vertigo

The setup was basically very simple. It resembled a gigantic swing. There were two crane towers from which a passenger car with two seats was suspended using elastic cables, the other ends of which were attached to huge machines, on either side of the towers. Basically this machine would stretch the cable to produce the elastic force necessary to catapult the seat, together with its couple of passengers, into the air.

Adrenaline already pumping from our previous ride, and even more so, after watching somebody else do what we would be doing in a couple of minutes, I perhaps mistook our hearts pounding for a distant drum beat!.
Anyhow, we had taken the tickets, and now there was no turning back. Even after we saw the reaction of the present sufferers on the tv screen.!!

Finally it was time. It was our turn now. We approached the seat.

The guy in the United jacket, who ran the ride, instructed us to remove any loose items we had with us. Which meant, everything in our pockets. Purse. Tickets. Money.Batteries!. Even the ear-shield for the cold!
All set, and we approached the seat. The seat was now fixed to the ground, using what was probably an electromagnetic latch, and was just big enough for one person to sit fairly comfortably.

The guy who ran the ride, fastened our seat-belts. He pulled down the safety harness and locked it. We were to hold on to it for our dear lives. A camera was pointed to our faces, for others to see and enjoy our reactions.

****
Lorenz has said, that a small change in initial conditions can result in perhaps a cataclysmic crash of the system. I wondered if I was keeping my leg in the correct angle :P.

I could guess that my co-passenger was actually perhaps ten times as tensed as me. :P :P :D

But we were all set.

The machines started whirring, stretching the cables.

One guy behind us, whom we couldn't see, and perhaps would never see :D started counting in hangul.

"sette..."

We could hear the whirring sound of the machine, and see the people watching us.


"dul...."

Tension gripped us, we couldn't even pray.
Our fingers automatically clutched as hard as they could onto the safety harness.


"hana..."

We could perhaps have heard our hearts beat, but we had become oblivious to everything except that voice behind us.

A second could not be any longer.

We were just sitting there, waiting to hear him say it.

"GOOOO....!!!"

The click sound of the latch, and that was it. We felt our seat being pulled up.



****

Darkness. Pitch black.


For a moment I had closed my eyes.

I opened my eyes, and it was fantastic.

We were moving towards the sky, and at what speed!!. We were literally being catapulted upwards. The air resisting our motion, striking against our face with good force,as we were flying. We could see the sky, and nothing else. Oh my!!, am not I lost for words. It was nothing sort of beautiful.


Then came the pause.

The tiny second. The little moment when we stopped. Fifty meters up in the sky, and we were still. The world was in suspended animation before us. It is interesting, how much you can observe in a tiny second. The huge roof of a factory in the distance. The ferris wheel. The people below us. The trees in the distance. The birds flying. Oh, it was beautiful.

It is brilliant how the world works, isn't it?; you are actually flying towards the sky, and a moment later you realize you are now tumbling towards the ground.

We were doing exactly that. Tumbling towards the ground. Free fall. Accelerating freely at nine point eight metres per second squared. The wind pushing against us. It was chaos. Our seat was rotating. We were rotating. The whole world was rotating in front of our eyes. One moment the sky was in front of us. The next moment the ground. Then the sea and the port, albeit upside down. It was utter chaos. Disorder, and disorienting. It was unbelievable, and yet it was brilliant.

Finally, we stabilized. We slowed down. We got our bearings right, and faced the correct direction, towards the horizon. We were calm. The adrenalin was pumping out. The cables were now relaxed.
Finally we reached the ground.

****

I don't exactly remember whose crazy idea it was, but one of us told the guy in the united jacket for one more ride, free!!

And lo and behold, he agreed.

So we went through the motions again. But this time there was lesser unpredictability, but the fun was no lesser.

I have to concede that this catapult ride was on of the most 'funkk' experiences I have had. But I heard bungee jumping was even 'funk'ier. So next time I am going to try that. ;)

And it would have been even more interesting if we could have seen our reactions on tv.