Skydiving Gift Certificates for Tandem Jumps

A new sky diving student can minimize anxiety by completing tandem jumps with an experienced instructor for their first few jumps. Accelerated free fall is not that scary when you are strapped in with your instructor, who has literally done this hundreds of times before. It’s one thing to read about a skydive, or sit through a lecture in ground school. It’s quite another to try to remember all the steps to a successful jump the first time you step outside a perfectly good airplane and feel that wind buffeting you, not to mention looking straight DOWN from thousands of feet above! Tandem instructors, called “Tandem Masters” are required to have 500 individual skydives and 3 years experience. You can count on your instructor to know when to throw the drogue chute and open up your main canopy, as well as handle any “in flight emergencies”. Tandem jumping allows a new skydiver to just enjoy the ride and get used to parachuting without worrying about making a mistake. This teaching method is not new for aircraft- it’s very common to learn to fly in an airplane or a helicopter with an instructor, and with tandem parachute jumps you don’t have to fly “solo” on your jump.

The first sky dive was in 1797 from a hot air balloon. For 180 years, if you wanted to jump, you went by yourself. In 1977 the first tandem parachute jumps occurred. Tandem parachute jumping took off, and received approval from the FAA in the mid eighties. At its heart tandem jumps are simply two jumpers tied together in a special harness. The drogue chute (a small parachute) slows the 200 mph freefall to about 120mph, which allows a more comfortable opening. Both student and instructor control the parachute, so you get hands on skydiving instruction by actually jumping. If you’re a “learn by doing” type of person then you should definitely consider taking your skydive training in the sky! Of course they don’t just strap you to your instructor and go- there will be an abbreviated ground school which is primarily to familiarize you with the gear, how the jump is going to go, and safety.

If you want to buy a skydiving gift certificate for a tandem jumps, you’re going to pay a bit more than a static line jump. Prices vary from school to school, but a tandem parachuting typically runs from $150 to $250 per jump.

There is an additional cost you should definitely consider. Most schools offer the services of a videographer on the jump. The cameraman jumps before you and your tandem master with a drogue chute of his own, and can film your exit from the plane, the free fall, the chute deployment, and of course the landing. They typically offer both static pictures and video, with a discount for purchasing both. The going rates are usually about $100 to $200 for on top of the jump fee. While this may seem expensive, many people see the intensity of a sky dive as a life changing experience. It’s worth it to capture those tandem jumps on film- whether it’s your first and only jump, or the first of many, can relive the exhilaration of tandems again and again.