What is Skydiving?
Wikipedia describes skydiving as: “Parachuting, also known as skydiving, is the action of exiting an aircraft or jumping off of a tall structure, and returning to earth with the aid of a parachute. It may or may not involve a certain amount of free-fall, a time during which the parachute has not been deployed and the body gradually accelerates to terminal velocity.”
Skydiving is a competitive sport. France has won five of eight world championship titles!
How does it work?
A parachute rig is composed of three things: the harness which maintains the skydiver’s body, the main canopy, and the reserve canopy (used only in emergencies).
During a skydive, the parachutist jumps from an aircraft (most often a plane but sometimes a helicopter or even a hot air balloon) at 4000 m (around 13000 feet) and opens his main canopy at 1000 m (3000 ft).
To open the parachute, a skydiver must pull a little pilot-chute called a “hand-deploy” which will catch the air and pull the canopy out of the rig.
In case of emergency, the skydiver has to do a “cutaway” (release his canopy) and to open his reserve canopy (which is his last chance of a soft landing...). Accidents do not occur that often because you have to check your equipment several times, and you are trained to react correctly in case there is a problem. However, this is a risky sport, not because of canopy failure, but because of broken arms and legs while landing under the canopy. As you can imagine, though, zero risk does not exist, like everything else in life!
Why did I decide to practice skydiving?
Since I was about five, my dream has always been to fly, and, as I quickly came to understand that it was impossible, I started to want to skydive as the next best thing! Skydiving brings me an unbelievable feeling of freedom. However, it also involves an acute sense of personal responsibility. During the free-fall, I feel like a (big) bird, but, as I don’t really want to die, I must be aware of the risks and react according to the situation to save my life!
Also, skydiving is one of the best ways to de-stress.
What can you do during a freefall?
It is all about the idea of flying, rather than of falling. There are many types of jumps, like the freefly (artistic moves with at least two performers), or the relative flight (sequence with four or eight performers facing the ground), and many variations of these. The choice of a discipline depends on what you want to do; either you want to perform with a team and so you do relative flight, or you want to move with another skydiver on three axes so you chose freefly.
Who can Skydive?
Anybody in relatively good health, with no heart problems or serious back trouble, can practice this sport. All you need is a doctor’s certificate.
You start by jumping with a monitor who brings you all the safety needed to have a great time without thinking about problems that may occur during the opening of the parachute. You then follow a week’s training course and after a minimum of six jumps with the teacher, you can jump alone. So, it’s not a complicated sport…
As it’s an expensive sport, though, be prepared to fry millions of chips at Mc Donald’s for a month, as I did! It is a small price to pay for the exhilaration of being able to go skydiving. I’m now a skydiving adrenaline junkie!
Article by Jules H.
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