Raising money for charity
This is the most common reason people give although it may just be a superficial response and probably not the real reason when we dig a little deeper. However, let's consider it for the moment. If you're raising money for charity, you might be looking at this in one of three ways; either an opportunity to do something you've always wanted to do, or perhaps it's something you've never wanted to do (huh?) or maybe it's a way to help someone who needs help and this is your own way of doing it. If it's the latter of these three, please seriously consider sticking with the Tandem skydive option even if the agency sales person says something like 'its only another xx dollars to do the AFF course. Why would I want to talk you out of doing my favourite sport? I'll tell you why.
Why AFF may not be right for a charity sky dive
If you plan to only ever do one sky dive ever, the other good thing about doing a Tandem sky dive instead of accelerated freefall is that its not only less cost, it also needs less of your time. For a Tandem, you'll only need a 20/30 minute briefing before you go up to do your jump. Once you're strapped in, your Tandem Instructor will take care of your ride all the way to the ground and will ensure you get the best landing possible, for you both!
Your Bucket list
So this is what I call the 'bucket list' scenario and some call it 'ticking the box'. Go watch Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman on the movie of the same name. Although they do take a few artistic liberties.... but hey, you'd expect that wouldn't you? by the way, what a great movie. More and more people are writing up lists of things they'd like to do before they die. personally I think this is a really positive thing and if we imagine that we are on our death bed looking back at our lives, can we list those things that we wish we'd done. They are lots of different ideas and skydiving is just one.
One of my students had done a tandem sky dive four times (in as many months) and was booking up for another one. The smart reception staff said to her "if you're enjoying it so much, why not do an accelerated free fall course?". She decided to do just that.....
If you do a tandem sky dive and you like it a lot, it may be time to re-assess your motivation and maybe even throw out my paragraph above. Who knows? perhaps you're truly curious about sky diving and/or are a true adrenaline seeker, then accelerated freefall could be the thing for you. In fact this could be part of the reason why the Australian Parachute Federation added a tandem skydive to every AFF course and designated it level 1 9they have nine levels).
Why did I do my first skydive?
I think back to why I started to sky dive in the first place and it was for a simple reason - to get over a fear of heights. You see, as a boy growing up in a big city, I had a job delivering newspapers and one place on my route was one of the older style appartment blocks, it was a seven floor place with outside railings which were open and exposed to the sky. I found it really difficult to even walk around these places and I 'hugged' the wall each time I went there. I realised that this couldn't go on, and so when I got the opportunity to 'get over it' I literally jumped at the chance (pardon the pun
). I learned through the conventional (static line) system, simply because neither Tandem nor accelerated freefall were available then).
If, while reading my first jump story, you wondered whether you could manage it yourself but the fear of heights starts to overcome you, this article will help. Even if you still decide to never make a skydive, I hope it may help in other ways. If you'd like another example of a real life 'overcoming fear of heights' view, check out the Lara Moritz story.
Sky diving is all about motivation
If you really are curious and prefer to be the driver rather than a passenger, then accelerated freefall is probably for you. As in anything in life, if you are very clear with yourself about your motivations for doing something, you are far more likely to do it well. When you're tired, or maybe scared its at those times that we start to question our motives. Think about them before hand, and the whole experience will be positive. If you want to experience a sky dive, but are not certain you want to be 'in control', then consider tandem sky diving.
If the idea of stepping out of a plane still won't work for you - don't push it. Check out this article on indoor skydiving and do some 'sky diving without the fear'.
