How safe really is parachuting and skydiving?

The biggest barrier to people having a go at the fantastically enjoyable sport of skydiving is that it is perceived to be dangerous. However, skydiving is a very, very safe sport.

The United States Parachute Association (USPA) ensure the safety of all participants by closely monitoring the standards of equipment, facilities and training at all drop zones. However, it would be untrue to say accidents don’t happen but there isn’t really any sporting activity that doesn’t have some associated risks.

All sports have an element of risk whether horse riding, football, cycling or scuba diving – the list goes on. The truth is that if you study the number of skydiving accidents, compared to the number of people taking part in the sport then you would find that it is one of the safest adventure sports!

When you skydive you have a main canopy and if this should malfunction for any reason then you have a reserve canopy. All reserve canopies will be automatically opened by an Automatic Activation Device (AAD) should you fail to deploy the reserve yourself.

All reserve canopies are unpacked, inspected and meticulously repacked every three months. All main canopies for student skydivers are packed by an experienced packer and checked at several stages of packing by a second packer.

Everything possible has been done to make skydiving as safe as possible so you can simply get out there and enjoy the thrill of the sport. If lack of safety is a major fear of yours, then opt for an Accelerated Freefall Course – they are slightly more expensive than the traditional static-line progression programs but the statistics undoubtedly show a lower accident rate in AFF courses.

Finally, many people think that skydivers must be a little crazy but skydivers would argue that you must be a little crazy not to try the most thrilling adrenalin packed sport on the planet!