Skydiving: Skydiving Myths Revealed

People who have not tried skydiving have a lot of misconceptions or "myths" about the sport. Sad to say a lot of people are misled by these myths and tend to have wrong perceptions about the sport. Here are some of the most common skydiving myths that buzz around and the true explanations to them.

Friends And Secret Signals

Most people think that if you would be skydiving with your friends, you should have a "secret signal" with your buddy to tell that your parachute failed to open. And when this happens, you would make your way towards them and give your buddy a bear hug or hook yourself to their parachute pack thingy and then afterwards the chute would inflate just in time to save the both of you.

If this myth were true, most probably both of you would have broken arms by the end of the dive; which you would think is way better than hitting the ground in terminal velocity. Additionally, there is no known hand signal for ‘my chute failed, please let me hug you’ kind of stunt.

If you were to skydive in a group, it is a protocol that before any of you would pull their parachute, you should be a hundred and one percent sure that your air space is clear. This is done so that you wouldn’t be entangled with any of your group mates once all of you pull out your chutes. Collision is also another thing to watch out for.

Secondly, that ‘parachute pack thing’ is actually called a ‘rig’, as to no skydiver would refer to it in that way.

The Ultimate Myth: Death

Of all the myths of skydiving, this one would be the truest, especially if you are falling at terminal velocity and suddenly you are face to face with the ground even before your parachute has slowed down your descend, then you’ll probably die. Well of course this myth would only happen if you let it. This is exactly why you have to commence a pull sequence, then deployyour main chute and make sure that it’s working properly so that you can give yourself the chance to cutaway and get your reserve.

The Going Solo Myth

Another one would be if you’re for some impious reason, making a dive by yourself, then your last resort of surviving would be to land with as much surface area that you can get and the type of surface you’ll be landing on.

First off, you should know that it is extremely common to have a license and skydive alone. A lot of skydivers do this. In fact, if you get a license you can do this, especially if you want to see the beauty and sacredness of watching the sunset as you freefall all by yourself.

Second if ever both of your chutes fail to inflate, there is no choice but to fight for your life even if blood would fill your goggles. You can not rely on your buddies nor your surface area.

You can’t really rely on landing in water, since this is something that you wouldn’t really want, because it’s just the same as landing on cement. However, if you can, try landing on something soft and steep like a mountain side with some snow.