What Do You Need to Go Skydiving for the First Time?

Interested in making your first skydive? Awesome. While we can’t wait to help you spread your wings, there are a few things we want you to know.

Skydiving Weight Requirements

As a subset of aviation, skydiving equipment must meet minimum performance standards issued by the United States Federal Aviation Administration. For parachutes, in particular, this means a maximum load of weight it can bear. Parachutes are not something you want to push the limits of, so our tandem students must meet certain weight criteria. For the safety of all involved, our weight limit is 225 pounds. Before making a reservation for someone who is over this weight limit, please give us a call.

Physical Fitness in Skydiving

Skydiving isn’t exactly a ‘passive’ pastime. True, the majority of the work of the skydive is done by our first-rate instructors, but there are a few responsibilities you will have as a tandem student. An example of one of your responsibilities that require a little bit of strength is lifting your legs for landing.

Before making a skydive, a person should be in fairly good health and physical condition. When you come for your first skydive, we won’t ask you to run a marathon, but we will ask that you possess close to full range of motion in your extremities. If you have any doubts or questions about your physical or medical ability to skydive, please give us a call! There are medical limitations that can be managed if our instructors know about them.

Oh, and while it’s an odd one, if you’ve recently gone SCUBA diving or donated blood, you’ll need to wait a few days before experiencing the thrill of freefall.

Sober as a Judge

While having a bit of a buzz strolling the town in NYC or Long Island may be okay, it is a flat-out NO-NO for skydiving. We require our tandem skydivers to be COMPLETELY sober. That means, no skydiving for you if you are hungover, on any medication that could affect judgement or performance, and definitely – no skydiving if you are intoxicated (it won’t be a pleasant experience for you anyway).

What To Wear in Skydiving

And by that we mean skydiving fashion first. You wouldn’t wear stilettos to play basketball or sweats to a wedding, would you? Nearly every sport and occasion have a particular dress-code associated with them. For skydiving, dress comfortably for the weather on the ground and come in clothes you don’t mind potentially getting a bit of grass debris or dirt on. For your feet, wear tennis shoes or other snug fitting athletic footwear. When temperatures dip a bit, put on a pair of jeans or leggings and keep your top half cozy with a base layer and a fleece.

Sunny Skies

A few puffy clouds provide a beautiful backdrop for your first-time tandem skydiving (and any other time after than too!) However, we are required to follow visual flight rules (VFR) put in place by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and if visibility is impeded by too many of our puffy friends, your skydive may have to wait. Since the sky is our playground, naturally, skydiving is a weather dependent sport. Less than savory weather can prevent us from conducting jump operations. Unsafe skydiving conditions can be caused by rain, high winds, and fog. Trust us, we want to skydive as much as you do, but we refuse to put our instructors and you at risk.

Appetite for Adventure!

Are you ready to leave the everyday behind? Even if you are still working up the courage to make your first jump, it’s okay! It’s natural. Nearly everyone is a bit nervous when they make their first skydive, but the feeling of euphoria that’s waiting on the other side makes it totally worth it.

If you’ve checked off every item on our list and are ready to find out just how great this skydiving thing is for yourself, give us a call or book online today!