Everybody’s got a bucket list, right? Y’know: that maybe-short, maybe-epic-length list of experiences you want to check off before you kick the bucket. These are the landmark experiences that make a life: ride an elephant; see the sun rise over Black Rock City; learn to play the guitar; high-five Samuel L. Jackson.

A huge proportion of first-time tandem skydivers come to us in order to check one of those bucket list items off. Usually, skydiving has pride of place right at the top of the list. It deserves that place! Interestingly, most people find it easier to work through the rest of their carefully-curated lists once the “make skydive” box is checked. (Whether it’s the big confidence boost they get from their jump or because the rest of the list is suddenly scratched and replaced with skydiving-related items, we can’t say.)

Ready to check off classic Bucket List Item Number One? We have our very own “bucket list” to help you with that–and we’re eminently qualified to have written it up. After all, the skydiving scene from The Bucket List movie itself was filmed here, and we’ve been serving the Los Angeles skydiving community for almost half a century!

1. Acknowledge Your Bucket

You’ve wanted to do this as long as you can remember, but you keep postponing it. Acknowledge the bucket that’s been sitting there, waiting for you, for years. Ain’t gonna fill itself. The time is now.

2. Check Your Bucket For Holes

If that bucket is going to carry the good stuff, you have to make sure it’s in good shape. Safety first, after all!

No matter where you are in the world, the best place to find the safest, most professional, most up-to-date skydiving dropzone is by far the dropzone listing maintained by the United States Parachute Association. The USPA has been the organization advancing the policies, technology and training of safer skydiving since the sport was founded, so it’s information you can trust. Why? USPA members pledge to uphold the organization’s strict requirements regarding safety, instructor training and maintenance. Skydive Perris is proud to be a USPA member, but beware, not all drop zones are! Always check the USPA listings first.

As a sidenote: Don’t book based on price. You knew this already: but for this kind of activity, cheaper doesn’t mean better.

3. Fill Your Bucket

Most people choose a tandem jump as their first step into the skydiving world. It’s a great starting point! Thanks to the tireless work of the USPA and the greater skydiving community, tandem skydiving is safer now than it has ever been. (It’s safer, in fact, than riding your bike through a lightning storm–or driving to work!)

There are innumerable variations on the theme, but there are ways you can set yourself up for the best possible experience. First, we recommend booking your tandem for the morning. It tends to be a more peaceful experience that way, and weather is less of a factor. Secondly, eat normally and stay hydrated. That’ll help you feel your best.

Third, get photos and video! This is your very first skydive, after all. No matter how many more you do after this one, there’s only one first time. And we’re lucky, here at Perris; after all, we don’t just boast the very best tandem skydiving instructors in the world–we have the best videographers, too! (It stands to reason, this close to Hollywood, but it’s still something to shout about.) Bottom line: Make sure you get the record.

4. Share The Contents Of Your Bucket With The World!

Those photos and videos are going to blow up your social feeds, of course…but that’s not all it’s about. It’s about motivating your friends and loved ones to step up to the plate and go after their goals! Who knows–maybe you’re the inspiration they need to make something happen for themselves.

Now get out there and start throwin’ high-fives!

Ready to cross skydiving off your bucket list? Book your tandem skydive online with Skydive Perris, the premier destination for skydiving Los Angeles!

The post Managing Your Ultimate Bucket List: Skydiving appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Diane Conatser Tells The Madcap Story Of the Little Dropzone That Could

When Diane Conatser and her husband Bennie bought a scrappy, dusty airfield in the then-teeny, agrarian town of Perris, California, skydiving was the furthest thing from their minds. For them, it was all about flying aircraft. On a good day, the whole family would take to the sky: He’d lift off in the Fokker Triplane he’d built for shows, and Diane and the kids — Pat and Melanie — would follow in the family’s Cessna 170.

“Our passion was flying,” Diane explains. “He flew for the airlines and for the air shows, and he was a licensed mechanic and a flight engineer, too. We wanted to settle somewhere close to where we were living in Huntington Beach and decided to look around for an airstrip to buy where we could build a house and fly in our backyard.” She laughs. “We were only 35 at the time. We had no limits.”

