Tandem skydiving - another one from your bucket list

Have you already decided to go tandem skydiving or are you still thinking about it? Either way is fine and you’ve arrived at a totally independent guide for first time skydivers which will help you to get the most out of your experience. 

If you just want to know where the centers are, we'll show you a full list of skydiving centers to make it easy for you. We're working through these to make sure we get the details right so please be patient.

If you’d like to know more about the medical, weight and age limits first, we'll give you the full story.

Perhaps you’d like to think again about ‘why people skydive’ and maybe even consider the other methods of skydiving? If that’s the case then stay with us on this page and hopefully you’ll see that this guide is designed to give you the information to make your decisions as easy as possible and our aim is to save you money, time and hassle (and maybe more).

An invitation from us

Whatever your reasons for making a skydive we'd lke to invite you right up front to share your experiences here in our blog. Just register (I promise we won't ever pass on your details) and start blogging. Right from the time you decide you're going to do it to the time you finish. Add your pictures, make your recomendations, have fun and tell the world. Maybe even use it to help raise funds for your favorite charity. So, thats our invitation now lets get on with the skydive.

Your tandem skydive - what happens

You arrive at the skydiving center with your booking form and medical certificate/ declaration form all signed up and ready to go.

Your check-in at reception moves through smoothly and you are asked to take a seat in the canteen and wait for the call for the instructor briefing where you meet a few other excited people who are also planning to make their tandem skydive today. The buzz is building up when your Instructor enters the canteen and asks you all to follow him to the ground training room where he takes you through a briefing which lasts about 30 minutes. All your questions have been answered and you know that you now need to stay around the center and wait for the ‘twenty minute call’. You decide it’s a good time to visit the toilet! (funny that, you went just before the briefing…).

The twenty minute call comes over the public address system and you find your instructor again. “How come he’s so happy when I’m feeling so nervous” you whisper to your friend. He immediately recognises how you’re feeling and says something which makes you laugh and he helps you to get into the harness, which he then tightens up. It feels tight and a bit constrictive but you feel glad because it also makes you feel a bit more secure.  Now you're glad you brought the loose fitting jogging pants and decided against the 'vanity jeans' option.  Your instructor puts his own parachute harness on and invites you to try out a ‘dangle’ and as you are hanging from the attachment points on his harness, you feel a bit more secure, knowing how experienced your instructor is and feeling glad he’s in control of your first skydive. You decide to pull out a few pieces of the jogging pants from under the harness to make the fit as comfortable as possible. 

Soon you’re out on the emplaning area and with all the checks done and pieces of paper signed for checking equipment and manifests and so on, your instructor helps you to climb into the aeroplane and you sit down between his legs. He hooks up your harness onto his harness and that’s the way you’ll stay until you land (you feel a bit more secure with that).

The aeroplane takes off and you feel a few butterflies. Your instructor seems to be really enjoying the whole thing and he chats and jokes and points things out on the ground and soon, its time to tighten your harness. Your camera flyer helps your instructor by pulling some straps a bit tighter and this helps to squash the butterflies and you see that she seems to be having as much fun as your instructor, she asks you for a few words for the video and them finishes off by giving you a high-five and one of those funny skydive handshakes, well, after all you are about to be a skydiver now…

It feels a bit surreal and while you’re looking out if the window you hear someone call ‘running in’ above the drone of the engines and you know from your briefing that you and your instructor will both soon be moving forward to the door. Your instructor gives you a final reminder to keep your hands on the harness and head back in the door, and you shuffle forward together like some aerial Siamese twins.

All of a sudden you’re in the door and your legs are dangling in space, pushed sideways by the powerful airflow. “Head back, legs back and arch” you say to yourself. Suddenly you’re in free fall and you see the whole of the countryside spread out below you. You feel your instructor tap your arms and you bring them out into the box position and he adjusts them a little to get them into the perfect place. Feeling the pressure of the wind on your palms you now look up and see the video camera man just a few feet in front of you “how does he do that?” goes through your mind followed by “oh yeah! this is going to look great” and so you give a great big smile and wave to the camera and you shout at the top of your voice “this is tandem skydiving” (for no particular reason except you felt some words were needed for the video). The cameraman gives you a big thumbs up, seeming to have heard you and moves around a bit, seeming to be trying out the best picture angles.

Now you’re starting to really enjoy this 'slipstream adventure'. Its all too soon that you feel the instructor tap your arms, as the signal to bring them into hold your harness for parachute deployment and you feel the parachute starting to open and see your cameraman dropping away, still looking up at you with her helmet mounted camera.

Suddenly everything goes quiet and you realise how noisy free fall actually is. Under the canopy you become aware of a slight pressure build up in your ears and you pinch your nose and blow to make them ‘pop’. Now you can hear your instructor talking to you and talking you through the proceedings as he checks the canopy and you can see that its absolutely perfect “phew, glad about that” you say to yourself, and then you realise you were talking out loud and the instructor answers with some funny skydiving remark and you wonder if he reads books to get all these great one-liners or if he’s just a natural comedian.

The canopy ride feels so graceful and seeing every facet of the local countryside is just amazing. You enjoy the simplicity of the canopy steering and  your instructor coaches you on how to steer, how to allow for the winds, where the landing point is and how to steer to get to it. 

