Afraid of heights? Skydiving is still for you!
“Skydiving? SKYDIVING?? I am WAY too scared of heights to go skydiving! I can’t even stand on a balcony without freaking out!”
Sound familiar? Here at CSC, it’s something we hear over and over, but believe it or not, we can be just as scared of heights too! “But wait” you say… “you literally work UP THERE! How can you possibly be scared of heights?”
Perspective. It’s all about perspective. The fact of the matter is, for most people that have a proper fear of heights, the fear doesn’t actually come from standing on that balcony or the edge cliff worrying about falling off. They aren’t scared that they may slip and fall, they’re scared they might jump! It’s that nagging little voice in the back of your mind that tells you nothing is really stopping you from taking the leap.
When you stand on that balcony, looking down at the building falling away from you and the ground perhaps a hundred feet below, your mind easily understands where you are. It starts ringing those alarm bells that signal it’s time to take a step or two back and heed that fight or flight reaction, but that’s not what happens with skydiving.
The thing is, with skydiving you’re not dealing with heights, you’re dealing with altitude. “Oh come on” you say… “you’re just using different words to describe the same thing”, But we promise we’re not. There is a huge difference between the two! From that balcony you can fully comprehend the height above the ground and it starts triggering your survival response, but a skydive starts all the way up at thirteen thousand and above. From this altitude, you’ll spend a full 60 seconds in freefall before your parachute is even deployed. At altitude, you have time to think, time to relax, and time to enjoy.
60 full seconds. Think you can wrap your head around that? Okay… pick up your phone, open the stopwatch, and hit start. Spend the next entire minute paying attention to only those seconds ticking past (don’t worry, we’ll wait). Minutes and most times hours of our lives simply fly by without even being noticed, but when you’re paying REAL attention to just one minute, it can last for ages. The truth is, on your first skydive your brain simply cannot wrap itself around the altitude or the distance to earth. You’re also taking the leap with a professional instructor and state of the art equipment strapped to your back, living in the moment for what may be the first time in your life, and the last thing on your mind will be height!
This time when that fight or flight reaction kicks in, you’ll choose to fly! This time It will be the incredible views, the feeling that you’re not falling but floating on a cushion of air, and the overwhelming sensation that you are most definitely alive.
So trust us, it is completely possible to be both afraid of heights and completely in love with skydiving. Or better yet, don’t trust us… come out and put it to the test firsthand. The one thing we can promise is that you won’t regret forgetting about heights and joining us at altitude!
