First-time skydivers don’t take the plunge alone, they’re strapped to a tandem certified instructor.
Many first-time jumpers wonder how safe tandem skydiving is. After all, how can you trust that stranger that is strapped to you will get you to the ground in one piece?
Just know that all novice jumpers are required to go tandem. That means a highly trained professional is responsible for you and all the technical aspects of the jump. Here are six reasons to put your faith in your tandem skydiving instructor:
1. Your tandem instructor made at least 500 jumps before jumping with you.
Any tandem skydiving instructor you’d be paired with for your first jump must have a proven track-record with a huge amount of jumps in order to get their tandem instructor certification.
Let’s think about this… 500 freefalls. Really let that sink in. 500 jumps! That’s an incredible amount of time in the air for your instructor perfect their technique.
2. Your tandem instructor spent a minimum of 3 hours freefalling.
If you were to choose our standard tandem skydiving package, you’d spend approximately 60 seconds in freefall. One jump for you equals about a minute of fall time.
Your tandem instructor spent three hours in freefall before getting their level D certification. That’s a long time flying through the sky, and it’s all for your safety.
“But wait, isn’t a skydive longer than one minute?,” Once your main parachute deploys when you near the ground, you’ll spend about 5-7 minutes in slow descent as you parachute to the ground. So while your whole experience is only 6-10 minutes, remember, only 30 to 90 seconds of that (depending on the jump package you purchase) will be in “freefall.”
3. Your tandem instructor made at least two jumps at night— in the dark!
When was the last time you stubbed your toe on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Many of us can’t even find our way around our familiar home in the dark, never mind to navigate, deploy a parachute and successfully land at night.
Any tandem jumper you’ll dive with will have completed at least two leaps in complete darkness— and landed in one piece, within an exact targeted location. In fact, they really have to get quite precise! C-level certified skydivers had to land within seven feet of a target on at least 25 jumps.
These instructors are specially trained to function in the event of vision impairment and are ready to get you grounded safety, even with their eyes closed!
4. Your tandem skydiver knows how to safely land in water!
In the event of an emergency, tandem skydivers are trained to land in water. That’s right! They purposely take a plunge into a body of water (parachute and all) to test their skills.
All talk aside, your partner will actually know what it was like to go for a swim and understand exactly how to get you to land safely, should you steer off course.
5. Your instructor passed four crazy hard exams.
Remember how hard the SATs were? Or those crazy finals in college? Yeah, your tandem instructor had to go through a couple of long tests themselves.
Tandem skydive instructors need to get four levels of licensing, with a written test after each level’s “hands-on” training. Not only will your partner have all of the wild jump-time experience we addressed above, but they also need to study and pass a series of difficult United States Parachute Association license examinations.
6. At Chicagoland Skydiving Center, we have a perfect student safety record.
We’ve never had a student’s life threatened since our doors opened in 1968. We’re proud of our perfect safety record and assure you that tandem skydiving is safe as can be with CSC.
Check out our blog on tandem skydiving questions to learn more about our skycenter specifically, and what you can expect on your first jump.
Prepare for Your First Tandem Skydiving Experience
Never tried skydiving before? Tandem skydiving is the way any first-time jumper learns the ropes (more specifically, the pull ropes— skydiving pun fully intended!).
Read our Complete Guide to Tandem Skydiving to discover more about the safety features of your parachutes, instructor’s qualifications and more. You can even download a copy of the guide, to read at another time!
