Skydiving

Skydiving is a term used to describe the sport of freefalling through the air and involves the time spent in the air freefalling from an aircraft prior to opening a parachute.

Typically skydives are carried out from around 4,000m (or 12,500ft) offering 40 to 50 seconds of freefall time. Longer freefall times can be achieved by exiting an aircraft at altitudes much higher than 4,000m, but such jumps require pressurized oxygen within the aircraft as well as bottled oxygen for very high skydives.

During a skydive, total freedom and control of the air can be enjoyed as well as many complex and spectacular maneuvers including flat turns, somersaults and formation skydiving.

Skydiving can be enjoyed either as an individual - doing solo jumps - or as part of a team carrying out formation skydiving. Generally the term ‘skydive’ refers to the time spent in freefall from exiting an aircraft to deploying a parachute but skydiving does include some disciplines such as accuracy landings and canopy formation flying which concentrate on the time spent once a canopy has been deployed.

The thrill of skydiving on the mind and body

When it comes to an introduction to skydiving, there's no way we can't mention the incredible amount of adrenaline assoicated with the sport! What draws many people to try skydiving for the first time is the thrill of simply falling through the air and this same thrill is still experienced by even the most experienced skydivers. You simply can’t beat that feeling of excitement as you get ready to exit a plane, followed by the thrill of falling through the sky...

Once you have done a few jumps, the other biggest buzz for skydivers is the total feeling of freedom you experience, as well as learning to have total control over your body in order to perform complex maneuvers mid-air — whether you are skydiving solo or as part of a team.