OC HIGH / STUDENT NEWS AND VIEWS : On Edge : SKY-DIVING : What’s it like to take it to the max? To plummet to earth in a parachute or on a bungee cord? To hang suspended from a glider? Here is what students who participate in such “daredevil” activities have to say about their experiences.

Jumping out of an airplane would appear to be an activity grounded in insanity.

After all, it’s traditionally been reserved for emergency escapes from flaming single-engines. But sky-diving has become a thrill-seeker’s sport.

It’s the ultimate version of bungee-jumping. It starts out the same--with a flying leap--but sky-diving affords you no no last-minute tether to sling you back. With sky-diving it’s all or nothing.

And the promised adrenaline rush is the exact reason why Sunny Hills junior Chris Winkler decided to do it. “I’m a thrill-seeker,” he said.

Winkler let his cousin drag him to do it last year. But before be could get in the plane, he and all other prospective participants had to take a sky-diving class. They were versed in emergency procedure and safe landing and basically told what to expect out of a jump.

And before anyone could back out, the jumpers were fitted with parachutes and taken up in an airplane.

“They took us out over the desert, and then they just opened the door and we had to jump,” Winkler said. “I kind of hesitated at the door, but I had to do it. I didn’t want to have to go back down in the plane.

“But I wasn’t that scared.”

According to Winkler, right as you jump out of the plane you feel that “falling” sensation, when your stomach kind of jumps into your throat. But after a few seconds, “you get used to it” and can enjoy the ride.

After a little while, Winkler pulled the cord on his parachute and sailed down to a sort of rough-and-tumble landing. “I landed and then fell down and got a lot of bruises.”

But he liked it enough to give it another shot a few months later. That time, they just went up, no training.

“I wasn’t as scared the second time,” Winkler said. “I waited longer before pulling the cord on the parachute.”

In case the first cord doesn’t work, there’s a second emergency cord on the parachute. But, he added, “If the second cord doesn’t work, you’re screwed.”

Winkler, however, never really thinks about the danger aspect of sky-diving; he figures it’s part of the fun. “That’s what makes it exciting.”

Melody McGrath is a senior at Sunny Hills High School in Fullerton. This article first appeared in the school paper, The Accolade.