You’re now turning in on final approach for landing, and the instructor asks you to lift your legs up (so he can take the strain of the landing on himself) and you go through the landing with him as you’ve both practiced – way up there in the sky. Smoothly pulling down together on the steering toggles on the landing which goes surprisingly smoothly. And now you’re sitting on the ground, with the videoman (well, woman actually) asking you questions as you try to answer them and look cool, but in fact you’re still buzzing and you’re now sure you actually landed – have you?

Walking back to the center, helping your instructor to carry the parachute (which now looks a lot bigger than it did packed up in that container) you have a grin which is completely ear-to-ear and you wonder if you could justify getting the credit card out to go and do it all again…..

Why do people skydive?

From listening and watching all those people at drop zones all over the world and over the years, I can pretty well summarise the reasons why people do a tandem skydive. This is how my own research breaks down about why people go tandem skydiving;

Someone asked me about the relative percentages of people who answered in each category. I thought about this for a while and jotted them down alongside each. Then as they poured over the figures and asked questions I told them with a smile about the first rule of statistical analysis “73.8% of all statistics are made up on the spot!” Even with this tongue in cheek response, I’d still say that a continuum exists between answers 1 and 10 with number 1 being the largest part of the population and number 10 being the smallest group. There’s more to say about the ‘why people skydive’ continuum and this may form part of my research proposal. I’d be pleased to have input and feedback on this area from other instructors and indeed anyone else who has made any skydives. More later on this, but for now back to tandem skydiving.

Who can make a Tandem skydive?

Almost anyone! Meaning maybe 80% of the population. Tandem skydiving is designed as a mass market adventure system and it has the skydiving equipment, process and quality management systems to deliver on this wide scope approach. If you are aged between 16 and 40 and are in good health with ‘normal’ physique then there is very likely no reason why you can’t skydive. If you are in doubt at all about your health, age or weight then please check out the details on this page. The current youngest skydiver is nine years old and the oldest is 101, both in Australia. You need to take account of your local regulations and these vary from country to country. 

Where to go tandem skydiving

Your main options are whether to make a tandem skydive in your own country or enjoy the experience abroad, perhaps when you are on holiday depend entirely on you. Wherever you go, you should make it a drop zone which is properly assessed and licenced  by one of the main governing bodies. This forms the quality assurance and follow-up system to ensure that corners are not cut and that this risk sport (yes it is) has the risks managed as well as possible.  Here are a few points of discussion to consider;

Vacation tandem skydiving

When you consider making a vacation tandem skydive, please always do your research on the drop zone you decide to use. Please do not assume that they operate under rules and regulations of some governing body, because there are very many that practically - don’t. This section gives a much more detailed view of vacation skydiving, reading it could well save your life.

Tandem Skydiving in UK

It couldn’t be easier! (watch this space for articles on US, Canada, UAE and Germany). There are twenty five centres in UK that are affiliated to the BPA. That means that that they have BPA trained CCIs (Club Chief Instructors) and instructors. BPA approved Pilots (oh yes, a jump pilot has some special requirements over and above flying jumbo jets) and every aspect of safety and operations is audited, monitored and under continuous improvement.

My first tip?  choose a center which is local to your home.

Whats local? How far could you/would you commute to work? Then double it, just for a one-off event that might become two or three.

Why local? Mainly because the UK is subject to erm…‘variable weather conditions’. So - if you and the family or friends set off for a nice weekend at the other end of the country, with one day allocated for mum or dad or son or daughter to do their tandem skydive and then off to see Aunty Gladwys, Girlfriend or Buds and then to see the performance of xyz at the theatre or do that concert and then visit…

Well, you get the drift. A well planned and busy weekend or holiday itinerary is upset by the vaguarities of the weather! and the way the jet stream seems to be going, ts not going to get any better. Anyway, lets say the weather is unkind to you and you wait around for a whole day and feel disappointed to leave unfulfilled. You plan to get back, and the DZ operator is helpful and will hold your ticket open to come back another day. Then when you get home, you realise it’s another five hours drive and other priorities come up and it just never happens. You miss this great opportunity. Will you buy another ticket years later? Probably not because the last one seemed wasted (through nobodies fault). If you check out the list here, I’ll be surprised if you can’t find your local dropzone within two hours drive – maybe even an hour.

UK and US centres are strong on risk management

Lets not stick our heads in the ground, even tandem skydiving is a ‘risk’ sport although its statistically safer than the other forms! When it comes to risk management and the reduction of injuries, students are far better off in a regulated environments than in unregulated ones. To look further at the concept of risk in skydiving check out this article.

Its more fun to do your skydive when your family and friends are there to join you for the experience

Maybe!

It’s much easier to have them around when you are an hour or two up the road, and if you’re doing a sponsored skydive for charity there are positive benefits. I remember my old boss Jim Strowger coming up for a Tandem skydive and then his wife Valerie decided at the last moment that she'd like to go with him. It worked out well because the bookings were low on that day, so she and her tandem instructor sat right next to Jim and his TI, and they enjoyed the whole buzz on the way up to altitude.What a great day!

After you've done your Tandem, what next?

Don't forget to come back here to blog your experience. Tell your friends, post your pictures, use it for your charity fund raising and enjoy!

If all this altitude and adrenaline has gotten you thinking about doing an accelerated free fall course, then take a look here at the course explanation.

So how do I book my Tandem skydive?

Some tandem skydiving centers have on line booking systems and others book by telephone and post.  Here are the websites and locations for the UK centres.