Sky diving is a sport in which people jump from a plane at an altitude, they are able to perform certain moves before they deploy a parachute to the descent. The parachute slows the fall down completely so that you are able to drift down to earth. Tandem skydiving is the exact same process except the jumper has an instructor strapped to their back and they deploy the parachute. This means that on a tandem skydive the person does not have to receive intensive training, unlike if they were to jump solo.
Many people love to participate in tandem skydiving because regardless of your level of fitness you can have a go. The sport is an incredible experience but is also very adrenaline filled, so you must be fairly brave to participate. Skydiving dates back much further than people probably realise, several medieval inventors had visions and had designed equipment that may have been used for sky diving. In 1797 a French man jumped from a hit air balloon with a parachute, marking the first ever skydive.
The sport was then refined throughout the 1800's but was adopted as a method of safety for pilots in the military during the 1900's. The idea was that if a plane became disabled during a flight then a pilot could fall to safety with his parachute. Some pilots began to skydive for fun and other uses for the sport began to emerge. Modern military uses skydiving to deploy troops into certain areas and wild fire-fighters have been known to skydive into remote sites.
Skydiving and tandem skydiving became more popular as a recreational sport and is now done worldwide. As a sport the skydive is considered to be done with a bit of creativity as well as safety. In films skydivers are also required to film stunts and for the promotion of products. Group skydiving is also considered a sport, alongside wing suit flying which gives users a sense of flight.
Like any extreme sport, there are many safety issues involved with skydiving and tandem skydiving. Skydivers have to constantly check that their equipment is in good order and will often take a spare parachute on their jump. The spare parachute usually deploys automatically if the jumper reaches a certain altitude to ensure their safety. For people that want to try this incredible sport it is recommended that tandem skydiving is tried first, as this is a safe way to ensure that the parachute is taken out at the right time and altitude.
Dominic Donaldson is an expert in the extreme sports industry.
Find out more about Tandem Skydiving and how the services available offer skydiving experiences across the UK.