When Diane and her husband first saw the Perris airfield, it was distinctly unimpressive. There was a runway, but it was full of potholes. The rest of the property was a mess of weeds, punctuated by a rusting elephant graveyard of old junk, an abandoned trailer, a smattering of hot-air-balloon enthusiasts and a single active cropduster. “We used to tell our friends,” Diane grins, “That they had to pull ten weeds before they could come into the house.”

“The town of Perris was 5,000 people when we first got there,” Diane adds. “Now, it’s around 30,000.”

The idea was to build homes around the runway, so they could fly in and taxi to their homes and park under their carport–a flying community. When the couple found out that the Perris airport was up for sale, they drove right out there and put it in escrow.  Their 15-year-old son, Pat, and 12-year-old daughter, Melanie, weren’t at all happy to leave their friends and the beach. It was 1976.

“We just wanted to fly,” Diane remembers. “Perris was shabby, but we just knew it could be great.”

When they closed and started to move in, they started to notice what else had come with the property: a skydiver infestation.

“We didn’t know, at first, that Perris had jumpers because their airplane was broken down,” Diane says. “It wasn’t long before we started to encounter these hippie-looking people, and my husband told me–Don’t worry. We’ll get rid of them right away.”

The airstrip manager explained that they were parachute jumpers, but they hadn’t had an airplane for a while. It clearly didn’t stop them from coming around.

Diane’s husband, right away, made an arrangement with the old owner to bring in a gorgeous plane for them. “Almost immediately,” Diane winces, “A girl hit the tail with her parachute and took it out. I don’t know if it ever got fixed.”

With that plane out of commission, the couple–who clearly hadn’t spent much time around skydivers, yet–bought a really beautiful Howard as a jump plane. “It was really pristine,” Diane opines, “With a plush red velvet interior. Of course, with the parachutists, that didn’t last very long.”

At this point–just 1977, pretty much right after the purchase–Perris’s skydiving community was already beginning to balloon. The Howard wasn’t big enough to support the parachuting club, so the couple “just kept buying bigger airplanes”: Beeches; DC3s; a Skyvan; a Twin Otter. They dug a swimming pool. They built bathrooms, but they couldn’t afford a roof for them, so jumpers would fly overhead and catcall down to their friends inside. Diane and her daughter set up a little trailer where they sold hot dogs, barbecued beef and tuna sandwiches.

“We wanted the airport to look islandy,” Diane giggles, “So I nailed palm fronds all around the top of it, like it was on some island out somewhere that was deserted, which was just about right.”

As it turns out, the area was deserted for a good reason. When the couple bought the airport in 1976, there was no law requiring the disclosure of, shall we say, key information about the land. “You didn’t have to disclose if you are in a floodplain,” Diane explains, “So, when we went to see about building hangars and such, we found out that we couldn’t build anything unless it was on stilts. In Southern California. Who would think?”

“One time,” she continues, “The Ramona Dam broke. And in the manifest, we were waist high in water. When we looked outside, we saw that the skydivers were going up and down the runway in a little boat. Even in all that, no one was mad in the flood. You make the best of it–skydivers have that attitude. If the drop zone is flooded, just get a little boat and keep smiling.”

“You know that’s why we like it,” she laughs, “Because there’s no old grind or anything. It’s always something different around here.”

The jumpers–naturally–wanted a bar, so the intrepid dropzone owners pulled an old abandoned house trailer from behind the airport building, added a little portable on the end of it for a restaurant-bar.

“There was no money left after buying airplanes and fuel,” Diane laughs, “So we mixed old paint, camouflaging the buildings to look like a bomb shelter. At that time people were concerned about being bombed by the Russians, so it made sense. We had good food, cold beer, a loud jukebox and a dirt floor. We kept it nice and warm with a borrowed orange grove heater. The jumpers called it ‘Puff’ because, like Puff the Magic Dragon, it would build up smoke and make a loud booming sound to clear itself out.”

Over the years, that little shack evolved into the Bomb Shelter–Perris’s on-DZ bar and restaurant. Today, it’s a big, cheerful space with pictures covering all the walls. Diane, as she is quick to note, framed and hung every single one of those pictures herself.

“It all just snowballed,” Diane smiles, “And the jumpers, being so nice, gave us so many ideas. Oh my gosh, I was just so totally impressed by skydivers. And I still am.”

