Skydiving For Beginners

[I:1:J]If you dare try the extreme sport of skydiving then you will face the challenge of quite literally diving down from the air and enjoy the spectacular bird's eye view of the world but not without some safety measures. Typically this sport requires you to jump from either a helicopter or an airplane from a small airbase called a drop zone.

Falling Back to Earth

Before getting into this spectacular sport you must know that skydivers jump off a plane at the height of 13,000 feet which is equivalent to 4,000 meters. But that's not all you will experience a state of free fall temporarily before you can open your parachute which will serve as your break to soften your descent until such time you attain a safe and slow speed to land.

In fact, your parachute doesn't fully inflate itself until it reaches the height of 2,500 feet. Part of the reason behind this is that every skydiver follows the rule of having two parachutes. The first parachute is considered the main one while the second is just back-up just in case something happens to the first.

After your parachute gets fully inflated you can now steer it in wherever direction you want and control your speed using the parachute's steering lines. If you're an experienced diver steering your way accurately to a safe landing is an easy task. The basis of skydive competitions are the exactness of your landing in a specified spot and the technique of how you landed.

Aside from preparing yourself for a dive from the plane, activating your parachute and free falling down to the surface, there are actually different areas of specializations in this sport.

Group Formation

Diving in a formation with a group is considered an art. This works by diving and creating a formation while in the state of free fall before breaking off and then opening up your parachute as you land back to the surface. An interesting trivia on this sport is that the world record of skydivers who have performed this is 400 and they were able to stick with their formation for about 4.25 seconds from the height of 25,000 feet in Udon Thai, Thailand.

Freestyling Solo

This is considered the most entertaining kind of skydive. This is where skydivers can perform some tricks by doing some acrobatic stunts like rolling, tumbling and other aerial tricks while on freefall before opening their parachute and landing. Usually skydivers performing this would need a partner skydiver.

The second skydiver won't be performing stunts but instead their purpose is to film the entire performance from a video camera lodged in their helmet. This type of dive is in fact a registered competitive sport since 1996 by the FAI.

Free Flying Your Way

This kind of skydiving is also considered an art by which you get to control your body to move in different static positions while on freefall before opening up your parachute and landing safely. Some moves you need to learn before performing this dive are Sit Flying, Back Flying and Head Down. This will help you control your speed and flight.

Before opening up your parachute you will need to do some exit rolls as you end your free fall so you can land safely.