If you’re an adrenaline junky, sky diving has to be on your list of sports to try! Falling out of a moving plane 10,000 feet in the sky with the earth below you, it's a feeling that nothing else can truly match. However, it's an admittedly scary thing to do. Even though that rush is part of what you're looking for with sky diving, you can never be too careful when preparing for stuff like this! In that respect, we have exactly what you need to get started with skydiving in this article. So, let's begin:

Getting Started

Your mileage may vary, but I feel that any new hobby or skill is easiest to learn and keep up when I'm doing it with a friend! The same is true for skydiving; getting a friend to come along with you can make things that much easier. Alternatively, you can consider tandem jumping: being strapped to the instructor and diving with them. This is one of the most popular ways to skydive and is ideal for beginners as it puts an experienced instructor in charge of the jump, minimizing the risk of incidents.

Tandem Jumping

The procedure involves the student and instructor getting together for the jump, with only the instructor wearing a (much larger than normal) parachute. This parachute is necessary to support the weight of both divers. Upon jumping, you will note that the instructor deploys a small drogue parachute, which remains deployed from the start to the end of the dive. The drogue serves to reduce the terminal velocity of the two divers, which would be far too much (about 190 mph) when two divers are strapped together and needs to be reduced to about 120 mph.

Apart from this, the experience should be quite similar to typical solo skydiving. In the end, the instructor (or the student) pulls the main cord and deploys the entire parachute, followed by the pair landing on the ground together.

What You Can Expect to Pay

For tandem jumping, as discussed earlier, you can expect to pay about $150-$200. Tandem jumping is crucial for getting the initial experience needed to learn and eventually become a licensed skydiver. After tandem jumping, students can start preparing for the Accelerated Free Fall technique. This involves taking lessons on the ground and then making AFF jumps with two instructors that hold the student as they all fall.

This form of guided skydiving combined with the lesson costs about $290 per jump and is required to get experience in the beginning. After passing this stage, the student graduates to jumping with just one instructor and then with no instructors. Having passed 20 solo jumps in total, along with tests and other criteria, the student is granted a license from the USPA (United States Parachuting Association. With a license, the cost of jumping falls significantly, requiring only about $20 per jump and letting you choose your landing zone with almost complete freedom.