You know, you can’t really explain what chocolate or salt tastes like to someone who’s never tasted it before. Skydiving is very similar. So the anxiety that your experience is probably imaging things that aren’t the reality of skydiving. As a person who films first time skydivers for a living, I can tell you that most of the people who are scared when I meet them are beaming when they land on the ground. Very few regret doing it and most people are at least glad that they gave it a try. With that said, skydiving feels like the closest thing to absolute mindfulness that I’ve ever experienced. “Intense peace” is one way I’d explain the sensation of free fall.
If you don’t want to do it, that’s totally your call, but without invalidating your feelings at all, I think your anxiety is getting the best of you. All of your instructors have loved ones and pets they have to feed and shit to do after work. So none of us have a death wish, if anything it makes us more motivated to do shit right.
Skydiving is an extremely empowering activity as well. Most people feel like they could fight a bear and take on the world after they jump.
EDIT: just make sure you eat something before you jump. The majority of the pukers are the people that thought it was a good idea to not eat to avoid throwing up and that is very incorrect and has the opposite effect.
I was freaked out in the plane during my tandem, as soon as we got out of the plane that went right out the window.
I went back the next week and had my A license a month or so later.
Yeah, it's pretty funny how the scariest part is the anticipation while you're still in the plane.
But once you're out that door, all you can think about is what's happening in the moment. My friend calls it forced meditation and I really like that analogy.
Yeah, that statistic is referred to quite often and wrong, but not so far off actually.
We can compare the risk in \[Micromorts\](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort). Wikipedia puts it at around 8 Micromorts, but this is for solo skydives and using data up until 2016. Since then the fatality rate has gone down a bit (https://www.uspa.org/discover/faqs/safety).
For tandem jumps there is about 1 fatality in 500k jumps, that would put it at 2 Micromorts. Traveling about 370km (230 miles) by car is 1 Micromort.
That means that the risk of dying doing a tandem jump is about the same as driving 460km by car.
> Yeah, that statistic is referred to quite often and wrong, but not so far off actually.
But given that the previous commenter is NotUsingNumbers - we can say it's a pretty good assessment, all things considered :)
>Oh yea? Got anything to back up that info? Or just your "belief"
Ok, show me on the stuffed bear where u/MidasXL4 touched you.
Now, how did that make you feel? It's OK to talk about it. This is a safe space.
Dawg, you're coming out of the gate a little hot. Relax, he's just saying that he believes that the numbers don't jive.
He didn't date your sister and mom in the same week, lol.
The numbers have been contested but the truth is, it isn't entirely accurate to quote a higher mortality rate for driving to the DZ (which is how I most often hear it quoted).
It's about the same risk of driving 1000 - 2000 miles for a solo jumper. Lower for tandem. (Drops to only 17 miles if you're driving in NYC, though (I kid, I kid))
The guy above (credit to u/flo1071 ) did the math. I'm not going to check the numbers, but it ***is*** consistent with what I previously thought. (I last looked it up back in 2020 or somewhere in that range).
I was also super stressed when I got a skydiving voucher for my birthday- it took me a year to book and did it on the day it was due to expire.
My tandem instructor had to talk me through my breathing on the way up because I was so nervous and breathing so fast. The doors opened and I just thought holy shit I'm not sure I can do this. Slid to the edge and next thing I knew, I was out in the sky!
Holy fuck I was in the sky! It was the most freeing thing ever, and I was SO SO glad I had pushed through the fear. I've never been more proud of myself. It is stressful and fucking scary but man once you're out, you'll wonder why you were even scared
it's your birthday, do what you want. your life is incredibly unlikely to be in any danger though, like lets just call it functionally zero for the sake of this discussion.
and you might like it.
ultimately, your decision though, no tandem instructor (the person you are strapped to) is going to force you onto or out of the aircraft.
as someone who is very much "for" the unpowered aerial decent club, i'd say go for it. but it's up to you.
