Skydiver Miah Nielson is opening up about what it is like to jump out of a hot air balloon. The 22-year-old shared more details about the unique experience.
"It's such a funny thing to say and admit, but yes, I jump off of hot air balloons with my friends and boyfriend Noah," Nielson told People.
It's an experience that starts early in the morning. It takes time for the hot air balloon to rise thousands of feet in the air. From there, she will jump off the side. "You really can't control where the balloon goes," Nielson said. "Most times we land in random fields. If you're lucky, you land right by your car and then just go straight to grabbing breakfast afterwards."
It's something that she's done since she was 19. "In skydiving, it's a small world," she said. "You always hear people talking about this balloon that you can jump off of, which is a dream for many of us."
Hot Air Balloon Jump
The skydiver revealed that she started crying the first time she did a jump from a hot air balloon. She said was a very unique experience that felt different from normal skydiving.
"The first jump I ever did I cried because of how beautiful and rare this whole experience is," she adds. "This is a perspective of the world most people will never see. It makes you feel so connected to the world, people, and yourself."
"It is dead quiet up in the air, winds are calm — if I whispered, you could hear it," she also said. "When you jump off that balloon, you experience something called 'dead air.' It's this period of time right before the wind catches up with you, when everything is quiet."
"I am scared almost every time I jump," she admits. "Some of the fear is excitement, the other half is because I am about to jump off a hot air balloon thousands of feet above the ground."
"As soon as my feet leave that platform, all of my nerves calm down, and I feel so beyond present," she says. "There's this joy, and wow factor that comes into play. It makes me feel like I'm a little girl getting so excited over just seeing the world with my best friend."
