An 18th birthday present

An eighteenth is hard to buy for, because almost anything you choose is something they could buy themselves next month. A skydive is one of the few presents people do not buy for themselves. The price is not the reason; there is always a reason to leave it until later, and a voucher takes that reason away.

What you are buying is a tandem jump from 4,000 metres: around a minute of freefall and several minutes under the canopy, in a harness clipped to an instructor who handles every stage of it. The voucher costs what the jump costs, from 1,150 zł. It is valid for 12 months from purchase and made out to the bearer, and the day itself is chosen by the person who receives it.

What turning eighteen changes

There is no minimum age for a tandem passenger, but anyone under 18 needs written consent from a legal guardian, brought on the day of the jump. From the eighteenth birthday that formality is gone. They arrange the date themselves, turn up with photo ID and sign the health declaration themselves.

For a present, that matters in practice, because nobody else has to arrange anything. A parent can come and watch from the ground, but does not have to. People who come along to watch book nothing and pay nothing.

Buying before they turn eighteen

What counts is their age on the day of the jump, not on the day you buy. A voucher bought for a seventeenth birthday expires at roughly the eighteenth, so the jump will happen before they come of age and a guardian's written consent will be needed. The same goes for a present bought well ahead: anyone who jumps even a week before their eighteenth has to bring it too.

The consent is best prepared before setting off, so that it does not hold up the paperwork on site. Every other requirement is the same at any age, and the requirements guide sets them all out.

Season and jumping days

We jump from April to October, at weekends and on selected weekdays.

An eighteenth in December or February simply means a jump in spring or summer. You hand the voucher over on the birthday, and they choose the date themselves. Any 12 months in a row contain seven months of season, sometimes in one stretch and sometimes in two.

For a birthday outside the season, buy close to the date. Validity runs from the day of purchase, not from the day the voucher reaches them. Bought in December for a December birthday, it covers the whole of the following season. Bought in March and handed over in December, it arrives with three months left, none of them jumping months.

How to hand it over

The voucher arrives as a PDF with the code, the expiry date and their name. Above the name of the jump it prints the occasion, “For your eighteenth”, in its own colour and with its own artwork. The QR code on it opens the voucher's own page, with its status and the file to download again.

• A4: a full page, like a certificate. The one for a party where a present gets shown round, not just handed over.
• A5: half a page, landscape. It fits in an envelope with a birthday card.
• Cheque: a strip the width of an A4 sheet and a third of its height. It slips inside a card.

Or print nothing at all. Give us their e-mail address and a day, and the voucher goes out on the morning of that day, with your dedication and an “Open your present” button. Your own copy arrives as soon as the payment is booked.

The specimens below happen to be the eighteenth-birthday design, in all four papers, with the three sizes and their dimensions underneath. You can build the same voucher with your own dedication in the voucher studio and see it in a live preview before you pay anything.

For a home printer, the print or gift paper is the sensible choice; night and photo use a lot of ink. The PDF can be downloaded again in another paper and size as many times as you need.

When several people club together

One person places the order, and their full name goes on the voucher as the person it is from. The simplest place for everyone else is the dedication: a line such as “From Ola, Kuba and Maja, see you at the landing” fits without trouble.

If one of the friends wants to jump alongside the birthday person, vouchers bought in one order count together towards the quantity discount. It applies itself to the whole order, and the current thresholds are on the pricing page. Each voucher in the order can carry a different name.

Not the morning after the party

Anyone who has been drinking, even the evening before, does not jump that day. So do not book the morning after the eighteenth: a jump before the party, or on another weekend, is the safer plan.

Plan on several hours at the dropzone, because the order of jumps is set by the weather and by how busy the day is. Keep the whole day free and do not tie it to anything that cannot move. The date is arranged with the voucher code on the booking page.

Which option to choose

The jump is the same in every option; only the footage differs. There is no other way to get a film, because nothing is carried in the hands on a tandem: no phone and no camera of your own.

The footage covers the exit, the freefall and the canopy opening, and it is handed over after landing. The hand-cam shows reactions; the camera flyer shows the whole jump from the side. If they dislike being filmed, the jump on its own goes exactly the same way.

If the eighteen-year-old has been talking for years about jumping under their own canopy, there is also the AFF course at 6,900 zł, open from 16. After it you jump solo. How it differs from a tandem is covered in the guide tandem or AFF.

Before you buy

• Weight up to 100 kg as standard. If they are heavier, write to us before buying, because a jump can sometimes be arranged individually.
• Health. Heart conditions, high blood pressure, epilepsy and recent injuries are the main things that rule a jump out; a doctor settles any doubt, not a form.
• The date is not attached to the voucher. It is arranged later, within 12 months of purchase.
• Weather. Too much wind or cloud too low means a new date, at no extra cost.
• The voucher is made out to the bearer. If they decide not to jump, they can pass it to someone who meets the requirements.

Read next