In this new installment of Behind the Mark of Odin we are going to talk about skydiving, a high-altitude sport that has a great influence and importance in different parts of the plot of The Mark of Odin: The Awakening. Not for nothing, Luis Odén, the main protagonist of the story is an elite parachutist.

Many of you may have wondered why Luis was a parachutist and the prominence he is given at certain moments in history. Since he was little he had always dreamed of flying, whether at the controls of an airplane or imagining being able to do it myself. Feeling the air against your face while you move at full speed through the air is an indescribable experience.

That is why when I started with the idea of writing the book and determined that the main character had to be a skydiver, I had to be able to personally experience what it felt like to jump out of a plane to be able to adequately convey it with words. Thus, I had the perfect excuse that gave me the courage to realize one of my great dreams, to start in the exciting world of skydiving.

I was lucky that in Seville there is a Skydiving Club with wonderful and professional people, with whom I had the honor of starting out, getting my skydiving license and proving that I was capable of doing it, of jumping from a plane at more than a thousand meters. high and know what it felt like.

I have to tell you that skydiving, beyond what you may think, is a very “simple” sport. There are four basic rules that one must master in order to practice it. So in this sense it seems a thousand times easier to me than others I have practiced. Obviously, jumping from a plane requires courage, a sincere desire to enjoy that experience and, above all, having the ability to react to unforeseen events. Let’s not fool ourselves, making a fatal mistake in the air is much more serious than if we are riding a bicycle.

Possibly one of the hardest moments when practicing the sport is the ascent in a small plane to the optimal jumping height. Being squeezed together with your companions and suddenly having the door open and the air rushing in at 250 km/h is quite a shock, which makes more than one person back away. But if we maintain our temper, the most difficult thing comes, approaching the door and when we arrive we have the key moment. The one in which we prepare to jump and see the world, down there, so small, so insignificant, but at the same time so great. The first reaction one has is to think “you’re crazy, what are you going to do!” But if you overcome that trance, since there is no turning back, you push yourself and launch yourself…

I don’t think I can ever forget my first jump. I was afraid, because I’m going to deceive you, but in the end I told myself that if I had come this far I couldn’t turn back. So I jumped in and everything was an adrenaline explosion. The first seconds of the jump are like a black hole, the mind is incapable of processing them, but when the parachute opens (keep in mind that the first jumps one makes are always automatic), you look up and see the plane moving away a little. new world opens for you. You check that the parachute has opened properly, normally the ropes get a little tangled, but nothing that can’t be solved with a few tugs. Once you have verified that everything is ok, you take the controls and now you have to enjoy…

And how enjoyable it is, dear readers, imagine the feeling of floating while you see all the marshes of Doñana, the city of Seville, even the city of Huelva if you sharpen your eyesight. That was my first vision when I jumped, a marvel. The truth is that up there, after the initial rush of adrenaline, I felt an immense sensation of peace and tranquility. It seemed like I was alone with the world in the distance watching. When it comes to descending with the parachute, things vary depending on our desire to play. To accelerate, brake, make loops and never forget what our landing point is. More than anything because if we walk away then the walk back can be nice.

When we are less than three hundred meters away we must begin the final approach maneuvers to our desired landing point. You must always take into account the direction of the wind. Since if we have it facing us it will slow us down and we will have a smooth landing. On the other hand, if we have it behind us it will accelerate us and we may have to roll a little when we fall. If done right, landing is just as abrupt as descending a step on a ladder. Nothing special. In my jumps I have had a little of everything, from soft landings to abrupt ones, like when I had to do it in a field of sunflowers. But don’t worry, as I have told you, the training is good and the rules are very basic, so even in the worst of situations, if you follow them strictly there is nothing to worry about.

This is all for now, in a future installment I will go into more depth about this sport, its influence on Luis’s character and the idiosyncrasies of HALO (High Altitude, Low Openness) jumps.

Meanwhile, if you are curious and want to get started in this exciting aerial world, I recommend that you take a look at the Seville Skydiving Club website and its Facebook page. With them you can take either the initiation course (includes two days, one theoretical and the other with three automatically opening jumps) or do a tandem jump to try the experience. Do you dare?