Skydiving for the Faint of Heart

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Not everyone has the courage to jump out of a perfectly good plane thousands of miles above the hard ground, strapped onto a clearly insane (hey, he jumps out of planes for a living!) instructor and a may-or-may-not-open, dear-god-I-hope-it-opens parachute.

If defying death isn’t your thing but you still want to get an adrenaline rush and see what it would be like to free fall at 120 miles per hour, indoor skydiving might be for you. In addition to not offering the risk of death, indoor skydiving is less than half the cost of the real thing and can be done by almost anyone over 40 pounds, including children.

Before the first “flight” you’ll get a lesson on safety, the proper body position for maximum float time, and some hand signals to use to communicate with staff while in the tunnel. Then it’s time to get suited up in a parachute suit, safety goggles, and a helmet. You’ll be led into the wind tunnel where a giant fan creates enough wind force to lift you up in the air, and then you are flying!

Staying in position is tougher than it looks. Beginners will struggle just to stay horizontal and reasonably still, while more advanced fliers can do flips and somersaults just as if they were free-falling from a plane. The wind will force your face into a perm-a-grin, flap your cheeks, and make your eyes water. And as with a real jump, the adrenaline will be pumping like crazy.

The ride only lasts about three minutes and goes by quickly. All too soon the wind dies down and you fall back to earth. But the thrill and elation last a little longer. The experience is so exhilarating it may make even the most fearful wannabe skydiver reconsider an actual jump.