One of those ideas–to start hosting boogies–is still very much a part of the Perris ethos. The burgeoning DZ started having boogies for all the major holidays: Thanksgiving, Easter, Christmas. They started hosting courses and competitions. Teams started springing up all over the dropzone, and a couple of them won the gold at the world meet.

“There was always so much going on. We attracted some good people,” she continues. “Pat Works, for instance. Such a visionary, Pat. He was teaching relative work and sky dancing. He actually started [the discipline of] free flying. We had a guy named Billy Reed who would train people out at some bar he went to in LA. He’d train them at night and bring them up the next day to jump, so we would have 100 in the class on Saturday. Then a couple of other people, Jerry and Pat Swovelin also and Bob Buehrer, started the New Dimensions Flight School. It was the first organized school to teach the piloting of square parachutes. We were so proud of our teachers. Still are.”

For all the magic, the little DZ was not without its rough moments. In 1985, after one DC3 was chopped in half by the propeller of a Cessna (whose pilot was under the influence) and another DC3 threw a propeller blade and burned up on the runway, Diane and Bennie had had enough.  

“We made ‘The Party’s Over’ t-shirts and moved back to the beach,” Diane says.

Soon afterward, Perris got a second chance. The couple leased the drop zone to a group of nine successful skydivers: The Perris Valley Skydiving Society. Thanks to those men, Perris is still a DZ.

In 1989, there was a changing of the guard. Diane and her husband stepped aside–not entirely, but somewhat–to let their kids step up to the plate. Son Patrick Conatser and daughter Melanie Peschio–who has about 6,000 jumps and is a founding member of  the 8-way team Perris Passion 8–took over the dropzone’s daily operation. They’re still going strong. These days, Diane’s grandson wields a wrench in the hangar after school, just like his dad before him.

Pat and Melanie have been partners in the dropzone for 27 years running. Pat is a “super mechanic,” following closely in the footsteps his dad. (Both hold FAA Mechanic and Inspection Authorization Licensees.) Pat has an artistic streak, too; he painted striking sharks on both of Perris’s DeHavilland DHC6 Twin Otters–one gray, one blue. Those shark airplanes are world-famous, now–recognized by skydivers all over the planet.

Melanie’s side of the partnership steers the direction of almost everything else. Along with the superb assistance of Manager Dan BC, she sets an upbeat, positive, professional tone in every aspect of the DZ. Melanie is learning to fly her DC3–and will be loading it up with happy jumpers on Perris’s upcoming anniversary weekend.

Bennie has certainly not flown off into the sunset, either: he is getting the DC9 ready to fly by Nationals at Perris 2017.

Perris has always been on the forefront of the American airsports scene, so it’s no surprise that they were among the first in the world to enter the world of wind tunnels. In 2001, after traveling to Orlando to see the original, the couple decided to build one.

“The owner, Bill Kitchen, didn’t want to sell it to us,” Diane laughs. “I had only wanted to build it down by the airport for skydiving training, but he insisted that they’re meant for malls–that we wouldn’t ever get enough business.”

Bill was partly right and partly wrong. Perris opened its tunnel in 2003, and has introduced countless numbers of skydivers and non-skydivers alike to the joys of bodyflight. These days, every drop zone would love to have a wind tunnel snuggled up to its hangar.

From talking to Diane, you really get the feeling that everything the extended Perris family does is about the pursuit of joy.

“In the ‘70s,” Diane smiles, “Our motto was ‘The Fun, Friendly Drop Zone that Cares.’ We didn’t know anything back then, so we were an open canvas, but we wanted people to know what we were about–and that’s exactly what we were about then, and still are now. We were so appreciative of the people coming out to Perris. Even to this day, everybody who comes feels like family.”

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Each year, millions of thrill seekers from all over the world experience skydiving for the very first time. The majority of these ‘first jumps’ are made in tandem with a professional skydiver and have allowed people to experience our fantastic sport without having to go through the extensive training required to become a licensed skydiver.

As one of the largest skydiving centers in the US and Los Angeles area, Skydive Perris has accompanied hundreds of thousands of adventure seekers on their first-ever jumps. Given how often we get asked about the safety of tandem skydiving, we felt it was important to address this issue and ultimately give our guests some insights about the safety statistics of tandem skydiving and what goes into it.

