skydiving

[Sterkarm]

My friends wants me to go skydiving with him for his birthday. I think it would be awesome, but I am absolutely terrified at the prospect of jumping out of a plane. Anyone ever do it before that can give some info?

[Streetwolf]

YES! DO IT! Greatest thing ever. Pricey, but worth at least one jump. Expect to lose $100-$200.

You don't even think about it until the day of. Seriously. It was a month before and I just thought, 'ya I'm going skydiving in a month'. A week before - 'skydiving in a week'. The DAY before - 'skydiving tomorrow'. The morning of - 'skydiving soon'. As I stepped into the plane - 'holy motherfucking shit I'm jumping out of a plane 14,000 feet above the ground in 15 minutes'.

That's about when it kicks in haha. If you're doing tandem, which I recommend, you'll spend maybe 30 minutes with an instructor who will go over the jump from start to finish. He/she will show you how to position yourself as you are freefalling, how everything is hooked up, what happens in the plane, what happens when you pull the chord for the chute, what happens during the canopy ride down, how to land, what you do after you land - basically anything and everything.

This is what my experience was like: We entered the building and were given forms to fill out. Basically, you sign your life away. You'll initial by paragraphs that say 'I promise that this place won't be sued if I die' - stuff like that. It's just legal stuff so don't get nervous. You should have paid them by this point. Then you have the 30 minute session with a trained skydiver who will go over the entire jump. Then when it's your turn to go, you'll meet your instructor. You'll gear up and the tandem master (instructor) will show you what everything is for. For us, they hooked us up in four spots - shoulders and hips, left and right sides. Basically, we couldn't separate from the tandem master in the air. Then they'll bring you to the plane and you'll spend 15 minutes flying up to about 13,500 feet or so, depending on how nice it is outside. We went on a cloudless day so we hit 14,000 feet.

When you get to the target altitude, they'll open the main door. You crawl over to it (our plane wasn't very big height-wise), kneel at the edge, swing back and forth a couple times and then launch yourself out with your instructor. Within the first 5 seconds your instructor will release the drogue chute - basically, this thing keeps you around 120-130 mph, as opposed to 180+ mph that you'd normally be falling at with the combined weight of you and your instructor. You have about 45-50 seconds of freefall from that height. Depending on where you go, they may or may not let you pull the main rip chord. If they do, your instructor should make a signal to you which they will explain before the jump. You can then choose to pull. If you don't feel comfortable, they will pull it within 5 seconds. Otherwise, have fun. If the place doesn't let people pull it, then the instructor will.

Once the chute is up, your fears should pretty much end. The rest of the experience is just a 5 minute canopy ride to the ground. Very calm and very awesome. You'll have a great view from about 1 mile above the ground. Your instructor may also let you control the canopy - move it around, go left and right, etc. When you're going in to land, you'll be flaring the canopy - just pulling both reigns really hard so that you have a very smooth landing. The instructor will do this with you. Most people don't land on their feet so be prepared for a semi-rough landing. But it's no big deal. I fell forwards but caught myself. Other people just kinda rolled on the ground.

All in all, something worth doing once in your life, if not more. You'll definitely enjoy it, and all your friends who haven't done it yet will think you're insane and yet still awesome. And if you have the money, get a video/pics of it too. Worth it for the first time (mine was near $100 but since my school subsidized part of the jump itself it worked out to about $1 for the video over the normal jump price).

And yes I was somewhat concerned before signing up for it so I did my research. Out of about 3,000,000 jumps in a year, you'll see no more than 20-30 deaths. Maybe 2-4 of them were in tandem jumps (what you'll be doing). So the odds of you dying are slim to nil. I wouldn't worry. I'm sure all the tandem masters have been in a situation where their chute didn't open properly, and they know how to stay calm and work through it.

Good luck!

[Unique]

airshot, 5000 feet up. parachute fails, splat trigger_hurt fall damage.

2 hp.

somehow you feign underneath an elevator... and you get crushed. worldspawn_damage.

gg.

ya freefall is pretty tight. its like getting high, but in a different way (literally)

[THErhombus]

Pefect timing for this thread. My friends and I plan on going skydiving this summer. One of my friends called around, and found out it's going to cost about $300 (we live in Dallas if it makes a difference) to do a tandem jump. He said that if you do a tandem jump, you'll do like a 30 min - 1 hr class that pretty much explains what all is going to happen. However, if you don't want to jump tandem, you gotta do a a real long class (8 hours maybe?) and it's going to cost a little bit more money.

I've been bungee jumping, which was pretty bad ass, but I'm fucking stoked about going skydiving this summer.

[Sterkarm]

Thanks for all the info streetwolf!

[GhOsT]

Seems to me 30 minutes is a bit short for instruction on jumping out of a plane and living to tell about it, even with you strapped to the instructor.

[Streetwolf]

Not really. The tandem master does all the work. All you really need to know is what's going on in a nutshell. They'll put on your gear, hook you up, show you proper positioning, etc. It doesn't take too long.

The other option is an 8 hour training session which allows you to jump without being attached to a tandem master; however, you still will jump with two trained skydivers who will be on either side of you throughout freefall.

[Jdean]

Streetwolf said pretty much everything you need to know.

I'll add:

Definitely do it.

[MV8]

Gravity check...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060528/ap_on_re_us/skydiving_death

The hardest thing about skydiving is the ground.

[Streetwolf]

If the place is halfway intelligent and safe they'll have at least 4 places on you where they hook you to the instructor. It will be 99.9999% reliable I bet. Yes that leaves 0.0001% chance but that's pretty small :p.

[kiken]

Gravity check...

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060528/ap_on_re_us/skydiving_death

The hardest thing about skydiving is the ground.

this just in: someone in someplace in america has died from a car crash. so i guess we shouldnt drive anymore should we.