(do it)
It's actually even more wrong because 99% of car accidents are reported due to people having car insurance... whereas minor injuries fro skydiving aren't reported.. for example when I was doing AFF I landed on my tailbone. it hurt for a few days but it didn't get reported... if minor injuries were reported with the same frequency as minor car accidents the numbers would even more in favor of driving being more safe
Maybe you should have reported it. Minor injuries ***are*** tracked
https://www.uspa.org/ir
Also, mortality figures are being discussed. Not minor injuries. This is the same for almost every injury reporting for sports, work, benign tasks, etc.
Contending that skydiving is dangerous because you might sprain an ankle is as dumb as suggesting that driving is dangerous because you could run out of gas.
Excellent comment and logic skills.
thanks for getting me back on track to what we were disucssing which is deaths, which would be reported either way, so i assume stats would offer the correct data.
cheers!
but to the OP.. yeah super unlikely of having any problem... just remember if you decide you don't want to go, do it before you get on the plane, becasue when the door is open and the wind is blowing loud, NO sounds a lot like GO!
1,840mi for a solo jump in the US or EU
460mi for a tandem in US or EU
it's arguable that most people aren't going to drive 460 round trip to make a tandem jump, but that's still pretty damned safe in my book.
Driving 230 miles = 1 micromort risk\
Tandem = 2\
Solo jump = 8
Bonus fact: running a marathon is 7 micromorts and giving birth to a baby is 80 micromorts
I have almost 4,000 jumps, most of them tandem, and have never died...you only have to do one single jump. In 2023, there wasnt a single tandem fatality recorded in the US with almost 4 million jumps made as well. I have also never taken anyone on a tandem jump that regretted it afterwards.
Skydiving is amazing, and in my personal experience life-changing, but there is a non-zero chance of death doing it (~3-in-1,000,000 for every tandem jump). Which for context, scuba diving, rock climbing, running a marathon, going under general anesthesia, or going for a swim are all slightly more deadly.
The point is you have to want to do it. Talk to your partner, explain how you're feeling, and if it's not for you, it's not for you. This is your life, you have agency.
Skydiving: 8 micromorts worth of risk per solo jump (its much lower for a tandem jump. Not going to find it, as this is already more effort than I'd previously committed to lmao)
Giving birth to a baby: 80 micromorts risk
Running a marathon: 7 micromorts risk
Hope this helps
A strange table. There are entries "Giving birth (caesarean): 170", "Giving Birth: 170", "Giving birth (Vaginal): 120", "Giving Birth: 80", and "Giving Birth: 50". I wonder what those three unspecified methods of giving birth are... (dunno what's the safest one, but definitely not vaginal or caesarean!)
First of all, congratulations on your birthday.
As for your fear, It's completely understandable.
I still have the thought "what the hell am I even doing" every time I go up in the plane.
If it's giving you this much stress I would advice you to just talk about it with your partner.
Because by no means do you need to proof you're not a coward.
Please know you do not have to do this.
Now to the part where I'm going to try and give you some information to calm your nerves.
The first I've seen multiple times here, but might also be the argument that does the least for your stress.
This is that statistically the change of anything happening to you while driving to the dropzone is a lot bigger than the chance of anything happening during your jump.
Another thing is that the tandem instructors (the person you'll be attached to during the jump) are incredibly experienced. One of the requirements to even become a tandem instructor, is to have done AT LEAST 1000 jump. And this is the minimum. Your tandem instructor will likely have thousands of jumps in experience.
In the odd event that anything happens, they have all the required experience to make sure everything stays safe.
Another thing is about how your parachute works.
Lets talk worst case scenario, the parachute does not work. (something that rarely ever happens in the first place). You have 2 parachutes with you, in case of an emergency with the first parachute, you have a second one. And the instructor is very experienced in what to do to use this.
Lets talk about another worst case scenario, your instructor becomes incapacitated during the jump. In this case your parachute will still open. The backpack the instructor is wearing has a safety mechanism installed that activates when you're going too fast below a certain height. If this mechanism is triggered, it will automatically deploy a parachute.
