Skydiving: The Ultimate Rush!

Life is too short so I hear! You can spend most your life wishing or just make it all happen. No Fear is an encouraging term, energetic and meaningful.

When it comes to Skydiving the term is ironic. Those who claim to have no fear are either stupid or liars. It is normal to be afraid specially if you voluntarily jump off a perfectly good airplane. Skydiving is an unforgiving sport. You either like it or hate it, either way you must treat it with respect. It is an extreme sport that allows for no errors. When you skydive you dont get to search for the edge. You are on the edge! riding a fine line between life and death. Your body drops at 120 miles per hour and in the minute that the jump lasts you will experience literally every second of that fall.

Skydiving humbles even the most arrogant. So why do it? Skydiving is a skill that has been utilized for several reasons over many decades. Originally, it was reserved for military purposes. It allows the, stealth, element of surprise advantage over the enemy. Skydiving is also used in fire fighting. Fire fighters also known as, Fire Jumpers, perform surgical landings into strategic locations that may facilitate success when firing fires. Technology has boosted Skydiving to a new level. Now you can test your skills through competitions; from acrobatic demonstrations, to base jumping to precision landing.

Tandem Jump

How do you getting into it? There are hundreds of schools (drop zones) in the US and around the world that offer the proper training and instruction. Also, a novice can gain a first experience from the sport: through a or an Accelerated Free Fall training series and in a skydiving training wind tunnel. If you choose to learn in a Wind Tunnel, you will go through the learning curve with more confidence. Wind Tunnel offers you a controlled environment and less risk of injury. Some places will charge an hourly fee for each session in wind tunnel. Dont be so concerned about the price; it is costly to go on your first jumps, actually all the way up to your 9th jump.
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Acrobatic jump

The price ranges from $140 to $190 per jump, per person. However, renting the equipment is not as expensive. Once you complete about 7 levels of training you are more likely to love it and maybe qualify for your license to skydive. Yes, you can then call yourself a Skydiver and save money on your future jumps as well. The jumps will cost only $18 dollars after you have gained your certificate and license.

How about the experience? The instructors are world famous personalities who have hundreds, even thousands of jumps under their belts. They have mastered the sport and will be able to show you the necessary skills and ensure your safety and vest your knowledge. Once your registration, orientation and safety training is taken cared of. It is time to decide which type of jump you will do: Tandem (one hour class) or Accelerated Free Fall Assisted Jump (six hours ground training). With a tandem jump, your harness gets secured to your instructors harness. Basically, you go along for the ride while your instructor does all the work.

On the other hand an assisted jump involves 6 hours of ground training and two master skydivers jump with you holding you by each side help correct your dynamics and posture while falling and make sure you will deploy your parachute at the right time.

Ground training is an experience in itself. It consists of a thorough lecture regarding the equipment, communication, navigation, safety, mechanics while falling, basic physics, landing, and last but not least dos and donts in case of emergency. Soon after your class and weather permitting, you get to don your skydiving suit and rig (parachute pack) and wait to board the airplane.

If the conditions are right, your airplane will take you to an altitude of 14,000 feet. When you reach the right altitude and drop off position in relation to your landing zone, your pilot will give you the okay to jump and off you go at 120 miles per hour. In approximately a minute you will have dropped 8,000 feet, circle of awareness checks. At 6,000 feet you wave off your instructors and other skydivers in your close proximity. That will alert all that your next move is to deploy your main parachute. Immediately after you pull your pilot, in fractions of seconds your parachute deploys while you count for 5 seconds and inspect if it will inflate. Once your parachute is inflated and you have tested it through a gentle toggles pull, you are good to start your navigation and approach to the landing zone.
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This part is more like a roller coaster ride except that you dont get to climb anymore, just keep dropping altitude. Now all you have to do is navigate with and against the wind controlling your direction as you get closer to the landing zone. All you have to do is stir clear off the tall structures like trees, power lines or towers and houses or buildings and you are will be just well on to a good landing. Before you know it is time to flare and touch down. Remember to bend your knees to cushion your impact against the ground.

Navigating to the landing zone

How about my experience? There I was in my second jump and counting 5 seconds and my parachute did not inflate. Instead it bunched up as I continued to drop for another 1,500 feet. The instructions called for cutting away the main parachute and deploying the reserves. Lucky me! It worked and I could continue on to navigate towards my landing zone. From that day on, I never did see the sky the same way, nor did I feel about life the same. Life if short! And one should never let fears and excuses hold you back from reaching your dream. I found out that I loved it. This is a true story. It is time to do it again!

By: Jonathan Rosillo Courtesy of: http://divhiker.com/

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