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Mlek

What are the basic requirements for skydiving?

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That's right: anyone can jump out of a plane. However, not everyone should. While jumping is optional, landing is absolutely mandatory, and it has taken the skydiving industry many years to set standards to make sure everyone in the sky is as safe as possible. Here is your quick guide to the basic physical requirements of this sport.

How old do you have to be to skydive?

Many skydiving landing areas in the United States (and at various overseas locations) are members of the United States Parachute Association (USPA).

As such, these facilities adhere to the basic USPA safety requirements as well as safety guidelines set by the canopy manufacturers. These "BSRs" require any skydivers to be at least 18 days old on the day of the jump, whether jumping alone or with a tandem passenger.

Some American dropzones make exceptions for players under 16, for example West Tennessee Skydiving and Skydive Altas (in Nebraska). However, this practice has become somewhat less common following a skydiving accident in which a 16-year-old girl was injured. European declining zones are more amenable to the idea.

Interesting note: there is no upper age limit, as long as the jumper is intact.

What are the physical requirements for jumping?

Remember: Skydiving is a sport. While the tandem skydiving experience will not require much of you, you will delve deeper into the sport of the sport.

As a student leader you have to wear more than 30 pounds of equipment, repeatedly get confused by opening the shock, main body neck, maneuver your parachute, "run out" your landing quota, and if you land outside the designated landing zone, soar back into the dropzone .

(Ahem: The liver may have been battered.) You will also need to manage your weight within a narrow range so that it does not fall outside the narrow weight range of your machine.

In short: for the best experience, you'll need to be above your physical game.

Is there a weight limit for skydiving?

Tandem passengers who weigh more than the recommended limit put themselves and the tandem pillow at risk of injury.

Expect to step up on a scale when you get to your tandem appointment to determine if you fall within the dropzone's posted weight guidelines. If you don't, you won't jump. It's not personal.

Skydivers than sports skydivers have less scope, because they are only putting themselves in physical danger. The dropzone should remain in the inherent "safety zone", yet the boundaries remain in place.

The general consensus is that weight becomes an issue for new air jumpers who weigh more than 220 pounds and aren't really athletic. Sedentary people have more difficulty learning to skydive, as they struggle to perform free-fall maneuvers, and to clean themselves up after a hard landing. (Stabilized skydivers also tend to have a hard time performing a parachute landing properly, which can save a bird's bones if the landing is exceptionally weak.)

When skydivers reach a weight of 230 pounds, most spare canopies are no longer legal to use. At the 235-pound mark, most dropzones consider even the athletic possibilities to be too much of a liability, because the skipper will likely need to use converted tandem equipment in order to make a jump (or risk serious injury while descending). For these reasons, jumpers that do not fit in weight and relative weight are often turned away.

 

Are there additional health standards that you must meet in order to perform a skydiving?

Even for a healthy person, skydiving puts unique stresses on the body. Skydivers are regularly exposed to 30-degree temperature differences, large changes in atmospheric pressure and extreme emotional stress, along with the bumps and bruises that accompany the area.

The declaration of pre-existing medical conditions is non-negotiable. Impaired cardiovascular or lung function, unconscious illness, and respiratory impairment are a big deal in heaven. That being said, surprisingly few people have conditions that actually prevent them from skydiving. A conversation with your doctor won't hurt.

Should you be afraid of skydiving?

No no no no no. Absolutely.

One of the greatest benefits of skydiving is its unique ability to teach you to manage fear. You'll enter the sport as pretty much all of us do: intense fear, largely.

In retrospect, you'll look back on those early days and be amazed at how far you've come (and how learning to manage that fear has changed your life in so many beautiful ways).:x

 

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