First Jump
Not usually. It is typically very comfortable if you’re wearing a layer of warm clothing.The temperature on the ground and at full altitude can vary significantly. Much like in the mountains, the higher you go, the cooler it is. Our best advice is to prepare like you’re going hiking in the mountains. Bring extra layers for warm and cool weather.
You may be nervous during your first jump.Mostly everyone that jumps out of an airplane for the first time has some feelings of apprehension and nervousness. These feelings typically stem from a fear of the unknown and melt away almost immediately after you exit the airplane.Our instructors are well trained and experienced in this area. We’re very empathetic regarding first skydive emotions. Part of our job is making you feel comfortable and reducing your anxiety. You’ll be surprised at how at ease we can make you during this incredible adventure.
A tandem skydiving pair will fall anywhere between 100-140 mph. Most skydivers fall directly at the midpoint with the normal average freefall speed of 120 mph.Freefall speeds are essentially a function of mass to surface area. Generally speaking, heavier skydivers tend to fall a little bit faster than lighter skydivers. A difference of 10-20 mph in freefall is almost impossible to notice.
You’ll be fitted with a special tandem harness during your jump. The harnesses are advanced equipment designed to provide maximum safety and comfort.Your Tandem Instructor will securely connect to you at four attachment points; two at the shoulders and two near the hips. You’ll both face forward when connected.There has never been an incident, in the history of tandem skydiving, of a failed attachment point. Furthermore, each attachment point is stress tested to withstand more than 5000 pounds of tensile force, which is more than eight times the weight of any tandem pair.
It’s difficult to imagine what freefall will feel like prior to doing your first jump. You will probably experience a range of emotions including euphoria, excitement, happiness, nervousness, freedom, overwhelming confidence, and strength. We’re not sure there are enough positive adjectives to describe how freefall feels. From a technical or scientific perspective, you won’t experience a falling sensation. Falling is a sensation that requires gravity, and to a lesser extent, relative objects for your brain to produce that sensation. Although forces of gravity are at play, you’re technically weightless from the moment you leave the airplane until the parachute begins to open. This is why you feel a floating, as opposed to a falling, sensation. Physics proves it! An undisputed freefall sensation is wind speed strength. We’ll be traveling through time and space at 120mph so you should also expect it to be very windy. You most likely already have a sense of this feeling. You can simulate it by putting your arm out the window while cruising down the highway. But wait until you go skydiving to feel the full effect of freefall wind speeds; it’s a lot safer than in your vehicle! What you will not experience during freefall is, surprisingly, fear. While it is common for first-time skydivers to feel nervous prior to the skydive. For most people, it culminates at that epic moment at the door just prior to the skydive. Almost every single person (we’re talking 99.99%) leaves any nervousness inside the airplane. Once you leave the airplane, you’re fully present and focused on the moment. And those moments are blissful. Some describe the feeling as liberating and empowering. Many people that come to do try skydiving are doing to overcome the fear so sensations of strength and freedom are common. Others experience happy and Zen-like feelings, while some perceive the adrenaline rush similar to the sensory experience of falling in love and achieving a significant goal. Ultimately, words do not do the experience justice. It truly is one of those few things in life that you simply need to experience for yourself to understand.
Absolutely! You definitely should. With our amazing scenery, you’ll have poster quality pictures, or at least the best Facebook cover photo of all of your friends.We offer a variety of epic picture and video packages, starting at $95. They are shot by a professional aerial photographer who captures the entire jump, from nervous gear up moments until you’re kissing the ground upon your return.
Absolutely! We highly recommend it!Skydive Monterey Bay offers the World’s Highest Tandem Skydive. Not only are we the only skydive center to offer this option, we also offer it every day, on every flight.The additional altitude is as safe as a regular tandem skydive but gives you the opportunity to experience twice the freefall time. So, of course you want to jump from 18,000 feet on your first jump!Three Reasons Why Skydive Monterey Bay Can Offer the World’s Highest Skydive Every Day
Skydiving is a super fun activity but we do need to take care of some business before we can jump from a perfectly good airplane. Check in, wavering, gear up and training (this part is kind of important) and video editing does take some time. You should budget three to five hours here at Skydive Monterey Bay. We’re respectful of your time and try to get you on your extremely stoked way as soon as possible. Often, especially on weekdays, the whole process only takes a couple of hours. On the other hand it may take longer on the weekend or if we encounter weather issues. While you’re in the area, we highly recommend you spend the rest of your day in the Marina and Monterey area. It’s absolutely beautiful and there’s almost always something going on.
Generally speaking, several layers of comfortable clothing are best suited for our weather conditions and ocean climate.Recommended: -Sneakers or runners -T-shirt, long sleeve shirt or hoodie -Jeans, track pants, yoga tights -ShortsNot Recommended: -Sandals, flip flops, loafers, high heels or any other open toe or heel footwear -Golf shirt, dress shirt or any shirt with a collar -Anything that prohibits movement -Jewelry (rings, necklaces, earrings, watches) -Cameras and cell/mobile phones (strictly prohibited) -Anything valuable and/or anything that is droppable or breakable as these items may cause damage to property or bystanders.
