Why Do People Skydive?

Why Do People Skydive: Thrill or Freedom?

Skydiving. The sport of opening the door of a moving aircraft 10,000 ft above the ground and falling out of it. Crazy, right?

As skydivers, we often find that people we meet have certain preconceptions about why a person would choose to jump out of a perfectly good airplane. It could be assumed that skydivers are an adrenaline-driven, crazed and reckless bunch of thrill seekers, living on the edge of society.

And yet – nothing could be further from the truth.

We don’t jump for a thrill – we jump for the freedom.

There are many different reasons to make a first skydive – and many do so for the exhilaration, or to ‘face the fear’. However, once you leave the plane, you discover the experience of freefall is something very special, and far beyond a rush.

The freefall part of a skydive usually lasts about a minute and making skydives truly teaches you the value of a single minute.

What all skydivers know and love is ‘the moment’ – the total focus you have in freefall, 60 seconds of there being, with nothing else in your world but the skydive.

In freefall, there are no worries or stress, everything else going on in your life just melts away and you feel there is nothing you can’t do.

Then, once the parachute deploys, everything slows down and you see the world from a completely new angle. You are one of the privileged few to soar above the beauty of the earth with nothing between you and the scenery. There is a wonderful, refreshing solitude during a solo parachute ride, on a tandem skydive there is a fantastic camaraderie between student and instructor.

This is what keeps us coming back to skydiving over and over. The thrill fades, the magic never does.

Skydiving as Therapy?

Frequent jumpers will talk about skydiving as their ‘therapy’. Going to a happy place and experiencing those moments of pure elation puts us in a positive mindset. Our time in the sky shows us the best bits of the world we live in and what we are capable of, and those experiences are reflected in our outlooks and how we live our lives.

We love our sport because we are actually ‘free as birds’ – when we fly. To fully understand why people skydive though, the proof is in the dropzone. Come visit and see all the smiling faces.

Book your next adventure and skydive NYC with the experienced team at Long Island Skydiving Center!