Is it really a good idea to go skydiving? Well the simple answer is yes. Contrary to popular belief, sky diving has been ranked as one of the safest sports in the world. It is a great way to experience the world in a new way. For those of you who are unsure, there are a few things that you should take in to consideration. Firstly, why not try a tandem jump? A tandem jump involves you being strapped to a highly qualified master skydiver who will have over a thousand jumps to his/her name. This kind of skydive is extremely secure due to the fact that you do not actually control anything, the master skydiver will even help you jump out of the plane if you get too scared whist standing at the door of the plane. They are the ones who will tell you how to shape your body whilst in the air, will pull the chute, and then safely guide you to the ground after over five minutes of being in the air.
This scary yet exhilarating sport has become world-renowned and South Africa has taken on this sport with full force. What is more, is that South Africa is one of the most beautiful places in the world so what could be better than experiencing the majestic Cape Town with a birds eye view.
For those of you who are still unsure about whether or not it is a good idea to go skydiving, then you need to consider the following. In order to become a skydive master, the instructor will probably have started out like you – with a tandem jump just to get a feel for things. However, this sport can be extremely addictive but unfortunately is an expensive sport. Therefore people try to make some money of out of the sport and therefore they qualify to become master instructors. There are two ways in which they can begin their skydiving careers, either through static line training, or through accelerated free fall programmes.
According to the PASA (Parachute Association of South Africa), the accelerated freefall (AFF) programme is one of the best ways to learn how to skydive and for this reason, many skydive instructors take this route rather than static line jumps. This is because this type of course offers the most intensive training that you can receive.
You have to move through ten levels before you can even take the skydive master course and these levels are as follows:
Levels 1 – 3
During these levels, you will be assisted by two AFF instructors. These levels focus on refining the skills associated with jumping such as altitude awareness, stability, body position and so forth. These levels additionally involve ensuring that you can deploy your parachute correctly and safely, as well as teach you the various movements and manoeuvres such as turns.
Levels 4 – 7
These levels are focused on teaching you solo skills and only require one AFF instructor to help you. These levels help you further with the movements involved in skydiving such as front and back loops, forward movements, and combining different manoeuvres.
Levels 8 – 10
These levels are done solo and require you to do a minimum of three solo jumps per level successfully.
Only once a person has successfully completed each of the above mentioned levels will they be able to conduct a jump master course. Once this is completed, you will be able to enrol for a skydiving instructor course. As you can see, learning how to become a skydive instructor is quite a lengthy process and therefore you can be assured that you will not jumping out of the plane with an unqualified instructor strapped to your back.