You’re a new skydiver (or a new-skydiver-to-be)! That means one thing: You have questions. Luckily, at Skydive Chicago we’ve been teaching people to skydive for–quite literally–generations. We can confidently say that there’s no question you can ask about skydiving for which we don’t have an answer at the ready. Wanna try us out? Of course you do. We’ll do our best to read your mind. When you come out for that first tandem skydive, you can let us know how we did!
Where’s all the parachuting near me?
Okiedoke. In order to meet your goals here–to find out where all the nearby parachuting is located, so you can get your freefall groove on–you’re going to need to change your tack. As the technology of skydiving has changed over the years, so has the terminology. We’ll catch you up.
The word “parachuting” isn’t really in common use, these days, outside of the military. If you want to skydive for fun (and not into, like, a war zone), try Googling “skydiving near me” or–much, much better!–search the listing maintained by the United States Parachute Association. That directory is a handy guide to many other dropzones in the sport.
Are parachutes round?
Oh, dear. Sounds like our first order of business is going to be to get you into the modern era, n’est-ce pas? Round parachutes, these days, are the stuff of clip art and cargo dropping. Humans, in pretty much every situation that requires a skydive, jump rectangular, steerable, “ram-air” parachutes. Gone are the days of slowly sinking to the earth; These are highly advanced wings.
They’re not shy about it, either. Some of our favorite performance-forward parachute designs are actually made by a manufacturer called “Performance Designs.” (Spoiler: They’re really fun to fly.)
How does it feel when your parachute opens?
Modern skydiving equipment is designed to deliver, cushy openings. Once deployed, the parachute is designed to kinda bubble up overhead, like a big ol’ colorful flower blossoming gracefully into existence. Granted, that’s not the experience every time. When they happen–though, luckily, they rarely do–a hard opening can slap an unlucky skydiver across the feels like a rolled-up wet towel. (At Skydive Chicago, we take meticulous care with our parachute packing to prevent such an eventuality. We have a vested interest in soft openings, you see!)
Is skydiving a smart thing to do?
Aha! You’re a smart cookie. We could tell. And heckyaw, it’s smart to skydive.
Skydiving is not only exciting, it’s an in-person exploration of some pretty highly advanced aerodynamic concepts in a high-flying laboratory that just happens to be breathtakingly beautiful. You’ll learn loads, even on that first-time tandem skydiving experience–and even more as you progress through our skydiving certification program, which you’ll clamor to sign up for after that first jump. Don’t believe us? Man-oh-man. You shall see.
How about it? Want to take to the skies and find out everything there is to know about the art and science of the parachute? Class is in session, buddy! We’re waiting for you.