Tandem Safety Statistics

The USPA (United States Parachute Association) is the USA’s governing body for the sport of skydiving. They oversee safety guidelines for its member skydiving centers, and they also record and track statistics relating to safety.

With only 0.003 student fatalities per 1,000 tandem jumps over the past decade, tandem skydiving is classified as the most risk-averse from all disciplines of skydiving (wingsuit, free flying, canopy piloting, etc.) At Skydive Perris, we have an impeccable safety record at our skydiving school and have never had a tandem student fatality in almost 40 years of operation.

Statistically, tandem skydiving is safer than it’s ever been and millions have found this risk to be at an acceptable level. However, it is important to point out that tandem skydiving still poses a risk and cannot be deemed 100% safe.

The role of any skydiving center should be to minimize risk as much as possible. The process of reducing risk is not exclusive to the following, but these are huge factors: qualification of instructors, use and maintenance of skydiving equipment and ongoing maintenance of aircraft. These three objectives are at the highest of our priority list.

Tandem Instructor Qualifications

To become a tandem instructor, candidates must fulfill pre-requisites before they can enroll in the rigorous tandem instructor training course. Candidates must have at least three years of skydiving experience, have completed 500 jumps, and be in good health as signed off by a medical doctor. At Skydive Perris, we require our tandem instructors to have a minimum of 1,000 jumps, which is double the national minimum required. Many of our instructors have several thousands of jumps and numerous years of experience in the sport.

Once enrolled in the tandem training course, candidates will be put through their paces, completing a series of evaluations and exams to achieve their USPA rating.

Technological Advances in Equipment

The technology behind skydiving equipment has only improved with time, and new developments have improved the overall safety of the sport.

When making a tandem skydive, you jump with two parachutes. A ‘main’ parachute and a ‘reserve’ parachute. If there is a problem (albeit rare) with the main parachute, the instructor can release it and deploy the reserve parachute. The reserve must be inspected and repacked every 180 days whether it is used or not.

Additionally, all of our tandem systems are outfitted with an automatic activation device (AAD). This device is a computer that measures descent rate (speed), and altitude. In the unlikely event, the parachute is not deployed by a safe altitude, the AAD will automatically deploy a reserve.

The skydiving equipment we use today and the advanced technology behind it are yet another reason why skydiving statistics have improved.

Have Questions?

Skydive Perris is dedicated to delivering the best skydiving experience in the world, and that begins with answering all of your questions. Please feel free to contact us with your questions, we’d be more than happy to answer them.

Skydiving Los Angeles

If you’re ready to skydive the Los Angeles area with confidence, we’d love to welcome you to Skydive Perris. We are proud of our highly qualified team and know that you’ll feel comfortable in their experienced hands.

Book your tandem skydive online today, or get in touch if you have any questions!

The post How Dangerous is Tandem Skydiving? appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Tandem skydiving is something you’ve always wanted to do, but how do you know where you should go? If you’ve never jumped before, you don’t know what you don’t know and we hope to shed some light on what to consider when selecting the right dropzone (the place where you skydive). 

Choosing Your Skydive Center

Pick a reputable drop zone as not all skydiving centers are the same. Having a great experience is more than just exiting a plane.

Your first step in selecting the right skydiving center is to determine whether the facility is a member of the United States Parachute Association (USPA). These DZ’s are mandated to follow the basic safety requirements as set forth by the USPA. If the skydiving center is not a USPA member, then essentially, they can create and follow their own rules… not always the best idea when it comes to this activity.

Aside from the actual experience of tandem skydiving, customer service can make or break the enjoyment of your first skydive and USPA affiliation doesn’t promise this. The last thing you want to do is to spend money and be paired with an instructor who isn’t passionate about what he/she is doing. Be sure to check out Yelp and Google reviews for guidance.

Another consideration to factor is the aircraft type and the altitude a skydiving center jumps from. There is a considerable variance in exit altitudes based on the aircraft type being used. Remember altitude is your friend! The higher the tandem skydive, the longer the free fall! Often, if you see prices for skydiving that seem abnormally low, question the exit altitude. Often, altitude is compromised when lower prices are advertised.

Planning Your Tandem Skydive

Once you’ve chosen where you’d like to skydive, you need to choose when.

