another great spectacle:  the Empuriabrava Marina and the Bay of Roses in all their splendor. At that moment I turned to my instructor and, almost weeping with emotion, said...this won't be the last time I jump!!! 

That day changed my life...this sport has changed my life and has helped me evaluate the most insignificant things. This sport has taught me how to work as part of a team. This sport has taught me not to make snap judgments and to always try to see the glass half full, finding relativity in the most unsolvable problems "a priori". This sport...or perhaps this philosophy of life has taught me how to overcome fear, but above all it has given me moments of great happiness which I have tried to transmit to all those who surround me and whose path has crossed mine in life. 

Today, with more than 4000 jumps under my belt, and more than 15 years after that first jump into the blue, I'm happy to be able to say that I've had the good fortune to participate in and obtain 2 World Records for the Biggest Freefall Formation, a Guiness World Record for Mass Canopy Flight, various national gold medals and various special, but very special jumps. 

It is for all these reasons, and because of all Skydiving has given to me in my walk through life, that I'd like to offer it a small homage in this weblog and share it with all of you... 

...and as Anna did with me in that now-distant year of 1994, I ask you... and you, why don't you jump?