We are people from all walks of life. Students, blue-collar workers, engineers, doctors, nurses, you name it. What we have in common is an infinity for a high-risk sport, skydiving. Some also participate in other sports like scuba diving, kayaking, rock climbing, skiing. There is a sense of camaraderie among us. A sense that we understand a greater truth that is missed by most people.

Mentally it is an incredibly refreshing break from “society”. Skydiving is a super stress reliever. When you are skydiving, you focus on that skydive and nothing else. This keeps away all the distractions of life. No room for stray thoughts or worries here. The intense focus and the pump of adrenaline leave you feeling mentally and physically cleansed.

And yes, the adrenaline is no doubt a part of it. Your body responds to the rush of adrenaline into it, bringing with it a sense of excitement and a surge of energy. Our human bodies are made to produce adrenaline as a survival mechanism and it is being regarded more and more as a necessary part of the human experience and overall health. Something any skydiver could have already told you a long time ago.

Stepping out the door of a flying airplane has other benefits too. It makes you mentally tough. It takes a lot of mind control to go against what you have been taught about danger since a child, get a hold of your thoughts, and realize that yes, it is okay to step out that door. You acquire an increased awareness of all that is around you. You develop a confidence in yourself and a quick response as events happen around you. The sense of accomplishment is incredible. Knowing you met your fear, took control, and pushed yourself to take that step flows over into other parts of your life.

When I did my first skydive a group of us from work went. I organized the outing. Everyone had a blast but I was the only person who did more than one jump. Later, in talking with one of the guys in the group he said to me – I know that whatever I face in life, I can remember that I went up in that plane and did a skydive. If I can summon the courage to do that, I can do anything. It was great.

Okay, so enough of the psychobabble mumbo jumbo. What is the sensation? When you step out the door of a flying airplane you are in freefall until the parachute is deployed. Most skydives are done from around 10,000 ft. to 14,000 ft. providing the skydiver anywhere from 30 seconds to 70 seconds of freefall time. Stick your arm out the window of a car doing 60 mph then imagine your whole body out there going twice as fast – then you start to get a little of the idea of what skydiving feels like.

No one I’ve ever talked to has been able to put into words the sensation of skydiving. Even asking first time jumpers – is there any way to describe what you just did – only elicits a wide-eyed, grinning, no way.

Freefall is such a stupendous sense of freedom. You are flying through the air, able to move your body in 3D. You can fly forward, back-up, move sideways, speed up how fast you are falling and slow down how fast you are falling. Yes, you are continually falling. But during that time you are definitely flying your body. You can do flips and twists. You can stand on your feet or stand on your head. There are absolutely no limits as to which direction you can move your body.

And let there be no doubt – there is not a plane around that can give you the same view. What an awesome sight to view 360 degrees around you – the sky, the horizon, the incredible beauty of the world, right there for you to see with no obstructions. To feel you are a part of that sky.

The parachute flies like a glider; responding to the pilot’s input and slicing you through the sky. It can be flown slowly and smoothly or fast and wild. But either way, with correct pilot input, it would bring you safely and softly to landing on the earth.

Why do we skydive? Who will ever understand the beauty, the freedom, the rush but someone who has been there? Truly, the sky is our playground.

About The Author

Lori Steffen is an experienced skydiver who has won two medals in USA national skydiving championships, both in freestyle skydiving. Visit our site devoted to tandem sky diving at http://www.tandemskydivinginfo.com.

This article may be reproduced as long as the author and website – www.tandemskydivinginfo.com – are identified as the source.

Written By: Lori Steffen

No longer. While the Americans with Disabilities Act has opened up the workplace and public facilities to people with disabilities, many organizations around the country have sprung up, offering access to sports programs both for wheelchair-bound individuals and amputees with artificial prosthetic devices. Disabled people are experiencing the joy of participating in Alpine and cross-country skiing, all kinds of water sports from swimming to sailing to scuba diving, and even more extreme sports such as mountain climbing and sky diving.

The importance of both competitive and recreational sports for individuals with disabilities can’t be overestimated. Particularly for formerly able-bodied people who find themselves disabled, sports can serve as a tremendous motivation in the rehabilitation process and can help alleviate the depression, confusion, and loss of self-esteem that often accompanies a debilitating injury. For those born with a serious disability, sports can serve as an important way of connecting to the “abled” world.

Competitive sports for the disabled are experiencing phenomenal success. The world-wide organization now known as the Paralympic Games was founded in Rome, Italy, in 1960, inspired by a 1948 competition organized in England for disabled World War II veterans. According to the Paralympic Games website, participating athletes compete in a variety of sports based on one of six disability-based classifications: amputee, cerebral palsy, spinal cord injuries, visual impairment, intellectual disability, and a general group including individual disabilities which do not fit into one of the other five categories.