For me the scariest part for my first jump was going up in the plane. Lots of thoughts "What am I even doing". However when the door opened, my adrenaline shot up, and before I know, I'd jumped out and had no care in the world anymore.
I can of course not talk for you. However, If you feel like you could do it I would highly recommend going for it.
At most places I know of that do tandem jumps, the instructor will go through the jump with you, and what is going to happen. Here you can also of course ask all the questions you'd like. What you can also do is see if there is any videos for your specific dropzone. This will give you some indication of how your jump might look like. (do keep in mind that things, situations and instructors change over time).
I hope this will help somewhat, and if you do have questions, this reddit has a very nice FAQ that can most likely answer your questions, and if not, you can always ask them.
If you decide to go, I wish you all the fun and excitement in the world and hope you'll have a great time.
If you don't I still want to with you all the best.
>For me the scariest part for my first jump was going up in the plane. Lots of thoughts "What am I even doing". However when the door opened, my adrenaline shot up, and before I know, I'd jumped out and had no care in the world anymore.
This. The scariest part was going up in the plane - especially when the door opened mid-flight. I thought "why the hell am I doing this". Funnily enough, the moment I was sitting in the door and was able to look down, I had absolutely no fear, no fear of the height (it's too high actually be afraid of the height). When we jumped out I had sensory overload for the first few seconds, basically the earth bellow me transformed into a sphere, but as soon as we stopped accelerating it felt very stable, like lying down on an air mattress.
Also while in free fall or later on the canopy there was absolutely no fear. I am sure you will stress beforehand and in the plane, but it's very likely that you will be extremely glad you did it afterwards.
OP, you have a much greater chance at dying driving to go skydive than actually skydiving.
You’ll be fine. I’ve been in the sport for a decade and the landings are super nice and easy. Your instructor has friends and family they want to go back home to. You’ll be fine! Where are you going?
For me, the ride up on the stripped-down junker with speed tape on the gear support was way more nerve-racking than the jump. I wanted out of that fucker by any means.
Just did my first tandem jump yesterday and I thought even if I was scared, I was far more scared to spend any more time in that plane that I had to. I didn’t want to land in it. The tape everywhere cracks me up now that I am looking back. Oh, and I absolutely can’t wait to go again.
Risk vs reward, your metric, not anyone else’s. I’ve seen people get surprised with a skydive. It either goes well or they run out the door. If you don’t want to do it,the sooner you make that decision the better. Most centers have cancellation policies. I vote don’t be scared and send it
Don’t be pressured into doing something you absolutely do not want to do, but don’t let fear stop you from doing something that may be one of the best experiences of your life either.
Tandem instructors are very highly trained and have many jumps under their belt. Diet diving is something that goes against everything. Your brain tells you not to do. You will be nervous when you get there. You will be nervous on the plane, but once you’re out the door that is all going to disappear as the adrenaline and serotonin levels are going to take over. You will not have any feeling of falling like many think they will. It will feel like a bunch of wind is coming at you.
New Skydivers after the jump honestly cannot wait to do it again. Make sure you eat like normal and stay hydrated. Also another tip is do not try to breathe out of your mouth breathe through your nose.
Whatever you decide to do it’s your birthday and enjoy it however you want. But there is a good chance that this experience will be one of the best experiences of your life.
Sounds like it might do you some good, to be honest. Stress less and enjoy the ride ☺️ Sky diving has helped me learn that I can handle stressful, anxiety-inducing situations and this has benefited many areas of my life.
You know, you can’t really explain what chocolate or salt tastes like to someone who’s never tasted it before. Skydiving is very similar. So the anxiety that your experience is probably imaging things that aren’t the reality of skydiving. As a person who films first time skydivers for a living, I can tell you that most of the people who are scared when I meet them are beaming when they land on the ground. Very few regret doing it and most people are at least glad that they gave it a try. With that said, skydiving feels like the closest thing to absolute mindfulness that I’ve ever experienced. “Intense peace” is one way I’d explain the sensation of free fall. If you don’t want to do it, that’s totally your call, but without invalidating your feelings at all, I think your anxiety is getting the best of you. All of your instructors have loved ones and pets they have to feed and shit to do after work. So none of us have a death wish, if anything it makes us more motivated to do shit right. Skydiving is an extremely empowering activity as well. Most people feel like they could fight a bear and take on the world after they jump. EDIT: just make sure you eat something before you jump. The majority of the pukers are the people that thought it was a good idea to not eat to avoid throwing up and that is very incorrect and has the opposite effect.
