Is skydiving safe?

Skydiving is an air sport and carries risk that cannot be reduced to zero. Anyone claiming otherwise is selling something other than a skydive. The useful question is therefore not whether it is safe, but what specifically stands between the jumper and the things that can go wrong.

A tandem is a different situation from a solo jump

In a tandem you make no technical decision at all. You do not deploy the canopy, you do not fly it, you do not choose the landing area and you do not assess the conditions. All of that belongs to the instructor, to whose harness you are attached at four points. Your job comes down to body position at the exit and lifting your legs for the landing — and you learn both in a quarter of an hour on the ground.

This is the fundamental difference from the AFF course, where you are responsible for yourself from the first jump. It is why a tandem is the right form of first jump for somebody who is not planning to carry on.

Two parachutes, not one

Every rig carries a main canopy and a reserve. The reserve is a separate, independent parachute, packed by a qualified person, and it exists for exactly the situation where the main does not behave. Transferring to it is a drilled procedure, part of every skydiver's training and part of a tandem instructor's routine.

The weather is part of safety, not an obstacle to it

A cancelled jump reads as an inconvenience and is a safety decision. Whether jumping happens is decided by the dropzone on the day: wind at ground level and at altitude, cloud base, visibility. When conditions fall outside the range, jumping stops — and that mechanism is precisely why the statistics look the way they do.

For somebody holding a voucher it means one thing: the date can move. The voucher does not lose its validity and the new date costs nothing.

Health: what actually rules you out

A tandem jump does not require a medical certificate — you sign a declaration that there are no contraindications. That does not mean there are none.

• Heart and circulatory conditions, including uncontrolled high blood pressure.
• Epilepsy and disorders of consciousness.
• Recent injuries, particularly to the spine, shoulders and knees — the landing is dynamic.
• Recovery from recent surgery.
• Pregnancy.
• Sinus and ear problems that make equalising difficult.

This list does not replace a conversation with a doctor. If you have any doubt, a doctor settles it — not a form on a website and not an instructor at the dropzone.

Alcohol and other substances

Anyone under the influence of alcohol or drugs will not be cleared to jump. This is not a judgement call — it is a condition on which an instructor has no room to manoeuvre. If the jump is part of a longer day, put it at the beginning.

What people fear, and where the risk actually is

The most common fear is the parachute not opening. That is also the part with a duplicated system and a drilled procedure behind it. Statistically the landing deserves more of your attention — it is where the common injuries happen, and where your single instruction from the ground, lifting your legs, genuinely matters. There is more about the fear itself in a separate guide.

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