Introduction to Skydiving

Introduction to Sky Diving and history

Skydiving - known also as parachuting - is a multi-discipline extreme sport that is getting very
popular in the last few years. Almost all the disciplines involve a parachute jump of some kind
even if it's used only at the landing time.

In this hub I'll present you the main types of skydiving disciplines, what does it take to start
skydiving, how safe it is and what equipment you are going to need.

The first successful parachute jump was made from a hot air balloon in 1797 and, from that
point, the military developed parachuting as a means of evacuating staff from emergencies on
boardairplanes and balloons. Later, parachuting was used as a method of deploying ground
troops in war zones.

These days, sky diving is the recreational form of parachuting and can involve a period of
freefall, wherein aerial acrobatics and formation maneuvers may be performed before
deployment of the actual chute. Competition sky diving began in the 1930s and was recognised
as an official sport in 1951.

Sky diving is done from a plane or sometimes a helicopter which takes off from a small airbase
known as a drop zone. Skydivers usually exit the aircraft at a height of 4000 metres (13,000 feet)
and freefall for a time before opening their chute to slow their descent to a safe landing speed.

A parachute is normally fully inflated at around 2,500 feet. It is law that a skydiver jumps with
two parachutes, a main chute and a reserve in case the main one should fail. Upon full parachute
inflation, a skydiver can control his speed and direction with steering lines. As such, technical
maneuvers can be performed by experienced sky divers and they can land with great precision,
sometimes competing to land in an area with the most accuracy and style. In addition to simply
bundling oneself out of a plane, opening a chute and floating down to earth, there are many types
of skydiving specialisations.

What Are The Disciplines In Skydiving

The number of disciplines in skydiving is growing all the time. There are many jumpers who
don't want to practice any specific discipline and that's just fine. Skydiving is to have fun with,
not to feel like on competition.

However I'm sure you'd like to know shortly some of the most popular disciplines:

 Accuracy landing
  Style
 Free style (nothing in common with Style)
 Formation skydiving
 Base jumping
 Free Fly
 Wingsuit Base Jumping - absolutely insane stuff :)
 and more!

 I am sure you can find information for at least 10 other types of skydiving.

INFORMATION ABOUT THE DISCIPLINES

Accuracy Landing
A type of competitive skydiving where a sky diver earns points for landing as close as possible
to a target on the ground.

BASE Jumping The most dangerous and extreme of all types of sky diving. BASE is an
acronym that refers to the launch sites of its practitioners - Building, Antennae (an uninhabited
tower structure or aerial mast), Span (like a bridge) and Earth (a cliff or canyon). Only very
experienced sky divers can take part in BASE jumping as the risks of such a short jump in close
proximity to structures threatening entanglement and/or collision are enormous. Between 1981
and 2007, it is estimated that some 111 experienced BASE jumpers have died as a result of failed
BASE jumps. You can see a list of fatalities here.

Formation Skydiving
During freefall, experienced skydivers combine to make and hold formations before breaking off
to open their chutes and parachute to earth as normal. The world record formation skydive was a
400 man formation held for 4.25 seconds starting from an altitude of 25,000 feet preformed in
Udon Thai, Thailand.

Freestyle Skydiving
Where a skydiver performs acrobatic maneuvers like rolls and tumbles during the freefall, before
opening his chute. Freestyle also involves another skydiver whose job it is to film their partners
performance via a helmet-mounted camera. It was registered as a competitive sport by the FAI in
1996.

Freeflying
The art of controlling ones body and being able to move through various static positions during
the freefall stage prior to opening one's chute. Common manoeuvres such as Back Flying, Sit
Flying, and Head Down allow a skydiver to control his speed and trajectory as well as exit rolls
and tumbles in order to safely deploy their chute when the correct altitude is reached.
Skysurfing
An even more radical method of skydiving, wherein a skydiver has a board akin to but smaller
than a snowboard attached to his feet. Such an apparatus is extremely difficult to control and

even standing straight up requires skill and balance only garnered through considerable
experience in freeflying. Experienced skysurfers can use their boards to initiate rapid tumbles,
rolls and spinning helicopter acrobatics. As in Freestyle, an auxiliary partner is required to film
the skysurfers performance. For safety reasons, the board is detachable mid-air but of course this
involves an extra hazard for anyone on the ground. As such not all skydiving clubs allow
skysurfing.

Wingsuit Flying
A recent invention where skydivers don a specially designed suit with webbing stitched between
the legs and the arms. The resulting suit creates an airfoil, giving lift to the skydiver and
apportioning him an advanced level of control over his trajectory and descent speed otherwise
not possible. Wingsuit users often employ the use of portable computers to record velocity and
distance traveled and a momentary speed as low as 25mph has been recorded. At the specified
altitude the arm webbing of the wingsuit is unzipped so that the parachute can be deployed.

Wingsuits are particularly popular among BASE jumpers, as they can turn a 60 second freefall
into a 3 minute one. However, wingsuit skydiving is only for the very experienced, and it is
recommended that a skydiver have several hundred jumps under his belt before he embarks on
this branch of skydiving.

 What Equipment Do You Need

 If you plan to do parachute jumps regularly, you need to think about your parachuting
equipment. Don't rush into buying the most expensive one, it's not always the best. But
don't underestimate the equipment either - although equipment failure is very rare reason
for skydiving fatalities, I wouldn't advice you to take risks in that. Here is what gear you
may need:
 A helmet - very important!
 Parachutes - impossible to jump without one :)
 Harness and container
 AAD and altimeter - optional but very good
 Jumpsuit - optional

Of course there are hundreds of other tools, clothes and gadges you may decide to obtain - it's up
to you.
Is Skydiving Safe?

Skydiving is classified as an extreme sport. Being such, it can't be as safe as sitting at home and
watching TV (It's maybe safer long term, because watching TV isn't good for your physical and
mental health at all!).

Seriously, skydiving has some risks, and there are fatalities in skydiving. But statistically they
are less than the fatalities in street traffic. So if you are afraid to jump with a parachute, do you
also avoid getting out of home?

Don't close your eyes for the risks, but don't let the fear paralyze you. If you want to make a
parachute jump, you should take the required security measures and go ahead. At least this is
how I see it.