In some states, skydiving is seasonal, so check this out on your center’s website. SoCal is skydive-friendly all seasons. At Skydive Perris we are lucky enough to jump year round. We recommend booking your jump early in the morning, if possible. Weather is typically better for skydiving in the morning, making for a better experience and prettier pictures.

Sharing your tandem skydiving experience only increases the fun! So, encourage friends to book tandem skydives too and take to the skies together in the same aircraft. If your friends/family don’t want to skydive, take them anyway! Spectators are always welcome and a cheering crowd as you land will make you feel on top of the world (again).

Making Your Tandem Skydive

On the day, wear comfortable clothes such as a t-shirt and shorts and sensible footwear like sneakers. Make sure to eat as you would normally and don’t skip a meal. This avoids low blood sugar (that can make you feel unwell with the adrenaline). Don’t be on a tight schedule. Commit the day to your tandem skydive, even if you have booked early. Weather delays can occasionally occur. Even with no delays, it’s best to take your time on the drop zone and make the most of it.

Chat to regular skydivers – you’ll hear some great stories. Watch people landing, even better, whilst enjoying a post-jump celebratory beer.

Skydiving Los Angeles

Wherever you decide to go tandem skydiving, these tips will help to ensure you have the best experience possible. If you are looking to tandem skydive in SoCal, we think we’re a pretty great place to do it, here’s 7 reasons why skydiving is great at Skydive Perris. 

The post What To Know Before Booking A Skydive appeared first on Skydive Perris.

Thinking of skydiving near Los Angeles? If you’re ready to take the plunge, we invite you to consider us! Skydive Perris has been serving the Los Angles area for 40 years and through that time we’ve built one of the premier facilities in the world.

As all experienced skydivers know, the dropzone you choose can have a huge influence on your skydiving experience. Don’t let shoddy service or poor facilities tarnish yours. Here’s why Skydive Perris is the best dropzone for Orange County and Los Angeles skydivers, new or experienced.

Proximity to Los Angeles

This is your first consideration – nobody wants to spend most of a day traveling if it can be avoided. Skydive Perris is only 70 miles outside of LA and you can reach us by car in just over an hour.

Hollywood’s Preferred Skydiving Center

Celebrities are notoriously demanding – they only want the best. That’s why Skydive Perris is the chosen skydiving center for Hollywood’s A-list stars and movie productions! We’ve hosted some of the biggest names in entertainment from Miley Cyrus to members of Megadeth and our staff and skydivers have actively worked on aerial scenes as cameramen and stuntmen in several blockbuster movies.

You don’t have to be famous to skydive here though. Our focus is to deliver the very best customer service regardless of who you are. We’re confident you’ll have an amazing time!

Onsite Indoor Skydiving 

An amenity that makes Skydive Perris particularly special is our own indoor skydiving wind tunnel. The tunnel allows you to practice for freefall. It is a fun and useful tool for experienced, beginner, and tandem skydivers. Here, you could indoor skydive and actually skydive within the same hour! The tunnel is child-friendly, so your kids can get in on the fun too.

Fleet of Aircraft

Skydive Perris has an impressive range of jump aircraft, the largest in SoCal. Spacious and powerful, our aircraft will whip you to altitude for your skydive quickly and in comfort. When booking your jump, it’s important to find out what aircraft and from what altitude you’ll be jumping from. These two factors will affect your experience greatly!

Massive Landing Area 

You’re not going to miss Skydive Perris from the air! We have an enormous parachute landing area, with plenty of space for everyone. There’s a grass strip out front for experienced and tandems, and lots of land for newbies to touch down comfortably.

World’s Best Skydiving Staff

We can big-up our facilities all day long, but we know that it’s the people who make a dropzone great. We employ heros of the sport, real innovators and world champions. Skydive Perris is managed by speaker, author, coach, and formation skydiving world champion Dan Brodsky-Chenfeld. Looking after our wingsuit school, you’ll find world record organizer Taya Weiss among other notable names in the sport.

All of our staff are top-quality, highly qualified USPA skydivers, coaches, and instructors. We are rigorous about who we hire ensuring that safety is always our number one priority.

