The extreme sport of skydiving
Skydiving is one of the most popular extreme sports around the world. All anyone needs to skydive is the money for some training, a plane ticket to get up in the air and an experienced guide of course. The skydiving enthusiast jumps off a plane at high altitude
and performs as many acrobatic stunts in the air as possible, before opening their parachute and reaching the ground safely.
Various people have been skydiving long before it was considered a recreational sport. The first skydiver was Andre-Jacques Garnerin who made the first successful skydive on 22 October, 1797. His parachute resembled a closed umbrella before opening. It had
a pole running down its center, and a rope inside the pole which connected it to the balloon.
He attained a height of approximately 900m and severed the rope that attached the parachute to the balloon. He landed safe and unharmed. His wife Jeanne-Geneviève was the first female parachutist who made most of her dives in a gliding parachute to travel
farther horizontally. She is also the first woman hang glider.
Later many armies all over the world focused on developing parachuting technology as a way to save air crews from emergencies, while travelling in balloons and aircraft. This use of parachutes was made standard safety for all aircraft pilots, civilian or
military. Later it became a way to deliver soldiers directly into the battlefield, instead of transporting them long distances overland in trucks. Skydiving also began to be used to get wildfire fighters to remote locations quickly in order to put out fires.
There were many enthusiastic pilots who developed skydiving into a recreational activity, and the first skydiving competitions were held in the 1930s. It became an international sport in 1952, and has since become an extremely popular sport, accessible to
everyone regardless of physical skill or prowess.
A typical jump involves jumping out of an airplane, helicopter or a balloon (usually it’s from an airplane) from an approximate height of 4000m. At this height, the parachutist has about one minute of free falling before he has to open the parachute. Once
the parachute is opened, the skydiver reaches the ground in about five to seven minutes.
After opening the parachute, the jumper can control his direction and speed with toggles on the end of steering lines attached to the trailing edge of the parachute. Using these to steer himself, the parachutist can aim for a predetermined landing site and
come to a relatively gentle stop.
When the skydiver jumps off an airplane, he continues to travel forward for a few seconds as well as downwards. This is due to the momentum of the airplane and is known as the ‘forward throw’. After a few seconds the skydiver stops moving forward and begins
to drop straight downwards, until terminal velocity is reached and wind resistance causes the skydiver to stop accelerating and fall at a constant speed (190 km/h).
While skydiving, there is no sensation of falling, as one would imagine. When the skydiver exits the airplane, his speed is around 140 km/h and air resistance is the only significant sensation. Once terminal velocity is achieved, the skydiver only feels
the wind resistance pushing against his downwards fall.
Most skydiving enthusiasts make their first jump with a trained and experienced instructor. In Tandem skydiving, the instructor is attached to the student via a harness, and can monitor the student for the entire duration of the fall and help in case of
an emergency.
Apart from simply skydiving off from a plane, there are various challenges that skydivers take part in to increase the recreational value of the sport. Some of these include:
Pond swooping: In this form of competitive parachuting, the skydiver opens the parachute near ground level above a body of water. The objective is to attempt to touch down and glide onto the water, and reach the shore without sinking.
Cross country: In a cross country jump, the skydivers open their parachutes as soon as they exit the airplane. The purpose is to cover as much distance over the ground as possible.
Stuff jumps: In stuff jumps, the skydiver exits the plane with other ‘stuff’. This can be anything from a car or motorbike to rubber crafts, tanks or caravans.
Thrilling, exciting and adrenaline pumping, skydiving is an activity that everyone should experience at least once in their lifetime. As the saying goes “Only skydivers know why the birds sing.”
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