Notes on Skydiving
In any action seekers life is a time when they have looked toward the sky and wanted to be in it. Watching birds fly by can be depressing every once in awhile because we want to know what that’s like. So, we first found a way to get up in the air using balloons until we learned how to build wings. Then, it was time for the natural progression of the action seeker. It was his time to jump.
Skydiving is one of a very few air sports practiced today. The aim is to jump out of a perfectly good airplane or chopper while still in the air, but it comes in handy when the airplane or chopper aren’t perfectly good. Most of us like doing maneuvers such as rolling and flipping, but none of it’s any good if you don’t land safely on the ground. Skydiving as a sport takes precision to land exactly on the spot in the landing zone.
But, the skill is actually taught to military personnel to make aerial entry into battlefields, roof tops of buildings and anywhere else we might need a soldier to drop from the sky. Even fire fighters are taught skydiving to enter buildings with blocked access points and to gain entry into forests from above to fight the fire from within. While skydiving is a very handle skill, it’s the fun that draws most of us to it.
Skydiving started with a French man named Andr?� Jacques Garnerin who dove from a hot air balloon in as early as 1797. Several skydiving competitions were held at the start of the twentieth century, but it wasn’t recognized as an international sport until 1952. Now, there are formation skydiving teams, freestyle skydiving teams and plenty of others who each practice a different form of skydiving and risk their lives for the thrill every day.
Obviously, leaping into thin air with absolutely nothing below for at least a mile is risky. On the other hand, it’s exalting to fly through the air racing faster and faster toward the earth. The sensation of falling freely is akin to flying even if it is only for a little while. The might seem like nothing but when you’re up there, every second seems like a minute. And those memories are etched for a lifetime. At that moment there is no other feeling but of heady adrenaline rushing thrill. No worries, no tensions, no stress just pure thrill.
To get into skydiving, find a local school and give them a call. Usually, you can take a one day course and be in a chute by the end of the day. You’ll have to jump with an instructor until he approves you. Then, you are licensed and can jump anywhere.