Awesome Restaurant and Bar

So, you’ve popped over from Los Angeles and had an awesome day of indoor skydiving and actual skydiving from excellent aircraft onto a huge landing area, met some skydiving superstars and maybe even some celebrities… What now?

Time for a beer.

Celebrate with a cold one and refuel with some quality food. We have an onsite bar and restaurant with an extensive menu of delicious cuisine. You can enjoy your food and beverage indoors or on our poolside patio, with a view of the landing area!

Skydiving LA? Choose Skydive Perris! 

Have questions about tandem skydiving near Los Angeles? Contact us at (951) 657-1664 or read our frequently asked questions. We’d love to host you for your skydive!

The post Skydiving Los Angeles? 7 Reasons to Choose Us! appeared first on Skydive Perris.

If you’ve jumped at Skydive Perris for any length of time then you’ve met Mark Brown. Mark loves skydiving and helping others improve their skills. In this month’s People of Perris segment, we sat down with Mark and asked him the tough questions. ;-)

SPV: When, where, why and how did you make your first skydive?

MB: My first Jump was in 1991.  Of course at Skydive Perris.  It was an office bet.  No I was not drunk, I was not even betting. My ex-wife made the bet with a co-worker that there was NO way he could ever get me to skydive (she knew me so well ).  So he says to me “let’s go skydiving.  Give me your credit card.”  I did, and that’s it.  He signed Us up for the AFF-FJC. He never even told me that tandem was an option!

Opinionated.  Stubborn.  Passionate  (they tell me… but that’s Bullshit).  Furry.

SPV: How many total jumps do you have and how many of these do you estimate are load organizing jumps?

MB: 12,700.  Around 10,000 as an L/O.

SPV: How did you get into load organizing and what do you love about it?

MB: Actually, by 1997 I was ready to quit.  I did not like the pressure of team, and finding people to jump with was difficult, especially with low jump numbers.  I was sort of shy and un-confidant.  At one point I received an invitation (by actual mail ) to do a big way camp.  I sent in a check for the full amount (not just a deposit). It was actually sent back to me saying “Sorry, we accidentally put you on the wrong mailing list.”  Then Vinny Palmieri (our then-chief instructor) suggested that I get my AFF rating. Now that’s a confidence booster!  After I got my rating, I saw two guys at a table. I asked one of them if he wanted to jump.  He said “Yes, I have been looking for someone to jump with.”  So I asked the one standing across the table from him, and he said “Yes, I have been looking for someone to jump with.”  I got their names, and told manifest I was organizing… the rest is history.

SPV: You’ve built an amazing group of RW load organizers here at Skydive Perris, tell us about your team!

MB: Mostly we are misfits & loners who have found that we love to jump. I mean REALLY love it.  Everything about it; the sport, the community, everything. We love jumping, teaching, learning, improving, laughing, hanging out and making friends from every conceivable walk of life. We teach the first jump course, do AFF, coach, organize events, compete, and take part in record events. We can’t get enough of the people or the place.

SPV: You’ve been on multiple big way records, can you name a few?

MB: World 2-point 202, World 300, Aussie National 112, 119, Dominican National 20, PoPs 110, 113, and 123.

SPV: Is there any one record that stands out above the rest?

MB: While organizing the Dominican record, at a boogie hosted by their air force, we needed to include the commanding general. Darryld Light and I had to AFF him out the door.  His rig had no storage for his leg-mounted pilot chute bridle, so I ended up holding the extra 10 inches of loose bridle to his leg strap. We made the record with one frame of video, with Darryld doing a John Travolta dance move to close the last grip. The general rolled over and took out the whole mess. Happily we got one still photo to present to their President in front of 5000 air show attendees.

SPV: What is it about Skydive Perris that makes you want to work and play here?

MB: Have you BEEN here?  This is the place!  Besides, it’s only 11 miles from my house. What are the odds of that? Well, not really…it’s the other way  around. When I last moved I printed a map, drew a circle around the DZ, and told my wife if it’s not in the circle it does not exist!  We got lucky and found a great place with a barn for her horses, so now she says things like “Why don’t you go skydiving so I can spend time with my horses?”  I love it!

SPV: What kind of jump do you most enjoy doing?

MB: The jump itself is not that important.  It’s the “newbie” that I had to harass and pressure into coming along because they “did not want to ruin the jump” or “don’t want to do a BIG way.”  (6. Really?)  Then after we land, they say “that was the best jump of my life!”

