For my 18th birthday I decided I wanted to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. If you have never gone skydiving you will never understand the rush of it all. I was to do a static line jump. This means I jump out of the airplane alone with a rope tied to the parachute that pulls it open.

I was the first of 4 to jump that day. The instructor opened the small door of the plane and the wind was insane.

Step 1: Climb out the door and grab on to the wing strut with 100 mph + winds making the skin on my face flap

Step 2: hang from the strut and look over at the instructor for the thumbs up as I am dangling from the wing.

Step 3: Release !

I remember my neck snapping back as the static line ripped the chute out of my pack.. then I blacked out for a few seconds… then I remember grabbing at my emergency release… I think I was in shock.. then I looked up and my chute lines were twisted- (like a kid that swung in circles on a swing) I pulled the lines apart and everything seemed ok.  After all that it was an amazing view and a great descent down, floating through the air, it was so quite and peaceful.  As I neared the ground I realized just how fast I was descending. I had a rough landing – flaring up a second too late. It was one hell of a ride.

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I come from a family of hardcore gamblers. My grandma once came back from Las Vegas with a sling on her arm. Apparently she pulled the one armed bandit too many times.

I started sneaking into casinos at age 16. Blackjack is my game. I use a special betting strategy- I call it the “Take it , Leave it” method. It’s based on streaks. When I win I take my payoff , if I win again I leave my payoff (doubling my bet)- If I lose I reduce my bet to the minimum and start over. I’m strict to this strategy, I never waiver. The bets can build up fast. For example if you start with $10 here is what could happen with a streak of wins.

Bets- $10 W $10 W $20 W $20 W $40 W $40 W $80 W $80 W $160 W $160 W $320 Lose- start over at $10

If I hit a blackjack the number grows even faster. So it makes the game all about waiting for the streak- but when the streak happens- it’s one hell of a ride.

The above scenario played out for me once. When I was of legal age. When I got to $320 level (and the entire table is looking at me like “who is this crazy kid?” including the pitboss who must of thought I was a card counter) I got an 11 against the dealers 15 showing. I had to double down- no breaking strategy… $640 total bet ! And I got my 10 for a 21 ! … I lost the next hand and dropped back down to 10 bucks. But it was one hell of a rush for a young kid like me to bet $640 on one hand of blackjack.

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