The Art of Keeping Your Calm Before Your Skydive

Wanna know a secret? Lean in close and we’ll tell you. Here it is: Skydiving tandem instructors are equal parts psychologist and athlete.

It’s true!

Even though skydiving tandem instructors have spent many hundreds of hours and many hundreds of jumps earning demanding instructional ratings and dialing in their grace, strength and agility in the freefall context, their biggest job on any give skydive is to help their students to stay calm, to listen to instruction and to stay loose. It takes a true maestro to masterfully balance the funny with the serious. We’re proud to say that, at Skydive the Ozarks, our instructors have nailed it!

Forewarned is, of course, forearmed–and, to help our instructors along, we’re going to give you a few tasty morsels of information to chew on. Bon appetite!

#1: Everybody is scared to make that first jump.

Here’s the truth of the matter: getting out of a flying plane is universally scary. Everybody is afraid to make their first jump. The other side of that might be a little more surprising: It’s great that skydiving is scary. And here’s why: The ratio of the scariness of skydiving to the safety of skydiving is way out of proportion, and it’s out of proportion in your favor. That means that, at a professional, well-run, safety-first dropzone like ours, you’ll be able to surmount a huge psychological obstacle in a space that’s startlingly low-risk. In fact, making a skydive is safer than driving to work. (You can check out the statistics yourself, right here.)

#2: You won’t have to freak out solo. Your personal expert will guide the way.

You already know, we’re pretty darned sure, that there are two people involved in a tandem skydive: the student and the instructor. During the course of any given tandem skydive, the student is connected to her/his tandem skydiving instructor (“T.I.”) via a harness.

What you should know is that what’s required of you, as a student on a tandem skydive, is important but minimal. It’s the tandem skydiving instructor, a highly experienced pro who is licensed and rated to operate this specialized equipment, who guides the experience. The instructor wears a parachute that is specially designed to support the weight of both jumpers and all the rest of the necessary equipment. You’ll assume the position you’re trained for during the briefing, but it’s your instructor who will fine-tune your body position in freefall. You’ll get a chance to look at the altimeter as you’re on the way down, but it’s your instructor who will deploy the parachute at a given altitude. You’ll be able to hold the handles if you ask, but it’s your instructor who will be steering the parachute down to a soft, sweet landing on the ground below. At no point will you be without expert guidance and a friendly face. That’s a great feeling!

#3: Fear is no reason not to try!

Scared? Of course you are! Move through it. You’ll find your courage along the way, just like everyone else has who has made that first-time skydive. Only regret waits behind decisions made out of fear. Don’t hold yourself back! Once you overcome that initial hesitation and commit yourself to the idea of the explosive growth of s first-time skydive, the rest of the process will be easy.

Reach out to us today and book that jump. You’ll be so very glad you did.