Myths About Skydiving

Everyone who thinks about skydiving or wants to go skydiving for the first time has many questions. Skydiving is a sport where we cannot find much information or people talking about it. Furthermore, there are lots of myths behind skydiving, many parachute myths, and the short amount of information and general knowledge does not help it.

You Can't Breathe
There’s plenty of oxygen, and yes, you can breathe it. While it’s true that the air thins at higher altitudes, you won’t be jumping from that great of a height.

Landings are Always Hard
The parachute is specifically designed to slow down your descent. Upon landing, the updraft will catch the parachute and you’ll glide smoothly to the ground.

SKYDIVERS PULL RIPCORDS
Ripcords are, in reality, a thing of the past. Today's skydivers use more advanced equipment where, unlike the ripcord which deployed a spring which then opened the parachute, they use a pilot chute attached to a hackey.

YOU ASCEND WHEN YOU PULL YOUR PARACHUTE
Have you ever noticed how skydivers appear to ascend when they pull their parachutes? If you've watched skydiving videos, you'll likely be familiar with this phenomenon, and many people believe that the release of the parachute does indeed make you 'go up.

EVERYONE FALLS AT THE SAME SPEED
People, for some reason, tend to think that skydivers all fall at the same speed. The average freefall speed for a tandem skydiving pair will indeed clock in at around 120mph.
Skydiving is a sport that is often portrayed in the media very differently than it happens in real life.