What You Really Need To Know About Skydiving

[I:1:J]Skydiving came from the recesses of necessity, as people need an escape route when an aircraft suddenly becomes unfit or unsafe to continue flying, or when it cannot land safely. It was conceptualized from a stunt done during 1797 when a crazy Frenchman by the name of Andre Jacques Farnerin jumped out of a hot-air-balloon and landed unscathed.

Obviously, this brought in a multitude of new possibilities into the table. Emergency safety in aircrafts has been improved and the US military even used it as a strategy that helped them win World War 2, especially in the European theater. With necessity established and good to go, people turned their attention to leisure.

Initial Public Outcry

Of course, it comes as no surprise that people would be moaning about the dangers of jumping out of an airplane that is thousands of feet above sea level. While doing so with the plane threatening to crash onto the earth like an impromptu meteorite, they all got squeamish with doing so out of a perfectly good one. Surely, they never saw the potential that skydiving could bring onto the table.

Soon enough, it was proven that it was safe beyond any shadow of a doubt. Statistics show that only one in every one hundred thousand jumps go wrong and such circumstances are evidently rare. In comparison to other activities, skydiving is surprisingly safer.

Financial Misconceptions

Most people would think that skydiving is a luxury that is only accessible to the wealthy. While this is not entirely a fallacy due to the cost of equipment used for skydiving, not everyone who skydives is rich. There are charity organizations set up to let people skydive without expense at all. Also, sponsors can be called upon to fund an event where you can skydive for charity as well. As expenses may be grand, skydiving doesn't have to be aristocratic at all. It is definitely available for those with both the desire and the heart to do it.

Health Concerns

There are also health concerns regarding skydiving for each individual. Surely, there is no way that a sick person can skydive, right? Well, that may be true, but for only conditions that would definitely be affected from such an adrenaline-pumping activity. An epileptic, for example, would not be fit for a jump at all. On the other hand, an asthmatic can partake as long as he/she can keep it under control with medication. If you are one of those with medical conditions and you want to skydive, obtain an authentic medical certificate from your physician before participating in such an activity.

World Achievements

There are a lot of trivia when it comes to skydiving, and some of them are quite amazing indeed. For example, there was an event held in Thailand back in 2006 where 400 people from 312 countries jumped from 23,000 feet in a flower-like formation for around a minute and a half. There's also one of the oldest world records in skydiving, which is the longest skydiving jump in history.

Joseph Kittinger's extraordinary jump lasted for over four minutes from a height of 102,800 feet, which is quite unbelievable. The record, as of this writing, still stands and is one of the most amazing feats in skydiving history.