Travis on Costa Rica Sky Dive

Yesterday we skydove onto a black beach right in front of our hotel. We did a bad job at spotting our jump. We exited the heli a few miles out to sea. at first none of us were paying attention, i was trying to stand on Jim’s back and surf while plamber filmed on from underneath… when i noticed where we were i started to track hard towards shore! This caught the other’s attention and jim started tracking right behind me. i had a slow chute made for opening low and fast but not to go anywhere. Plamber had a high speed chute for swooping so he opened high and had no problems. jim oppened high as well and his chute was in between both of ours. i decided incorectly that i could track further in freefall than i could under my canopy. i made it about a mile and a half towards shore before opening and didn´t have a chute release because it was a base jumping rig. there was no way for me to get away from the chute. i got close but landed about 3 football fields away from shore… the waves were 8´to 10´ and i landed right in them. went under water for about 45 seconds. all tangled in the chute and couldn´t get out. popped up for a second then got pummeled again and the chute took off with the wave… made it all the way to shore which took about 30 seconds under water… some surfers saved my life before the current sucked my chute back out to shore. we were about a mile from andy bell and the rest of the nitro crew. they were coming fast but i was surprised to look up and see my next door neighbor from maryland, andy ross, running down the beach to help me… yeah, we had no idea andy was even on the same beach… thought i was haloucinating; jim landed just past the waves… we had about a 30 mile an hour tail wind or we would have landed at least a mile out. anyway… rather be lucky than good any day.