More Than Just Falling From Planes: Confidence, Competition, Community

Skydiving is one of the world’s most unique experiences–and not just for the reasons you think. In our humble opinion, there are three major ways that skydiving differentiates itself from the world’s other adventure activities: confidence, competition and community. These elements, taken in synthesis, elevate the sport way beyond the simple act of jumping out of a plane.

Confidence

Skydiving inspires the kind of confidence that can readily dig you out of the deepest rut. After all: You have to let go of the plane to have the experience, right? Once you’ve done that, you’ll find it just that much easier to let go of the past; to release obsessive thought patterns; to find your freedom. At the end of the day, it’s like this: successfully planning and accomplishing something as scary as a skydive builds confidence with each execution. The more you do it and achieve these goals, the longer the lasting confidence builds.

There’s another level to that feeling of confidence: A giddy sense of uniqueness. If you’re a skydiver, you’re different. There are so few people in the world that have tried it–heck, are even willing to try it–that making a jump makes a person statistically special, and that’s something to feel good about.

Competition

Skydiving as a sport has one great big secret–it’s not all just fun and games up there. That’s right! While the general public might think of skydiving as a frivolous activity that just runs circles around the simple thrill of freefall, that’s not at all the case.

Most people–including first-timers–have no idea that skydiving is a sport of many distinct disciplines, the skills of which don’t necessarily overlap. How does that work?, you ask, When you’re just falling out of a plane? Well: Say you’re amazing at stand-up paddleboard yoga. Does that mean you’ll be awesome if you grab a longboard and head out to the big waves? Or vice-versa? Well: the same is true in skydiving: just because you’re super-skilled at flying upside-down doesn’t mean you’ll fly beautifully in a wingsuit. There are loads of these disciplines, and each one could take years to perfect.

So: Skydivers train, and we compete. Especially at a big, thriving dropzone like UK Parachuting, we enjoy different events, skills camps, and workshops that draw people from around the world. These are often taught by skydivers who are famous in the community for their accomplishments. Once we’ve honed our chops, we start to perform in local competitions. People who have worked tirelessly to optimize their performance in one (or two!) of these disciplines are given the opportunity to compete on the national and even international level.

As a side note: This is one of the only sports where you can just hang out with famous, well-known and extraordinarily accomplished skydivers. Often, they’re so humble that you won’t even know who you’re talking to until someone else explains it to you. (In other sports, you have to pay to get the attention of someone who’s this big a deal!)

Community

You can’t help but bond with other like-minded people and skydiving is a sport full of open-minded, open-hearted, open-armed folks who share goals and values. Once you step into the world of skydiving, you join the family.