Gradually, skydiving has become an extremely popular sport. People normally progress as from a onetime jump and end up making it as their hobby. For a skydiver with the parachute closed, the down velocity is close to 200 km/hr or 124 mph while the down velocity of a person with arms and legs outstretched is about 192 km/hr or 120 mph.
One must set out early and arrive in good time to learn and get trained. It always helps if the person has some light breakfast. A light meal helps maintain hydration of the body and keeps dehydrated.
If children come with you, this could be an all day event and could be more fun. Normally, the airplane ride is close to 15 minutes and the view of the land and rivers from the sky is always an eye candy.
Normally, people of any type of health can attempt skydiving. It is believed that people with certain health problems such as epilepsy could not attempt skydiving, but it is not always true. Every person who decides to experience sky diving fills a form which states that they are fit and fine to attempt sky diving.
There may be instances when a person may still not be able to sky dive with the approval of their doctor. It depends on the illness of the disease. Normal acceptable age of skydiving is over the age of eighteen, but most of the sky divers are around the age of forty.
Overall, skydiving could be an expensive sport to take up. One has to buy the gear and pay for the jump and they attach the parachute which opens after you have jumped from the airplane. If someone jump for the sake of charity, he could skydive absolutely free of charge. Of the money, some of the money pays for the jump and the rest of the money goes to charity. But there must be enough sponsors with you.
People usually have a fear of going skydiving because they think that it is a dangerous sport and could cost them their lives. And it's completely understandable as one is throwing himself out of the airplane and skydiving much above the earth for sometime without opening the parachute
But, one of the most interesting and eye opening fact is that skydiving is safer than it is to take a ride in a train, because of the safety measure that are taken before one skydives. And the fact is that that skydiving is an extremely thrilling and enjoyable sport to take up.
The Basics About Skydiving
The basics of skydiving must be known to every new skydiver before he attempts to sky dive. There could be nothing more exciting and adventurous than jumping out of an airplane from high altitudes and falling directly towards the earth with amazing speeds.
After one jumps from the plane, he floats in the sky watching the earth gradually come closer second by second until he eventually reach the ground and has the urge to do it one more time. The person is trained on the ground first before he could go skydiving.
But it is also true that before you can actually get 'thrilled', you must be 'skilled'. To be a good skydiver and having a fun filled sky diving experience, the person must have courage, confidence, good health, commitment, mental alertness and a twist of madness!
A person who is trained before actual skydiving is taught about the altitude awareness, how to operate the parachute, hover control, turning techniques, radio assisted landing and other important lessons for high speed free fall skydiving.
If at any time the person thinks that he could not do it, he must take the final decision before attempting to skydive and not later. But if the person has made up his mind and decides to attempt the sport, then he may head towards a good skydiving school and get started. One must choose an old learning school which has got some reputation with history and successful and safe jumps.
Skydiving takes a place in the heart and body so one must pay a visit to his personal physician and let him know about his plans and that he intend to do a program in physical training. If the personal physician agrees for it, then one must go for it. There is no need of very good body strength or stamina to learn the basics of skydiving. But the more healthy and fit one is, the more enjoyable the experience is likely to be.
One must always be prepared mentally for the new and adventurous experience. One is always more comfortable when his feet is on the ground. So, one must take his time to prepare himself emotionally and must imagine himself doing the adventurous sport.
If possible, one must contact other skydivers and should interact with them. One could actually be skydiving with them without the fear of skydiving alone! It is always better if you interact with experienced skydivers and be buddies with them. The skydiving jump could always be recorded if somebody could be arranged who could capture the moments for you. Filming the jump is a great way of examining your jumping techniques!
One very good advantage of skydiving is that one learns how to exit an aircraft and maintain stability in his body position when he jumps out of an air plane. Usually the jump course costs anywhere around $250 and each jump thereafter costs around $125.
It is easy to learn the basics of skydiving and also that skydiving is such an excellent sport as it certainly has an edge to it. Many skydivers choose this sport as it is near equivalent to flying. And who does not want to fly? So, one must experience this sport, if not regularly, then at least once in his life!
Just by learning the basics of skydiving, you can rest assured if this is actually something you want to do.
By Michael Baker