Why is skydiving fun? Obviously if someone is asking why skydiving is fun, they have never made a jump themselves!! The experience speaks for itself. Even the most scared folk land after their skydive with a HUGE smile of their face. Skydiving and flying a canopy is extremely fun! But if you haven’t made a jump yet, or wonder why skydivers become so addicted to the sport. Here I am going to give you 10 reasons why skydiving is fun. Maybe after checking out this list, you will be tempted to make the jump yourself? I hope so, I want everyone to get to have the experience of making a skydive at least once in their life!

The smiles!

Skydiving is amazing, but its even better when you are making a jump with other people. Getting to see the pure joy and bliss on the faces of others is a magical feeling. I can’t describe properly just how stoked and amazing these smiles can be. There are some pretty special moments up in the sky, between friends and even people you just met. The smiles are contagious. Have you ever seen a skydiving photo and the person is just smiling ear to ear? Of course you have.

Why the pure joy though? In basic terms, when you are skydiving your body and brain release all these feel good chemicals. Endorphins, serotonin and dopamine are all natural happiness boosters, which are ever present when making a skydive. Also adrenaline is being released, which gives you a kick to help you respond efficiently to intense situations.

Freedom

This is the most common word you are going to hear when someone is describing skydiving and why skydiving is fun. Freedom in skydiving is a unanimous feeling. Something that we find hard to match here on the ground. But what do we mean by freedom?

Well, although a skydiving freefall only lasts under 60 seconds. Truthfully its the most focused, present 60 seconds you can have. The moment you leave the airplane and start to fly, your mind is only focused on what you are doing and nothing else. All problems, anxieties or stresses from normal life are gone for the moment. This freedom of your brain basically disposing of all other things is amazing. For me, its basically impossible to recreate this focus on the ground. The same goes for once you are under canopy, especially those who are making high level canopy manoeuvres. This moment is your focus, this is the only thing that matters, flying your canopy safely back to earth.

Freedom is also the feeling of flying. Before you start to skydive, its hard to understand the amount of control that is possible to have. With practise and skills, skydivers manipulate their body position so that they can fly and move exactly as they want. You can move in 360 degree motions. This is freedom, this is superhuman, it feels like freedom. And its so addictive! When flying your canopy after a successful parachute deployment, you are in control of getting yourself safely to the ground. You essentially have a wing over your head and are soaring through the air. Its a very empowering feeling to be in so in the moment, it can make you want to shout!

Traveling opportunities

Skydiving can take you places you never dreamed of before! Maybe you never had any intention on visiting some random, isolated farm land in Montana, but there you are! Surrounded by countless other stoked people, sharing beer and enjoying a gorgeous sunset after a long day of jumping. The cool thing about skydiving is it exist all over the world.

Once you start jumping you hear of amazing skydiving locations, and you now plan to travel somewhere you never thought of before. Or maybe you always wanted to go on a Mexico beach vacation. But now, you will be able to land your parachute on the beach after jumping above to ocean. You partner doesn’t skydive? That’s okay, I’m sure they wont mind the suggestion of travelling to California when you want to check out the drop zones there. Travel opportunities made skydiving extra alluring for me. Two passions that could be combined, traveling and skydiving!

Making new friends

Adulting can be hard sometimes. Maybe your day job doesn’t exactly surround you with like minded people. Or perhaps you just moved to a new city. Whatever the case, skydiving is wonderful for making new friends. The sense of community that surrounds our sport is unparalleled to any where else. The feeling of finding a community and a place in the world you feel comfortable can be life changing for some people.

Skydiving is a very social sport, because in the end, you want to be jumping with others. And although skydivers come from different backgrounds and careers, we actually are a group of like minded individuals. We all share a pretty extreme passion. In fact, its very easy to travel somewhere new, rock up to the drop zone and you are welcomed with open arms. Even though its a world wide community, its actually quite small and everyone always knows someone you know.

The challenge

Every person is going to have a different point of view on this, but for some, the fear of jumping out of an airplane is huge. And it doesn’t miraculously go away after your first jump, for some it stays a while! There is a mental challenge of bringing yourself to the point of no return and then jumping! Yet it is absolutely glorious when we accept the challenge. Now its up to you to make it down alive. You are in control of your jump, deploying your parachute and flying your canopy safely to the ground. Learning about the equipment, how it functions and how to properly use the equipment can be a challenge too. Yet it is a great feeling to learn and understand your life saving gear.

Do you have what it takes to accept the challenge? Do you trust yourself enough to do everything in a safe and correct manner? Skydiving can bring to us a new sense of confidence. And I don’t mean this in a way of cocky confidence, I mean it can make us feel good about ourselves. We feel capable. We face the challenge and we succeed.

Boogies!

Skydiving isn’t just showing up at the drop zone every weekend and have an amazing time jumping with your friends. Although that does sound pretty amazing, I know. There is another fantastic part of skydiving that you don’t find out about until you join us. The boogies! What the heck is a boogie? These are amazing events to jump during the day and party at night. Okay so similar to a weekend at the drop zone but with more organization.

