Sky Diving and Base Jumping

1. The Americans didn't invent skydiving or the parachute. It wasn't even invented in this century! About 900 years ago the Chinese began to design parachutes. They were joined later by another famous inventor you may know - Leonardo da Vinci.

2. The first skydive wasn't from an airplane. The first person to suit up and jump was André-Jacques Garnerin, a Frenchman who jumped from a hot air balloon.

3. The military made civilian skydiving jumps popular. After World War I skydiving became popular at air shows. The generals also thought that it was a good way to put boots on the ground, and the Airborne units were born. With the invention of nylon and a surplus after the war, civilians started to jump for fun.

Bonus Tip - The "Father of Modern BASE jumping is Carl Boenish, who was the first jumper to use ram air chutes instead of the old military style circular canopies while jumping from manmade objects.

The more dangerous the sport, the more important quality equipment is. With you skydive or base jump, you want to make sure you have the best equipment you can buy. Since your life is at stake, make sure that everything from your skydiving goggles, altimeter and of course your chute is top of the line. The best way you can do that is to talk to your fellow jumpers and instructors, read reviews online, and of course through personal experience. I used to jump with an army ranger who would do things like retie a broken parachute line after a jump. He had a chute fail and went to his backup without issue- but after that he made sure all his gear was in good order. You should too- the sport's dangerous enough without tempting fate!

If you're thinking about learning to skydive or buying skydiving gift certificates for a loved one, there are basically three methods of instruction. If you would feel better having an instructor along with you for the entire jump, then you want to look into tandem jumps or accelerated freefall instruction. If you're comfortable jump and without an instructor with you the whole time, than static line progression maybe for you. Note that would static line progression your ripcord is pulled automatically.

Until you complete 25 jumps under the supervision of the United States Parachute Association instructor, you're still a student skydiver. If you have completed 25 jumps you may apply for your class A license, which allows you to go to any drop zone in the United States, rent equipment, and jump without supervision.

The oldest method of learning to skydive the static line progression. Firefighting smoke jumpers and the Airborne still use this jump method today. The student hooks up a static line to the aircraft, and once the jumper exits the aircraft the parachute is deployed after 3 to 5 seconds a freefall. Even if you panic your chute will still open. You still get the opportunity to experience a skydive, and also to practice some flying skills, albeit the window is small. One advantage of static line over the other instruction methods is because your instructor doesn't have to be jumping at the same time you are, it is less expensive.

Tandem skydiving or tandem jumps are simply a skydiving instructor jumping with the student strapped into a special harness together. So something goes wrong, you have someone who has years of experience and hundreds of jobs hanging right there in the harness with you. This method eliminates the fear that many students have of jumping alone was static line.

The last method of instruction is called accelerated freefall. This is the most expensive, but probably the most fun way to jump the first time. With accelerated freefall, student skydivers jump from all over 10,000 feet and have almost one full minute of free fall their very first jump. In order to accomplish this, you jump was two instructors and a special harness, which has additional handles so your instructors can pull your ripcord. You're not actually strapped together with your instructors, they simply hold on to you until you deploy your parachute. This method also gives you the opportunity to practice flying skills -such things as altitude awareness and holding a stable falling position.