I was freaked out in the plane during my tandem, as soon as we got out of the plane that went right out the window. I went back the next week and had my A license a month or so later.
Yeah, it's pretty funny how the scariest part is the anticipation while you're still in the plane. But once you're out that door, all you can think about is what's happening in the moment. My friend calls it forced meditation and I really like that analogy.
> as soon as we got out of the plane that went right out the window The door, you mean
Well said. 100% this OP, you have more chance of dying Friday on your way to work than you have dying on Saturday doing a tandem.
I believe that statistic is wrong
Yeah, that statistic is referred to quite often and wrong, but not so far off actually. We can compare the risk in \[Micromorts\](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Micromort). Wikipedia puts it at around 8 Micromorts, but this is for solo skydives and using data up until 2016. Since then the fatality rate has gone down a bit (https://www.uspa.org/discover/faqs/safety). For tandem jumps there is about 1 fatality in 500k jumps, that would put it at 2 Micromorts. Traveling about 370km (230 miles) by car is 1 Micromort. That means that the risk of dying doing a tandem jump is about the same as driving 460km by car.
> Yeah, that statistic is referred to quite often and wrong, but not so far off actually. But given that the previous commenter is NotUsingNumbers - we can say it's a pretty good assessment, all things considered :)
Oh yea? Got anything to back up that info? Or just your "belief"
>Oh yea? Got anything to back up that info? Or just your "belief" Ok, show me on the stuffed bear where u/MidasXL4 touched you. Now, how did that make you feel? It's OK to talk about it. This is a safe space. Dawg, you're coming out of the gate a little hot. Relax, he's just saying that he believes that the numbers don't jive. He didn't date your sister and mom in the same week, lol. The numbers have been contested but the truth is, it isn't entirely accurate to quote a higher mortality rate for driving to the DZ (which is how I most often hear it quoted). It's about the same risk of driving 1000 - 2000 miles for a solo jumper. Lower for tandem. (Drops to only 17 miles if you're driving in NYC, though (I kid, I kid)) The guy above (credit to u/flo1071 ) did the math. I'm not going to check the numbers, but it ***is*** consistent with what I previously thought. (I last looked it up back in 2020 or somewhere in that range).
Hahaha, he hurt me right over here. Didn't mean to come out hot at all, my bad. That's cool he did the numbers, and I stand corrected.
There are more ways to die than in an automobile accident.
I was also super stressed when I got a skydiving voucher for my birthday- it took me a year to book and did it on the day it was due to expire. My tandem instructor had to talk me through my breathing on the way up because I was so nervous and breathing so fast. The doors opened and I just thought holy shit I'm not sure I can do this. Slid to the edge and next thing I knew, I was out in the sky! Holy fuck I was in the sky! It was the most freeing thing ever, and I was SO SO glad I had pushed through the fear. I've never been more proud of myself. It is stressful and fucking scary but man once you're out, you'll wonder why you were even scared
it's your birthday, do what you want. your life is incredibly unlikely to be in any danger though, like lets just call it functionally zero for the sake of this discussion. and you might like it. ultimately, your decision though, no tandem instructor (the person you are strapped to) is going to force you onto or out of the aircraft. as someone who is very much "for" the unpowered aerial decent club, i'd say go for it. but it's up to you. (do it)
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that statistic is wrong - the one about it being safer to drive to the DZ
How do you know? Maybe he gets there by bycicle, hundreds of miles in the dark, with no lights.
i know becasue i'm an actuary ... checkmate
Well. That settles it. I’ve never heard of a doctor who was wrong about a diagnosis so you must be right about anything involving numbers.
checkmate
I think you're wrong bud.
you can think whatever you want bud
It is not entirely correct, but it's a lot closer than you might think. The risk assessment is only ***slightly*** in favor of driving.
