Pros and Cons of Skydiving

Ah, the reliable Pros and Cons list: helping folks rationalize through decisions since Ben Franklin’s 1772 letter to Joseph Priestly (that’s the first recorded instance of a pros and cons list, by the by).

Speaking of good decisions, if you’re still on the fence about jumping from a “perfectly good airplane”, a nice pros and cons of skydiving list might be just what you need to settle the matter once and for all.

Lucky for you, we took care of the cataloging and thought up a concise list of skydiving advantages and disadvantages. Intrigued? Keep reading for a list of the pros and cons of skydiving.

• Feel Accomplished For Facing Your Fears

Fear is a natural part of life, but allowing fear to dictate your life is not.

One of the greatest positives to come from skydiving is the confidence boost that surges through a person within moments of landing. As their feet touch the ground, most tap into a powerful state of mind, wherein the individual realizes the power they truly have. All of a sudden, people are able to acknowledge that the only thing that has been holding them back thus far is … well … themselves. The sense of accomplishment an individual feels after jumping is nearly palpable for those around them.

Overcoming fear opens up a vast array of enriching life experiences and, for some, skydiving is just the catalyst they need to gain access and take advantage of new and exciting opportunities. After all, if you can face your fear and skydive, you can do anything!

• Experiences Are What Make Us Who We Are

Whether you end up loving your skydive or not, a major pro of skydiving is the personal growth that a person can achieve in the process. Handling high-pressure situations is a skill that has numerous applications. Those who can address the pressure they feel and make the leap anyway undergo a momentous paradigm shift.

After skydiving, you’ll never be quite the same. The experience has a substantial effect on who you are and how you view a challenge. Likewise, after having successfully mastered the challenge of skydiving, you will find that you are able to see profound positive effects in other avenues of your life.

• Join A New Community

Without a doubt, the skydiving community is unlike any other. The people are bound by a passionate desire to live each day to the fullest. And you know what? After just one jump, you’re included in the fold. Whether you return for a second or third tandem skydive, or make the choice to progress and learn how to skydive for yourself, you’ll find ample support from the members of the community around you.

• Physical Benefits

Skydiving has physical benefits similar to light exercise—especially if you are making multiple skydives in a day. In our opinion, finding a new, fun, and entertaining way to get a little workout in is a definite pro.

On a typical day of solo skydiving, you’ll be walking to the plane and returning from the landing area carrying roughly 20-25 lbs of gear. If that doesn’t seem like enough to qualify as exercise, there is also the freefall part! During freefall, you will need to engage your muscles to maintain an arched body position and apply positive pressure through both your arms and legs. There is also the light upper body workout that comes from flying the parachute back to the ground and, if you pack for yourself, another 5-10 minutes of mild cardio wrangling a parachute back into its container.

Even if you only make one tandem skydive, there is a physical benefit that you will certainly get to enjoy. You see, skydiving causes a flood of feel-good chemicals to be released into the bloodstream. The result of which is a feeling of euphoria that can last for hours and even up to a day after landing.

• Money

Aviation, in general, is an expensive hobby to get into. Likewise, skydiving can be pretty pricey.

Especially when it comes to tandem skydiving, you get what you pay for. Skydiving is costly because there are a myriad of expensive elements that go into a skydiving experience. The top three are the cost of skydiving equipment, the cost of meticulously maintaining aircraft, and the cost of fairly compensating our talented skydiving instructors.

Although, we will say, once you clear the hurdle of achieving your skydiving license, the cost does decrease significantly.

• Time

Skydiving is not the sport for those with no time to spare. On average, for a tandem skydive, you can expect to spend 4-5 hours on site. The amount of time on site is also complicated by the fact that skydiving is a weather-dependent sport, and conditions have to be just right for us to get in the air.

Additionally, most dropzones are established away from a city center because of the need for clean airspace and an open landing area. So, there is also the travel time to and from the dropzone to account for as well. (Although truth be told, many of us really enjoy the pleasant country drive to the dropzone.)

Last but not least, once you’re into skydiving, you may find yourself visiting the dropzone every weekend. The time you used to take for tidying now goes to something a bit more epic. Admittedly, we don’t really consider this to be a full-blown negative!

• Other Hobbies Won’t Seem As Fun

We’ve seen it time and time again. Once you get wrapped up in skydiving, it’s hard to think about anything else, even hobbies you once loved. However (and we can’t stress this enough) while skydiving is, in our humble opinion, one of the most awesome things you can possibly do, it’s important to maintain a healthy diversity in your hobbies in order to avoid burnout.

Look, it’s okay to become enraptured with skydiving (we know we have been) but just remember, too much of anything has the potential to become less appealing.

Ultimately, the decision to skydive or not is entirely up to you. If you have any questions about the skydiving experience, don’t hesitate to reach out. We look forward to meeting you soon!

Related Article: First Time Skydiving: 9 Tips from the Pros