SPV: What canopies do you jump and why?

MB: Pilot 96, by Aerodyne. It’s sporty enough, but still opens softly, without sniveling forever (that shit scares me!).

SPV: What advice do you have for anyone who has just got their ‘A’ license?

MB: That’s an easy one!  JUMP!  Or better yet, jump with ME or one of the other Perris Organizers.  We even have a jump suit you can borrow.

SPV: When you’re not skydiving, how do you like to spend your spare time?

MB: What spare time?  You mean sleeping?

SPV: Tell us something that is little known about yourself?

MB: There is nothing “little known” about me.  My life is an open book.

SPV: Sum up Mark Brown in 5 words or less.

MB: Opinionated.  Stubborn.  Passionate  (they tell me… but that’s Bullshit).  Furry.

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If you have booked your first skydive, or are thinking about making one, the fear factor is probably playing on your mind. We get asked “Is skydiving scary?” all of the time. The answer is yes… and no. Here, we take you through the process from booking your first skydive to landing and some of the fears you’ll face during the process. We also offer some tips to help overcome your fears. 

Booking Your Skydive

The moment you hit the ‘book now’ button is when things start to get real and you experience that first rush of butterflies. You’re going skydiving! You’ll be thinking about it every day until you arrive at the drop zone, which only exacerbates your feelings of apprehension. 

Arriving at the Dropzone

Once you pull into the parking lot, the reality of what you’re about to do hits you. It’s really happening! Your ambition to be a skydiver is about to be fulfilled. Feeling excited and nervous, you approach registration with your heart rate more elevated than it’s been since you made your booking. 

Seeing People Land

As you await your jump, you will see people landing their parachutes. They are on the other side of their skydives. Soon, you will be under canopy as well navigating back to the landing area. There go those butterflies again!

Gearing Up

Now it’s feeling VERY real. Your tandem skydiving instructor is adjusting your harness and giving a final talk through of the jump. Your mind is racing. You get on the plane and it takes off.

Moving Towards the Plane Door

This is it. The moment has arrived. In a matter of seconds, you will be outside that door, and there will be no floor beneath your feet. As you approach the door, your fight-or-flight instincts are on full tilt. You’ve been trained and you know this is part of the challenge, but this will be the most nerve-racking moment of the entire experience. Deep breath… it’s time to skydive! 

Is Skydiving Scary?

As you leave that plane, something magical happens. Your fear stays in the plane and you are free of it. In fact, you feel the most freedom you have ever felt in your life.

You are totally in the moment and it feels amazing.

Your instructor deploys the parachute and it all slows down. You come into land and all your friends and family are cheering you on. With so much build up to the jump, you realize that the scariest part of skydiving was anticipating it rather than actually doing it. 

You defeated your fear of skydiving and you are exuberant because you know what it feels like to fly.

Tips for Reducing Your Fear

Here are some top tips, from a regular skydiver, for managing your fear of skydiving:

Knowledge is Power

Peruse our FAQs page. These are the most common questions we receive. They are a great source of information to better educate yourself about the experience and to allay your fears.

Arrive Early

Your first skydive is not an experience you want to rush. Make a day of it. Chat to locals about why they love skydiving. Enjoy the atmosphere. Watch who is jumping. You’ll see that those who jump regularly are just like you and you’ll see them loving the experience! It will build your confidence! 

Accept Your Nervousness

Skydiving will induce fear, it’s natural, so embrace it. We all feel it, even after thousands of jumps. Accepting that you will be nervous gives you one less thing to worry about.

So, is skydiving scary? In the end you’ll have to be the judge, but if all the smiles are any indication, our guests tell us the same thing… everything that leads up to it can be scary, but the skydive itself is amazing!

Still have questions? Give us a call! We’d be more than happy to share what you can expect in greater detail. You can reach us at +1 (951) 657-1664.

If you are looking to make your first skydive near Los Angeles, Skydive Perris is the premier destination for LA skydiving and Southern California. 

With the best coaches and staff, best planes, onsite bar, and our own indoor skydiving facilities, we are the dropzone of choice for Hollywood movies and production and skydiving champions alike.

We hope to see you soon!

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