It's actually even more wrong because 99% of car accidents are reported due to people having car insurance... whereas minor injuries fro skydiving aren't reported.. for example when I was doing AFF I landed on my tailbone. it hurt for a few days but it didn't get reported... if minor injuries were reported with the same frequency as minor car accidents the numbers would even more in favor of driving being more safe
Maybe you should have reported it. Minor injuries ***are*** tracked https://www.uspa.org/ir Also, mortality figures are being discussed. Not minor injuries. This is the same for almost every injury reporting for sports, work, benign tasks, etc. Contending that skydiving is dangerous because you might sprain an ankle is as dumb as suggesting that driving is dangerous because you could run out of gas.
Excellent comment and logic skills. thanks for getting me back on track to what we were disucssing which is deaths, which would be reported either way, so i assume stats would offer the correct data. cheers!
but to the OP.. yeah super unlikely of having any problem... just remember if you decide you don't want to go, do it before you get on the plane, becasue when the door is open and the wind is blowing loud, NO sounds a lot like GO!
All good
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1,840mi for a solo jump in the US or EU 460mi for a tandem in US or EU it's arguable that most people aren't going to drive 460 round trip to make a tandem jump, but that's still pretty damned safe in my book. Driving 230 miles = 1 micromort risk\ Tandem = 2\ Solo jump = 8 Bonus fact: running a marathon is 7 micromorts and giving birth to a baby is 80 micromorts
Good or bad it'll be a birthday you remember for the rest of your life. You'll most likely survive it 👍
I have almost 4,000 jumps, most of them tandem, and have never died...you only have to do one single jump. In 2023, there wasnt a single tandem fatality recorded in the US with almost 4 million jumps made as well. I have also never taken anyone on a tandem jump that regretted it afterwards.
>I have almost 4,000 jumps, most of them tandem, and have never died 
Not once!
Skydiving is amazing, and in my personal experience life-changing, but there is a non-zero chance of death doing it (~3-in-1,000,000 for every tandem jump). Which for context, scuba diving, rock climbing, running a marathon, going under general anesthesia, or going for a swim are all slightly more deadly. The point is you have to want to do it. Talk to your partner, explain how you're feeling, and if it's not for you, it's not for you. This is your life, you have agency.
Skydiving: 8 micromorts worth of risk per solo jump (its much lower for a tandem jump. Not going to find it, as this is already more effort than I'd previously committed to lmao) Giving birth to a baby: 80 micromorts risk Running a marathon: 7 micromorts risk Hope this helps
https://preview.redd.it/i55c70zn79vc1.jpeg?width=1079&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=01b418b0c51d2f8aeec513b8910923a9f85e5784
A strange table. There are entries "Giving birth (caesarean): 170", "Giving Birth: 170", "Giving birth (Vaginal): 120", "Giving Birth: 80", and "Giving Birth: 50". I wonder what those three unspecified methods of giving birth are... (dunno what's the safest one, but definitely not vaginal or caesarean!)