Both summer and winter sports competitions give disabled athletes the change to compete in a variety of sports; the list of summer sports includes 21 different competitive sports, ranging from archery and cycling to equestrian, powerlifting and judo. Five competitions designed specifically for wheelchair-bound athletes include basketball, dancing, fencing, rugby, and tennis. The list of winter sports is smaller, but no less challenging: athletes can compete in either Alpine or Nordic skiing, ice sledge hockey, and wheelchair curling.

Children with physical disabilities have special challenges; they’re dealing with sometimes substantial limitations at the same time that they are meeting all the other demands of becoming competent, balanced, emotionally and mentally healthy human beings. The National Sports Center for the Disabled (NSCD) offers opportunities for children to take part in a wide range of sports activities, from skiing, ski racing, snowboarding and snowshoeing in the winter to rafting, horseback riding, and in-line skating in the summer.

The Paralympics and NSCD are only two of many organizations founded to involve disabled individuals in sports. It’s evident, from the success and increasing popularity of these organizations, that both adults and children with disabilities benefit greatly from participating in adaptive sports activities, and that the benefit extends to all aspects of their lives.

About the author:

Aldene Fredenburg is a freelance writer living in southwestern New Hampshire and frequently contributes to Tips and Topics. She may be reached at amfredenburg@yahoo.com.

Written By: Aldene Fredenburg

adaptive skydivingdisabled skydiversDISABLED SkydivingNational Sports Center for the Disabled In-line skating

Swooping competitions are relatively new, and there are two different types. The first is just a swooping competition in which all of the sky divers are accomplished swoopers. The second type of competition takes place as part of a larger sky diving competition.

Even though swooping is a new sport in a lot of areas, and there are not always competitions in place wherever you go, the number of competitions worldwide is increasing. In fact, these competitions are doing a lot to add to the popularity of the sport – both among other sky divers and other people who are just looking for an extreme sport to watch.

Most swooping competitions are only for very expert swoopers. Since a lot of the different maneuvers that are required in the competition are difficult, none of these competitions are open to everybody. If you would like to compete in a swooping competition, then you’re going to have to qualify. You can qualify by showing through a few jumps that you have control over your canopy, and that you are able to accurately hit inside of a target area.

Swooping competitions also generally consist of several different rounds. This way, more than one skill is being tested through the competition. Also, in this way, the best overall swooper wins – and a single bad jump may average out in the end.

Before competing in swooping competitions, you may want to try competing in regular sky diving competitions for practice. Some of the skills that you will use in order to do well in these competitions should help you as a sky diver – and you will be able to get used to the stress of sky diving competitions before you find yourself getting ready to swoop competitively.

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.swooping.net. Visit his website for the latest on this new and extreme way to skydive.

Written By: Jakob Jelling

competitions of skydiving

There are several different types of swooping competitions, and one of the biggest events involves distance. While there are several ways to determine the length of a swoop, most competitions find it easier to do this event over a lake or pond of some sort. As a result, the swooping distance is measured from the point where the swooper’s feet first hit the lake until the moment when they finally land.

Like any distance sport, more and more swoopers will end up breaking the distance record. This is especially likely in a sport like swooping when the equipment can have such a large effect on whether or not it is possible to swoop for long distances.

The upper limit on distances for swooping now is the record that was set by Shannon Pilcher. He managed to swoop an entire 418 feet, or about 125 meters. When you consider that a football field is 300 ft, that’s a long way!

In order to swoop that far, swoopers have to be going pretty fast before they hit the ground – at least a little bit faster than they would be if they were just sky diving normally. Swoopers usually pick up speed again near the ground by making a few turns near the ground. Going long distances is pretty difficult, since these last turns are the hardest part of sky diving.

It might be possible that there is a limit as to how far people can swoop. However, until that limit is reached, swoopers will continue to swoop farther and farther. As it is, however, the distance you can count on somebody being able to swoop depends a lot on their experience and the type of equipment that they’re using.

About the Author

Jakob Jelling is the founder of http://www.swooping.net. Visit his website for the latest on this new and extreme way to skydive.

Written By: Jakob Jelling

www swooping

Here’s a few guidelines that we think you should use when you are searching for information about sky diving. Hold in mind the advice we offer is only pertinent to internet help on sky diving. We are unable to offer any direction or assistance for researching in ‘real world’ situations.

Look for sky diving
Find sky diving at one of the best sites the Internet has to offer!

A good hint to track when offered help or advice concerning a sky diving website is to find out who owns the site. This could reveal the people behind the website sky diving qualifications The fastest way to determine who owns the sky diving website is to look on the ‘about’ page or ‘contact’ page.

All respectable sites giving you information on sky diving, will always have contact information which will record the site owner’s contact details. The details should disclose some indication about the owner’s necessary expertise. This permits you to make an informed assessment about the vendor’s insight and appreciation, to offer help regarding sky diving.

About the author:

Richard Jones is the webmaster for http://www.sky-diving-review.info/

Written By: Tom