8g was probably from the parachutes deploying, although you do experience very slightly more than 1g acceleration while in freefall, as you encounter increasing air resistance (and significantly more in reentry).

Atmospheric reentry is more than 1g

https://www.quora.com/What-is-the-acceleration-of-the-space-...

The reentry forces could definitely exceed 1g and usually do from orbital velocity. You're moving sideways however fast the rocket left you going, and you have fallen at 1g acceleration for some amount of time before hitting thicker parts of the atmosphere. Your velocity is now way higher than terminal velocity for that altitude and you experience acceleration (deceleration).

Whey you are falling in a vacuum, it's not 1g, but 0g. That's what they experience on orbit. When you are falling with atmosphere resistance, it can be anything. Consider yourself jumping into water. You feel weightless when you are falling, but what do you feel when you hit the water? That's what happens when you hit atmosphere at 8km/sec.