To the surprise of many, tandem skydiving is the one of the safest action sports. Skydiving has been proven repeatedly to be safer than horseback riding, kayaking, mountain biking and other adventure activities. More than 500,000 Americans safely make their first jump every year. Today’s gear, training and operational procedures have almost eliminated major incidents from tandem skydives. Our record proves that you’re in good hands. Skydive Monterey Bay has one of the best safety records in the industry. We use the very best gear in the industry and have extremely experienced instructors and staff. We strictly follow all protocols, rules and best practices set forth by the United States Parachute Association. While extremely infrequent, injuries can occur just as they can from playing baseball, football, skateboarding or any other sporting activity.
Every skydiving system comes equipped with a main and reserve parachute. The reserve is maintained and packed by a certified FAA skydive rigger. Our tandem systems are equipped with an automatic activation device (AAD). It is an enclosed computer that automatically opens the reserve parachute if no other parachute is activated by the set altitude. Industry statistics indicated that main parachutes malfunction roughly one in every 1000 jumps. Our numbers at Skydive Space Center are about one per 3000 skydives. That being said, it does sometimes happen. For our experienced team, such an instance is merely a minor inconvenience.
A tandem parachute landing is similar to stepping off a curb or gliding down a slide. Tandem jumpers lift up their knees and legs, allowing the tandem instructor to touch down first and the tandem pair smoothly slide across the ground on their butts.Given our highly experienced instructors and our sandy soft landing area, landings are generally very gentle in most conditions. Essentially, anyone in reasonable physical condition is fit enough for a parachute landing.
Modern parachutes are designed to provide smooth and soft openings. As it opens, you’ll gradually shift from a belly to earth to an upright/standing, position. Tandem parachutes generally require 600-1000 feet and 5-10 seconds to open. That translates into a smooth and comfortable parachute opening. The parachute has a surprisingly wide range of controls. It is fully steerable. If you want to have an exciting, roller coaster type of ride, we can do high-speed spirals. When doing spirals, g-forces will start to build up and you’ll feel heavy in harness as speed increases. Or if you just want to soak up the rest of experience the parachute ride can be a very calm and chill experience that gives you an opportunity to take in the incredible views at a slower pace. It’s your skydive, so either way is cool with us.
Yes, you will be able to breathe during your skydive. That being said, we will be flying through the air at about 120mph so it will be fairly windy. If you’ve ever ridden on a motorcycle or stuck your head out of a car window while traveling down the freeway you’ll have an idea of what to expect. Simply forcing exhalation with an adrenaline filled shout inevitably forces the cycle of inhalation. The altitude that we reach will not make it difficult to breathe. Since we’ll only spend a few minutes above 10,000 feet, you will not experience any symptoms of hypoxia. It generally takes about 10 minutes above 10,000 feet to start experiencing these symptoms. We do have oxygen available in the rare case that anyone does start to experience these symptoms even though it hasn’t been required in our entire history of operations.
Skydive Space Center requires a valid government-issued form of identification (i.e. driver’s license, passport) to validate your age and identity. Presenting a valid ID is required before you can participate in skydiving activities. If you do not have a valid form of identification you will not be allowed to skydive. Please also ensure you bring an accepted method of payment (Visa, MasterCard, cash). Please bring any gift card, voucher, or coupon you intend on using as partial or full payment. Recommended ClothingGenerally speaking, we recommend medium fit, comfortable, athletic type clothing in multiple layers. It sometimes gets cold in the hangar during the winter so recommend hoodies, jackets and blankets just in case its an unusually cool day.The complete, detailed description on the dos and don’ts of tandem skydiving attire and everything you would want to know about tandem skydiving should help you properly prepare for your jump.
One of the most unique aspects of Skydive Space Center is that we offer the world’s highest skydives every day we fly, on your very first jump. Our 18,000 foot tandem jumps are almost double the freefall of most skydiving centers in the country. And we fly to 18,000 feet every day, on more than 95% of our total flights. The unique opportunity to skydive from 18,000 feet with this ?incredible view makes Skydive Space Center one of the world’s best tandem skydiving locations. Approximately 500,000 people in the United States try skydiving for the first time every year using this jump method. In the United States, jumpers must be a minimum of 18 years old to skydive while there is no maximum age requirement. Fun fact: at 103 years and 181 days, Alfred Blaschke is the oldest person to ever have completed a tandem jump. In most cases, a person can completed a tandem jump in just a few hours (provided there are no weather or operational delays) without any previous training.For more details on your first jump adventure, we also have a comprehensive guide that covers everything you want to know about tandem skydiving.