With the advent of the bucket list craze, more and more people have committed to stepping out not just from their comfort zones but from their safety zones. This accounts for the popularity of certain kinds of extreme sports, like skydiving. Before you embark on this perilous enterprise, however, you should first be equipped with a trusty gizmo called a safety parachute.
The term extreme sports has been hackneyed so much that it is subsumed under definitional gray areas. Theres big wave surfing and base jumping, which we acknowledge to be dangerous and off the top. But theres also snorkeling which some people say with a knowing nod is an extreme sport. Anyway, for the purpose of this discussion, well define the aforementioned term as an activity in which one can die anytime given a niggling accident or mistake.
Skydiving qualifies as such. In this sport, you jump from an aircraft stationed at more than ten thousand feet off the ground, free fall for thousands more feet, and then deploy your parachute at a precise, critical moment. The all important equipment is made from a light but durable fabric, usually silk or nylon, and typically domed in shape. It increases air drag or resistance and accordingly lowers terminal velocity. Therefore, it is assured to make one land softly and safely.
Parachutes are an eighteenth century thing. Even then, they have not reached the pinnacle of their development. In fact, they are continually being developed and upgraded to improve safety and functionality.
In skydiving, statistics report injuries in one per one thousand jumps and fatality rates at one per a hundred thousand. This can be trivial or alarming, depending on what lens youre viewing it from. For example, ones probability to die from a car accident is one in six thousand and the probability of being hit and killed by lightning is one in eighty thousand. Talk about putting things in perspective.
However, there is still the risk of being THAT ONE among a hundred and thousand people. You can preclude this by undergoing extensive training and ensuring that your equipment is in shipshape condition. There are certain practices you should instill and equipment you should have before you go on with this extreme sport.
When you try parachuting for the first time, you will be trained and instructed on the ground for eight or more hours. If you feel like youre still not ready to go solo, you may go on a tandem jump, in which you will be strapped to a professional instructor. This will give you the feels and vibes of the flight, but you will be delegating all the concerns and logistics to your trusty companion.
Parachutists are required to wear supportive footwear that prevent ankle rolling, jumpsuits that keep the body warm in cold high altitudes, and helmets with a strong shock absorption factor. Goggles are recommended, but not mandatory. The most revolutionary development in the field is the automatic activation device, which is a tiny computer that measures the jumpers terminal velocity and altitude. If it detects that the main parachute has still not been deployed at the predetermined height, it automatically opens the reserve parachute.
The fact that fatalities are usually attributed to jumper errors is very telling. No matter the advances made in safety and equipment, they will all be for naught if jumpers dont take heed of basic training and instructions. Even if things take a turn for the worse, at least you can take comfort of the fact that you will be remembered as someone brave, rather than someone stupid.
The term extreme sports has been hackneyed so much that it is subsumed under definitional gray areas. Theres big wave surfing and base jumping, which we acknowledge to be dangerous and off the top. But theres also snorkeling which some people say with a knowing nod is an extreme sport. Anyway, for the purpose of this discussion, well define the aforementioned term as an activity in which one can die anytime given a niggling accident or mistake.
Skydiving qualifies as such. In this sport, you jump from an aircraft stationed at more than ten thousand feet off the ground, free fall for thousands more feet, and then deploy your parachute at a precise, critical moment. The all important equipment is made from a light but durable fabric, usually silk or nylon, and typically domed in shape. It increases air drag or resistance and accordingly lowers terminal velocity. Therefore, it is assured to make one land softly and safely.
Parachutes are an eighteenth century thing. Even then, they have not reached the pinnacle of their development. In fact, they are continually being developed and upgraded to improve safety and functionality.
In skydiving, statistics report injuries in one per one thousand jumps and fatality rates at one per a hundred thousand. This can be trivial or alarming, depending on what lens youre viewing it from. For example, ones probability to die from a car accident is one in six thousand and the probability of being hit and killed by lightning is one in eighty thousand. Talk about putting things in perspective.
However, there is still the risk of being THAT ONE among a hundred and thousand people. You can preclude this by undergoing extensive training and ensuring that your equipment is in shipshape condition. There are certain practices you should instill and equipment you should have before you go on with this extreme sport.
When you try parachuting for the first time, you will be trained and instructed on the ground for eight or more hours. If you feel like youre still not ready to go solo, you may go on a tandem jump, in which you will be strapped to a professional instructor. This will give you the feels and vibes of the flight, but you will be delegating all the concerns and logistics to your trusty companion.
Parachutists are required to wear supportive footwear that prevent ankle rolling, jumpsuits that keep the body warm in cold high altitudes, and helmets with a strong shock absorption factor. Goggles are recommended, but not mandatory. The most revolutionary development in the field is the automatic activation device, which is a tiny computer that measures the jumpers terminal velocity and altitude. If it detects that the main parachute has still not been deployed at the predetermined height, it automatically opens the reserve parachute.
The fact that fatalities are usually attributed to jumper errors is very telling. No matter the advances made in safety and equipment, they will all be for naught if jumpers dont take heed of basic training and instructions. Even if things take a turn for the worse, at least you can take comfort of the fact that you will be remembered as someone brave, rather than someone stupid.
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