Is A Skydiving License Worth It?

To earn your skydiving license is to meet an inspiring challenge. Most of us in the sport will tell you that it’s the most rewarding challenge you’ll ever have the opportunity to meet! The benefits of earning the license go far beyond that profound gratification, however. Here are some of the other reasons to add to the long-and-ever-growing list:

It Gets Much Less Expensive.

Once you make the initial investments in instruction and gear, earning your skydiving license means that you’ll only pay for individual jump tickets–which drops the cost per jump significantly. Sure, you’ll pick up coach jumps and specialty jumps here and there (hot-air balloon, anyone?), but the amount you’ll spend for a weekend of easygoing  jumping is likely to be about what a tandem student pays for their single, specialized experience.

You Join An Amazing Community.

Lots of sports involve fun people, to be sure–but there’s something pretty special about the skydiving community of which you become a part when you earn your license. The sport of skydiving is chock-full of unique personalities, but is remarkably devoid of the prejudice that often goes along with diversity. No one cares about occupation, race, color, creed–even language–when we’re in our jumpsuits. Investment bankers jump with stay-at-home moms. Painters jump with infantrymen (and -women). Far-flung nationalities with vastly differing perspectives end up literally holding hands in the air. It’s pretty magical–and you’re going to see it for yourself when you start your sport skydiving.

The World Is Your Oyster.

We’re not entirely sure how Shakespeare came up with that (though Bell English has taken a good guess), but y’know what? If he meant that the world is an oyster with a big, shiny pearl for the taking inside it, then skydiving is going to pop that lil’ sucker open for you. Once you have your skydiving license, you’ll have a ticket to explore skies from the Swiss Alps to Mombasa.

Even if you decide to stay right here in America, there’s no end to the fun you can have, cruising around from dropzone to dropzone, boogie to boogie, making instant friends wherever you go. At time of publication, there were enough dropzones in North America alone to jump at a different one every day for a year. Your cup will runneth over with travel experiences, for sure.

More Challenges Await.

Earning your skydiving license is one of the most rewarding and stimulating things you will do in your entire life! The sense of accomplishment you will feel is almost indescribable. And you’ll have tackled just the first of the many fun, high-flying challenges that skydiving has to offer. Since sport skydiving became a “thing” in the 1950s, the number of different ways you can make a jump has vastly expanded. We call these sub-categories “skydiving disciplines.” Once you have that A-license, you can start learning how to do ‘em–and perhaps pursuing competition-level skills! Here’s a quick list of the major disciplines, just to show you how varied the landscape really is:

• Belly jumping (A.K.A. “RW,” which stands for “relative work”)
• Tracking (in a suit or “slick”)
• Freeflying
• Freestyle
• Wingsuiting
• Sky surfing
• Vertical relative work
• Canopy relative work (A.K.A. “CReW,” our pronunciation of the acronym)

So–whaddaya say? Are you ready to take on the challenge and reap the smorgasbord of benefits that your A-license will bring? C’mon over to the Wisconsin Skydiving Center and make this summer your skydiving summer!