Boogies are organized to have activities throughout the duration of the event. During the day, the event will have selected individuals to organize jumps for different levels and disciplines of skydiving. Usually these people are highly skilled, and know how to make a jump extra fun while maintaining safety. Sometimes there is planned fun jumps with hoola-hoops or inflatables, anything to have an extra bit of crazy fun. Maybe even a special aircraft is brought in to jump from, such as a helicopter or hot air balloon. During the evening its party time! There is food, bands/DJs, dancing, theme parties, maybe a campfire, the list goes on. Skydivers from all over come and camp out, and its a pretty special time to share with your community. Sound great right? Another reason why skydiving is fun!

Progression

This is a very important aspect of why skydiving is fun. Making progression in the sport is something the majority of us strive for. Different doors are opened with the more progression that we make. Starting at the basics, once we get a good base of skills and knowledge we progress to different levels of flying. We start in a belly to earth orientation and jump with smaller groups. With time we progress to more difficult body flying, and also share skydives with bigger groups. As well, with lots of jumps, practise and education, we progress in our canopy skills, moving onto smaller and faster parachutes. For some progression can look different. Some want to become coaches, instructors or jump organizers. Others might desire to swoop, fly wingsuits or participate in competitions or big-way formation skydive records.

Keep in mind, progression DOES NOT happen over night. In fact, the journey can be very time consuming and there is a lot of financial sacrifice involved. Yet, skydivers persist and are constantly working towards their progression. Taking opportunities to attend skills camps, canopy courses and wind tunnel training with those who are more experienced in these areas. Progression is individual and some people are very focused and determined. It is extremely satisfying to accomplish goals within your passion. Following that drive and passion is addictive, and seeing the reward and growth within ourselves is gratifying.

Bringing flight to others

For some in the sport, skydiving is fun for them because they are in a position to give this experience to people who have never had it before. Skydiving instructors share a passion of introducing new people to the big blue sky. As you can imagine, this is a very rewarding job to have.

Tandem passengers place their trust and life completely into their tandem instructor. The tandem instructor is providing people with a safe and comfortable experience that they will never forget. For some people they will only ever make one skydive in their life. Tandem instructors get to be responsible for making this experience as amazing as possible. And just like mentioned before, its hard not to smile when skydiving. Therefore, getting to see how happy and invigorated people are after a jump is a very satisfying feeling.

The situation is similar for AFF instructors, who teach people to skydive on their own and get their solo skydiving license. New skydivers are looking up to the instructor for guidance and support. As well as, to make sure they know how to safely complete their skydives. Going on this journey with new skydivers can be very fulfilling. Sharing and introducing the world of skydiving to new fresh faces as a job, well it doesn’t get more fun than that.

Something to look forward to

So the truth is, sometimes we have long, boring and routine weekdays at our jobs. Monday to Friday we get up early, go to a job we either like or do not like. Of course some people are lucky and do very much enjoy their careers, but there is for sure some people who struggle to make it through the days. Skydiving is fun because it gives us something to look forward to. It breaks up the mundane way we may have been living our lives before skydiving arrived.

I know countless people who have had their lives changed by skydiving. You never know what a person is going through in their personal life, at work or at home. Skydiving is a break, like I talked about before, you are in the moment when you skydive. Now you are focused and having an amazing time. Skydiving can be a perfect distraction, and we all deserve to be distracted from the negative in life. Skydiving is a joy and source of pure happiness for us. Thinking about getting to go skydiving puts a big smile on our faces!

Skydiving gear

Although skydiving gear is quite expensive, having our own gear makes skydiving fun and personalized. There are many different manufacturers of skydiving gear. From skydiving containers to canopies, wingsuits, helmets, altimeters and many other accessories. Its very exciting to get your own gear in skydiving, and its only just the beginning. As you progress you change gear and switch to more advanced and smaller containers and canopies. The option to personalize your gear to your favourite colors and designs is a fun way to bring your sense of style into your set up. Looking up at my colorful canopy always makes me smile, each and every jump!

And just like cell phones, the accessories and electronics are always coming out with the next best model. Its fun to be able to try out new models and get new gear. For example, if you decide to take up wingsuiting, you can find some awesome electronics to take a GPS map of your flight, along with many other statistics from your flights. Camera flyers are always innovating new and cool ways to take photos and mount their devices on their helmets. Each jumpers skydiving gear set-up is personalized to them, and this is another reason why skydiving is fun – the extra toys!

Keep coming back

Surely there are many more reasons that make skydiving fun, and if you think I am missing something, share it with me. Skydiving is the most fun I have ever had in my life. I hope to be able to share a skydive and fly with some of you one day!

If you like the article, please let me know, send me an email or a message on Instagram. I want to know about your experience and thoughts!

Follow me on Instagram: @augustobartelle

Like the Fan Page on Facebook!

Support this blog by wearing our Colorful Jersey. Find more at our Online Store – www.ColorfulJerseys.com