The Different Skydive Disciplines

After becomming certified skdyivers there are a variety of disciplines jumpers can participate, develop or even compete in. Some oth these disciplines are more invloved and require higher levels of skill to be executed safely.

Relative Work: RW or "Formation Skydiving" as it is also known, is the art of creating formations with multiple skydivers holding on to or gripping each other's limbs. Skydivers arch to fall in a belly-to-earth psosition. RW competitions are frequent and world records for the largest completed formations are still being challenged and set on a regular basis.

Freeflying: Freeflying has become a broad term to loosly describe all non traditional belly-to-earth flying positions. This includes sitflying, stands (an upright position where a skydiver falls feet first) and head down or an inverted positions where the skydivers falls head first. Freeflying is a more recent additoion to the roster of skydiving disciplines but has quickly become one of the most popular and fastest growing aspects of the sport.

Freestyle: In freestyle a skydiver performs acrobatic manoeuvres during freefall while a team member videos the routine for judges to look at. While incredibly beautiful to watch, it is a smaller less popular branch of the sport.

Canopy Formations: Also known as CRW or Canopy Relative Work, skydivers open their parachutes immediately after exiting the aircraft and create formations by holding on to each other's canopies. CRWdogs (skydivers who devote themselves to this discipline) are skilled canopy pilots who has to be comfortable flying an open parachute in near proximity to other jumpers.

Swooping: Also known as "Canopy Piloting", swooping refers to skydivers performing speed-inducing manoeuvers whereafter they glide or "swoop" inches above the ground or water for as far as possible before landing. Swoopers will often compete by measuring the distance covered during a swoop, performaing advanced body and harness positioning maneuvers or running slalom through gates.

Wingsuiting: Wingsuit flying includes a specially designed jumpsuit called a "wingsuit" made with fabric under the arms and between the legs. These "wings" allow the jumper to slowly descent back to earth while covering a larger area and longer distances in-flight. A parachute is deployed at a certain altitude to allow the jumper to comfortably return into a normal canopy controlled state for safe landing. Proximity flying refers to (usually BASE Jumpers) flying their wingsuits in close proximity to fixed objects like mountains, cliffs and gorges.

Learning to skydive can be as easy as not having to jump out of an airplane just yet. You can start your training by trying out indoor skydiving first and experiencing the art of skydiving from a different point of view. Indoor skydiving is where you enter a vertical wind tunnel, powered by fans underneath a grate in the floor, where a strong consistent stream of air is created, lifting you up into the air making you "fly" without any effort from your side. This makes for a great skydiving experience even if it is not 10,000 feet above the ground.