Skydiving Training

As skydiving becomes a popular pastime for travellers and thrill seekers around the world, many now seek professional training to take their hobby one step further. Free-flight and skydiving schools now exist to turn novices into professional skydivers.

Skydiving has to be one of the most exciting extreme sports which almost anyone can do. This is because of the advent of tandem skydiving, which has become a very popular pastime for travelers and thrill seekers around the world. One of the most amazing places to do a tandem skydive is Lake Wanaka, New Zealand, where it is possible to simply rock up at the drop zone and within 30 minutes be attached to a tandem master at 13,000ft about to jump out of plane! Many people have started their skydiving career this way and after their first jump they are hooked and want more. The next step to take is the Accelerated Freefall (AFF) course which consists of 8 jumps, 1 tandem and 7 solos, all from 13,000ft. The course normally takes 5 to 6 days during which the student will learn how to fly their body, deploy a parachute and steer it to the ground for a safe landing. They will also learn how to cut away their main parachute in the event of a malfunction and deploy their reserve. By their 8th jump they should be capable of exiting a plane is a stable position without the assistance of an instructor. The next step is to complete the 10 consolidation jumps which are done without any instruction at all. Once completed the student will attain their A license which means they can jump at almost any drop zone around the world.

The next step is a varied one; some skydivers just stop completely as they have ticked the box of ‘learning to skydive’ however those who want more go one of two directions, Formation Skydiving (FS) or Freeflying (FF). Formation Skydiving is the traditional route which most skydivers used to go down in the past, they would form a team and then practice various linked routines in a flat position. A cameraman would them and then they would be judged according to the fluidity and precision of their routine. To improve in this discipline it is possible to have specific coaching from some of the worlds best FS instructors. Freeflying is rapidly becoming a very popular discipline for new skydivers to focus on, this is because you fly your entire body in a variety of positions including head up and head down. It is therefore a harder discipline to master, however it is possible to get specific coaching from some of the best FF instructors in the world.

The wind tunnel has become one of the most popular methods of improving one’s skills in a short period of time, for both flat fliers and free fliers. Due to the confines of the tunnel your quickly realise when you have made a mistake and with instant video playback it is possible to notice and correct these mistakes very quickly. Wind tunnels are now appearing around the world and have opened the sport up to almost everyone. Not only are they independent of the weather but they are also extremely safe however nothing beats jumping out of a plane at 13,000ft and hurtling towards the ground at 180mph before deploying a parachute and landing safely back at the drop zone. The best place to do this is undoubtedly Empuriabrava in Spain where the weather is consistently good and the visuals amazing, with the Mediterranean Sea and Pyrenees Mountains providing the perfect back drop!

Resources:
If you’d like to learn to skydive, come to SkySchool Flight Centre - a British Adventure Sports company and Europe's leading Paramotoring school based in the Extreme Sports capital of Europe in north east Catalunya, Spain.