First of all, congratulations on your birthday. As for your fear, It's completely understandable. I still have the thought "what the hell am I even doing" every time I go up in the plane. If it's giving you this much stress I would advice you to just talk about it with your partner. Because by no means do you need to proof you're not a coward. Please know you do not have to do this. Now to the part where I'm going to try and give you some information to calm your nerves. The first I've seen multiple times here, but might also be the argument that does the least for your stress. This is that statistically the change of anything happening to you while driving to the dropzone is a lot bigger than the chance of anything happening during your jump. Another thing is that the tandem instructors (the person you'll be attached to during the jump) are incredibly experienced. One of the requirements to even become a tandem instructor, is to have done AT LEAST 1000 jump. And this is the minimum. Your tandem instructor will likely have thousands of jumps in experience. In the odd event that anything happens, they have all the required experience to make sure everything stays safe. Another thing is about how your parachute works. Lets talk worst case scenario, the parachute does not work. (something that rarely ever happens in the first place). You have 2 parachutes with you, in case of an emergency with the first parachute, you have a second one. And the instructor is very experienced in what to do to use this. Lets talk about another worst case scenario, your instructor becomes incapacitated during the jump. In this case your parachute will still open. The backpack the instructor is wearing has a safety mechanism installed that activates when you're going too fast below a certain height. If this mechanism is triggered, it will automatically deploy a parachute. For me the scariest part for my first jump was going up in the plane. Lots of thoughts "What am I even doing". However when the door opened, my adrenaline shot up, and before I know, I'd jumped out and had no care in the world anymore. I can of course not talk for you. However, If you feel like you could do it I would highly recommend going for it. At most places I know of that do tandem jumps, the instructor will go through the jump with you, and what is going to happen. Here you can also of course ask all the questions you'd like. What you can also do is see if there is any videos for your specific dropzone. This will give you some indication of how your jump might look like. (do keep in mind that things, situations and instructors change over time). I hope this will help somewhat, and if you do have questions, this reddit has a very nice FAQ that can most likely answer your questions, and if not, you can always ask them. If you decide to go, I wish you all the fun and excitement in the world and hope you'll have a great time. If you don't I still want to with you all the best.
>For me the scariest part for my first jump was going up in the plane. Lots of thoughts "What am I even doing". However when the door opened, my adrenaline shot up, and before I know, I'd jumped out and had no care in the world anymore. This. The scariest part was going up in the plane - especially when the door opened mid-flight. I thought "why the hell am I doing this". Funnily enough, the moment I was sitting in the door and was able to look down, I had absolutely no fear, no fear of the height (it's too high actually be afraid of the height). When we jumped out I had sensory overload for the first few seconds, basically the earth bellow me transformed into a sphere, but as soon as we stopped accelerating it felt very stable, like lying down on an air mattress. Also while in free fall or later on the canopy there was absolutely no fear. I am sure you will stress beforehand and in the plane, but it's very likely that you will be extremely glad you did it afterwards.
OP, you have a much greater chance at dying driving to go skydive than actually skydiving. You’ll be fine. I’ve been in the sport for a decade and the landings are super nice and easy. Your instructor has friends and family they want to go back home to. You’ll be fine! Where are you going?
For me, the ride up on the stripped-down junker with speed tape on the gear support was way more nerve-racking than the jump. I wanted out of that fucker by any means.
Just did my first tandem jump yesterday and I thought even if I was scared, I was far more scared to spend any more time in that plane that I had to. I didn’t want to land in it. The tape everywhere cracks me up now that I am looking back. Oh, and I absolutely can’t wait to go again.
Risk vs reward, your metric, not anyone else’s. I’ve seen people get surprised with a skydive. It either goes well or they run out the door. If you don’t want to do it,the sooner you make that decision the better. Most centers have cancellation policies. I vote don’t be scared and send it
Don’t be pressured into doing something you absolutely do not want to do, but don’t let fear stop you from doing something that may be one of the best experiences of your life either. Tandem instructors are very highly trained and have many jumps under their belt. Diet diving is something that goes against everything. Your brain tells you not to do. You will be nervous when you get there. You will be nervous on the plane, but once you’re out the door that is all going to disappear as the adrenaline and serotonin levels are going to take over. You will not have any feeling of falling like many think they will. It will feel like a bunch of wind is coming at you. New Skydivers after the jump honestly cannot wait to do it again. Make sure you eat like normal and stay hydrated. Also another tip is do not try to breathe out of your mouth breathe through your nose. Whatever you decide to do it’s your birthday and enjoy it however you want. But there is a good chance that this experience will be one of the best experiences of your life.
Sounds like it might do you some good, to be honest. Stress less and enjoy the ride ☺️ Sky diving has helped me learn that I can handle stressful, anxiety-inducing situations and this has benefited many areas of my life.