Some Real Facts About Skydiving To Boost Your Confidence Before Your First Jump
Posted on: 28 May 2016
If you're like most people who sign up to go skydiving, you're feeling both excited and terrified leading up to the big day. Falling from the sky towards the earth is an experience you'll never forget, and if you can arrive to your skydiving session feeling more confident than scared, you'll have an even better time. A lot of the information floating around about skydiving makes it seem riskier than it actually is. So, to calm your mind in preparation for the event, take a look at these comforting, positive facts and statistics.
You don't have to worry about deploying the chute incorrectly or not at all.
You've probably seen this in movies: the skydiver reaches a certain altitude and pulls the rip cord, releasing their chute. Leading up to their skydive, a lot of beginners stress that they won't pull their chute at the right time or at all. Thankfully, you don't have to worry about this at all. When you're first skydiving, you'll tandem dive with an instructor whose responsibility it will be to release the chute. And if for some reason you or the instructor go unconscious, forget to deploy the chute, or find that the equipment is damaged, the automatic activation device (AAD) will activate. The AAD is a computerized device that automatically deploys a backup chute if you reach a certain altitude and your chute is not yet deployed.
The chances of dying are very, very small.
Yes, accidents do happen in skydiving. But accidents also happen when people are driving, gardening, and walking down the sidewalk. You don't avoid walking, driving or gardening, do you? Approximately 3 million people skydive each year, and in 2010, there were only 21 deaths associated with skydiving. Your changes of dying when skydiving are about 1 in 101,083. For comparison sake, you have a 1 in 50,000 chance of dying playing American football, a 1 in 15,700 chance of dying when hiking in the mountains, and a 1 in 6,700 chance of dying in a car accident. Skydiving sounds a lot safer now, doesn't it?
Skydiving instructors have extensive training.
They're not just skydivers who decided to start showing people their sport one day. In order to even register for an instructor course, the instructor who will be teaching you how to skydive had to first acquire a class C skydiving license, which required 200 jumps. Then, they had to take extensive written exams and safety training before finally being taught how to instruct and supervise student jumpers. So, your life is in good hands with your skydiving instructor. The United States Parachute Association has made sure of it.
Skydiving is not nearly as dangerous and scary as it sounds. The sport has been made very safe over the years, thanks to new technologies like AADs and extensive training of instructors. Stay calm, and enjoy the experience! You'll live to do it again. Contact a business, such as Midwest Freefall for more information.
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