WHY IS SKYDIVING SO EXPENSIVE?

Why is Skydiving So Expensive?

In a world where a gallon of gasoline costs less than a gallon of mineral water and free stuff seems to fall out of the internet like manna from heaven, the price of a tandem skydive seems proportionately high. Especially if you’re a first-time jumper, the cost can be surprising.

We understand! We would love for tandem skydiving to be a heck of a lot cheaper, because we’d get to introduce many more people to our amazing sport (our official Favorite Thing Ever), but there are a lot of factors that work themselves into the price. In the spirit of education, let’s take a look behind the scenes.

1. Anything Aviation-Related Is Unavoidably Expensive.

Don’t let cut-rate airline tickets blow smoke in your eyes–they deal in enormous bulk (and they’re subsidized, to boot.) In every single other case, aviation is crazy-spendy. Wanna buy a plane? DOOD, expensive. Wanna maintain that plane? OMG, so expensive. And the kicker, of course, is that responsible people and companies cannot spare expense, because the most important part of the whole enterprise is to keep passengers and pilots safe.

Suffice it to say: we are responsible, and we care about the people in those planes. We happily open our wallets so you don’t have to worry about a thing.

2. The Skydiving Equipment Has To Work, Every Time.

You know this–we know this–everybody knows this. The parachuting gear has to be the best stuff in the best condition, at least when you’re working with a top-notch dropzone (we can confidently say that we’re definitely a top-notch dropzone).

As well as the obvious saving-your-life-and-your-tandem-instructor’s-life part, you should know that the quality and maintenance of the parachute makes a big difference when you do a tandem skydive, too–most notably in that sweet, soft landing.

DID YOU KNOW:

A tandem parachute system costs $15,000! If your eyes just got big, we can empathize, because that’s what we pay for our systems! (Did we mention this sport is expensive?!)

3. The People Who Run The Place (and The Parachutes) Have Gotta Be The Best.

When you walk onto a dropzone and the staff is second-rate, you know it immediately. Of course, skydiving dropzones have more to worry about from shoddy staff than just bad customer service–shoddy staff and unsafety go hand-in-hand.

However (and you saw this coming): at WSC, the instructors, pilots and staffers we hire are high-flyin’ pros. Our kind, eminently skilled tandem instructors have paid their dues in the sky over the course of thousands of jumps, and they’ve earned the high-level licenses to prove it on paper. It goes without saying that when you hire the best, it ain’t cheap. And it shouldn’t be.

4. …But When All Is Said And Done, Skydiving Is Still The Most Worth-it Thing Ever.

Okay, okay, okay, you’re right. This one isn’t another addition to the list of reasons why skydiving costs so much. Actually, it’s the reason why it is totally OK for it to have that price tag, and why we’re going to be skydiving until we’ve used up all the gravity.

Skydiving is priceless. Really.

A skydive is one of life’s only moments that can really deeply change your perspective for the better. It’s as empowering as all-get-out. It inspires lasting confidence, it brings great people together, and it leads to an expansive sense of personal freedom.

Isn’t that worth it?